Positive Voices
Will Kennedy is a member of ACT UP Cork. As a person living with HIV, he talks about the continued existence of stigma in the gay community, the importance of sharing the U=U message and his efforts to create a peer mentoring support programme for others who have been recently diagnosed. Portrait by Hazel Coonagh.
On stigma
I work with a support group here in Cork and it’s notable the sheer amount of people who still don’t want it known they have HIV, or will not talk about it. I know people who go to the clinic in Dublin because they don’t want to be seen in the clinic in Cork. They are afraid of the ignorance of people. Some of them won’t even talk to their GP, which is vital.