Matthew Hodson Profile picture
Shamelessly HIV+. These opinions, gym-selfies and choices are mine but you’re welcome to them. #MakeStigmaHistory (he/him). 🏳️‍🌈🌱
May 16 16 tweets 6 min read
Section 28 didn’t come out of nowhere.
It came from a society where 75% thought homosexuality was wrong.
From a society that feared the sight of a man in drag would corrupt.
From a society that believed ignorance was better for children than any knowledge of gay lives.
🧵 1/16 Daily Record front page: Gay Sex Lessons for Scot’s Schools. In 1983, 5 years before Section 28, the Daily Mail stirred up controversy by claiming that children, as young as Primary School age, were being fed gay propaganda.
The Daily Mail was particularly incensed by a book called Jenny Lives with Eric and Martin.
2/16 Jenny lives with Eric and Martin cover.
Feb 24 14 tweets 5 min read
I was blindsided on a radio interview the other day by being asked, “But since the knee operation, your health is great, right?”
I tried to deflect.
I didn’t want to answer.
Here’s my answer (and some news).
🧵 1/14
aidsmap.com/news/feb-2024/…
Me gymming but looking tired. In April 2022, almost 2 years ago, I began experiencing stabbing pains.
They were intense but intermittent; I was busy at the time so I tried to ignore them. I had a live broadcast that I was scheduled to do for aidsmap and I didn’t want to miss that.
2/14 Me with a mic.
Feb 18 14 tweets 6 min read
A 🧵 on #AIDS in the 80s/90s:
I was 15 when I first had sex with a man.
I’d snuck off to London’s Heaven nightclub with the express intent of ridding myself of my ‘gay virginity’, a goal I achieved easily with a visiting American photographer.
1/13
#LGBTplusHM #UnderTheScope A black and white photo of me at 17. I’m leaning over a chair wearing a baggy grey jumper. My hair is awesome. Later that week, I watched with rising panic the Horizon documentary, Killer in the Village.
It warned of a new disease that was killing gay Americans. A few cases had just been identified in the UK too.
At that time, the disease did not have a name.
We now know it as AIDS.
2/13 A still from Killer in the Village.
Feb 10, 2023 6 tweets 4 min read
Just 30 years ago the Daily Mail was discussing the extermination of homosexuality as a ‘hope’.
#LGBTplusHM Image Me in 1993.
At the time the age of consent for gay men was 21, we could not marry or serve in the army and Section 28, banning the ‘promotion of homosexuality’, was in force.
Our communities were bludgeoned by homophobia and #AIDS for which then there was no effective treatment. Image
Aug 13, 2022 15 tweets 11 min read
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/
Aug 12, 2022 5 tweets 3 min read
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. ImageImage 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. Image
May 31, 2022 5 tweets 5 min read
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.
May 17, 2022 4 tweets 4 min read
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. ImageImage #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.
May 8, 2022 10 tweets 5 min read
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. Image