HIV Visibility Campaign - New South Wales, Australia

The first phase of this campaign ran from November 1 to December 14 2002 during the Gay Games and World AIDS Day. A billboard was installed at Town Hall Station and a series of postcards was produced. Photographs of actual HIV-positive people centre on Wett Ones (a swim team who has a philosophy of inclusiveness) and women living everyday lives. These seemingly ordinary images of people who do not show any of the expected signs of AIDS - they look healthy - are part of a strategy of placing viewers in a position where they are asked to regard each person represented as they would regard themselves. The images invite viewers to recognise themselves as members of a potential or actual HIV-positive community and, as such, to acknowledge the part they play in creating the social conditions that might characterise that community. The campaign slogan accompanying these images is "HIV doesn't discriminate...do you?"; statistics about stigma are also included.

As part of the ongoing phase of this campaign, organisers will develop resources and facilitate workshops and forums to provide information on the realities of living with HIV and of the place of HIV in different PLWHA's lives. They will also facilitate activities that will support debate and discussion on the realignment of health promotion and education programmes and the development of new strategies to respond to the ever-changing experiences of HIV. Themes include negotiated safety/peer processes; 'desire' in health, sexuality, and HIV/AIDS; changing treatments and body image; and sex and relationships. Value is placed on community ownership of health and on experiences that make sense of local activities, personal situations, social understandings, and cultural meanings.

HIV/AIDS, Stigma.

According to organisers, stigma and discrimination affect the quality of life of PLWHA and inhibit effective care, prevention, and education. Futures 31 has found that that 1 in 3 people have experienced discrimination in relation to medical treatment; 1 in 5 people have experienced harassment and lived with fear of violence; 1 in 5 have experienced discrimination at work and more than 1 in 10 have been discriminated against in relation to accommodation. Accordingly, in its manifesto of 1989, PLWHA New South Wales calls for the promotion of 'a positive image of people living with and affected by hiv/aids, with the aim of eliminating prejudice, isolation, stigmatisation and discrimination arising from hiv/aids'.

Organisers celebrate the fact that both at a local and international level there have been calls for increased visibility of PLWHA, while acknowledging that there may be good reasons to resist such openness. As they point out, not everyone lives in a safe, supportive environment or wants to "be reduced to a diagnostic identity". In other words, they say, it is important to respect the decision of individuals to do what they feel is best for them, in their circumstances, recognising that these are likely to change over time in unpredictable ways.