Anne Heche was a promising young actress.
She had great reviews behind her and great expectations ahead.
She was Ellen Degeneres’ first girlfriend in the public eye.
Shortly after she starred in a rom-com with Harrison Ford.
‘Could an out lesbian carry a movie?’ the trades asked.
It was a lot of expectation to put on one movie and on the shoulders of one person.
The movie was not great. It received tepid reviews and poor ticket sales.
Studio executives (inc. gay ones) pronounced that openly #LGBTQ people could not play leads.
We still see this now.
The relationship with Ellen ended, with much tabloid crowing.
Anne Heche’s fragility was exposed - few could go through what she did, and without the cushion of extreme wealth that Ellen enjoyed, and not bear the scars.
When she acted, you could still see her talent, her spark.
We often ask too much of our role models.
We feel betrayed when they aren’t perfect.
The tabloids and social media will amplify flaws and pick at vulnerabilities.
We are complicit.
I feel very sad for Anne Heche.
I wish she could have shone. theguardian.com/film/2022/aug/…
I didn’t know Anne Heche. I have no right to eulogise.
But I remember what it was like when she and Ellen came out in 1994, at a time when we were starved of visible #LGBTQ.
As her family noted, she ‘moved the needle for acceptance of who you love.’
I wanted to honour that.
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The first #AIDS case in the UK was reported in December 1981.
Three years later there were just over 100 cases, almost all of them among gay and bisexual men; over 40 of them had died.
At this point there wasn’t even confidence that condoms offered protection.
1/?
It was the 1980s.
Margaret Thatcher’s Tory Government was in power.
Homophobia in the UK was deeply entrenched. Many felt that the deaths of queers was of no concern.
It was unclear when, or if, the Government would take action. 2/
In 1987, with a still relatively small but significant number of cases observed among heterosexual people, the UK Government launched its first #AIDS campaign.
Billboards across the country proclaimed the message, ‘Don’t Die of Ignorance’. 3/
If you have recently been diagnosed with #HIV, please know these things.
Your life is not over.
You can still be healthy.
You can still have children. And grandchildren.
You can still have loving relationships and great, uninhibited sex (these may come hand in hand... or not).
When we are on effective treatment there is absolutely NO RISK of #HIV being passed on to our sex partners - even without condoms or PrEP.
So we can have great, fearless sex.
We call this Undetectable means Untransmittable or #UequalsU.
“Women living with #HIV can have children just like anyone else. You can conceive naturally, you can give birth naturally and you can have HIV-negative babies.” @sashaishere88 on being a mother.
HIV changed, tell everyone. #UequalsU
Yesterday I picked up my #HIV meds for the next 6 months.
I’ve been on treatment since 2003.
I now take 3 pills a day (some people take fewer).
These prevent me from getting ill.
They also mean I can’t pass HIV on during sex (#UequalsU).
HIV has changed. Tell everyone.
#UequalsU stands for Undetectable means Untransmittable.
When #HIV is suppressed by treatment to undetectable levels there is NO RISK AT ALL of passing it on during sex.
How awesome is that?
HIV changed. Tell everyone.
With access to effective treatment, people with #HIV should now live about as long as people who do not have HIV.
Pic: me, at 54, after 24 years living with diagnosed HIV - and 19 years on treatment, this week.
HIV changed. Tell everyone. aidsmap.com/about-hiv/life…
When we were dying of AIDS, James Anderton described gay men as 'swirling around in a cesspit of their own making.'
He was emblematic of the policing that led many gay men to view the Police as hostile, so crimes against us went unreported.
It's hard to forgive.
TW - rape.
In 1989 I was beaten and raped while in a gay bar.
I don’t talk about this often because it’s painful.
The thought of reporting this to the Police was instantly dismissed, despite physical evidence.
I did not believe I would be treated with sympathy or fairness.
Even now, I think I made the right, the only choice for my wellbeing.
It haunts me that the man who raped me may have gone on to more such acts.
1000s of crimes against #LGBTQ people went unreported because of clear police hostility towards us.
That’s James Anderton’s legacy.