Comments on: HOMOVISION REHAB with THE SWARMITE: VIRUS LIVING

By: Mike N.

Mike N. — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 21:45:36 +0000

apologies if my last post offended anyone. I should have added that after padding the guy shaking the GMFA bucket I popped into Comptons for a real pee and standing at the urinal I was confronted with a GMFA “hot sex” poster depicting naked porn stars banging away at each other with their bits censored so you couldn’t tell whether or not they were wearing condoms. It just made me mad to think that after two decades of burying friends and acquaintances that this is what HIV prevention has come to. And viewing the Matthew Hodson interview it is evident that he still doesn’t get it and is still pushing the effectiveness of anti-retrovirals instead of stating outright that the virus is best avoided at all costs. I passed so many guys wearing red ribbons today around Soho but it’s all now about tokenism and empty gestures. No one really cares anymore. More in sorrow than in anger…

By: Mike N.

Mike N. — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 20:17:26 +0000

Sorry if my last posting offenses. I should add that straight after passing the GMFA bucket shaker I stepped into Comptons to genuinely deposit some urine, and staring me in the face as I stood at the urinal was a “hot n horny” GMFA poster of a load of naked porn stars gang banging, and because their private bits were censored you couldn’t tell whether they were wearing condoms or not. Have we list all trace if our senses to be supporting this outfit in return for red ribbons? What a groreque iinsult to the many friends and acquaintances I buried in the 80s and 90s. Come to think of it I wouldn’t even pee in a GMFA bucket – it’s too good for them. I write this More in sorrow than in anger.

By: Andy J

Andy J — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 19:01:57 +0000

Thank you Swarmite for the sanity. Having known you for 24 years of my life and seeing you live with chronic active Hep B, I know your story all too well. Even though I’m str8 I’ve had close gay mates since I was 15 and have also watched them suffer with the horror of finding out they were HIV+. Then, watching them slowly getting sicker and sicker (this is late 80’s) until one day they don’t pick up the phone… shame we never had time to say goodbye, I wasn’t expecting you to really leave. Even in us str8’s there was this fear and at the same time a denial of it happening to us. But it did, my str8 mates got it too. I never became HIV+ but I did have HBV+ (Hep B) and only recently discovered I was HCV+ (Hep C) – wow, two for the price of one. These have been floating round my system for over 25 years but due to living clean and sober I have lived long enough to receive treatment. If I’d been boozing and filling myself with chems, I’d have died alongside my HIV friends. Both Hep viruses when active are extremely unpleasant to live with, they drain the life outta you, bang goes that party spirit. I have recently cleared and am now HCV-, I’m one of the lucky ones, trust me.The interferon treatment is very heavy and I’m still full of the stuff, it’s side effects are more unpleasant than the virus on it’s own, it knocks you sideways. But I am NOT cured, just the same as HIV and combos, no one knows how long this state will last for and if it rears it’s ugly head again. No one ‘has’ to be HIV, HBV or HCV if they don’t want to be, we do have a choice. I may be preaching to the converted here but why go BB and take the risk, I for one have lost enough friends to HIV and know too many people suffering and who have not cleared HCV, for them, there is no treatment…

By: Spike Rhodes

Spike Rhodes — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 18:00:57 +0000

Absolutly 200 % + behind you in this – Respect , Love and Support Swarmite
Spike Rhodes xxx

By: ScallyDanDan

ScallyDanDan — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 16:50:54 +0000

My views on this topic are well known, meds are not the answer in fact it’s the meds that are actually killing people.

By: Mike N.

Mike N. — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 14:54:41 +0000

Thanks fit sharing your brave story Swarmite. An hour ago I passed Prowler in Soho and there was a middle aged guy outside shaking a bucket and selling red ribbons on behalf of GMFA. I felt like going up to him and asking him if be knew exactly what he was collecting for? Not so much that this outfit dropped all pretence of being gay men fighting Aids years ago and mow has the audacity to call itself the gay men’s sexual health charity, but that today it stands for encouraging gay men into the types of behaviours that, 28 years after HIV was first detected, is ensuring record rates of infection. Yet there were people dropping their loose change into the bucket and pinning on their red ribbons as done trendy political statement. The true scandal today is that HIV is still with us at crisis levels thanks to these PC lunatics who we continue throw money at to ruin our health and quality of life. So, if you are out tonite and someone shakes a GMFA bucket make sure you do the right think and fill it up after a few beers with a pint of your steamiest piss…