DANIELLE MUSTARDE SHINES A LIGHT ON THE NEEDS OF LGBTQ+ WOMEN AFFECTED BY HIV

Around one third of people living with HIV in the UK are women. On top of that, a quarter of all new diagnoses are women. Yet women living with the virus remain invisible in the narrative surrounding HIV in the UK.

And then there’s LGBTQ+ women. When it comes to the national response to HIV, all women are by default assumed to be heterosexual. Even now in 2018, there’s still a real lack of understanding of the diversity of sexualities of women living with, and at risk of, HIV. Targeted campaigns are typically aimed explicitly at men who have sex with men (MSM), while the sexual health needs of lesbian, bisexual and queer women are largely ignored.

A 2016 article published by the Sophia Forum, an organisation which promotes and advocates for the rights, health, welfare and dignity of women living with the virus, reinforces this. “The sexual health concerns of lesbians and bisexual women have often been invisible, although studies conducted around the world show that lesbians and bisexual women face multiple vulnerabilities to sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV.”

KEY FINDINGS: Almost half (45%) of women living with HIV in the UK live below the poverty line

Very little exists to support the specific sexual health needs of queer women in the UK and, where it does, it’s often confined to the work of LGBT-focused charities like the LGBT Foundation, one of the first organisations to provide specific information on HIV to women who have sex with women (WSM).

But change is happening, and last month, Terrence Higgins Trust (THT), the UK’s leading charity in the fight against HIV, launched a report alongside Sophia Forum, which aims to shine a light on women affected by HIV.

Women And HIV: Invisible No Longer is the culmination of a yearlong project which explored women’s needs and experiences with HIV. Co-produced with women living with and affected by HIV, it draws heavily on the day-to-day experiences of women in a bid to understand what HIV really means for those living with it in the UK today. Hoping to further agitate conversations around LGBTQ+ women affected by HIV, DIVA spoke to one woman to hear her experience firsthand.