Homophobia and HIV

John is a young single gay man who lived in a small community in the North West and worked for his family. He had kept his homosexuality secret from his family for fear of confrontations and travelled a long way from home to meet other gay people.

However, John had started to become ill regularly and take unavoidable absences from the family business. Eventually, he was diagnosed with HIV during a bout of pneumonia, and his family were told. They stopped visiting him for the rest of the month he was in hospital, and John suspected that this was due to his HIV.

Cast out

On his arrival home from hospital, he found that all his possessions had been moved into the garage and he was not allowed to enter the house. His family told him that it was not the HIV that concerned them; they would not accept him "being queer".

John had to find a bed and breakfast to convalesce in, although he tried to maintain contact with family and friends. However, his family had told all his friends about his homosexuality and HIV. As a result, the man who had been his closest friend beat him so badly that he ended up back in the hospital with a broken collarbone.

THT support

John needed to move to a new town and was found supported housing but, because he had a small amount of savings, he could not get help from the benefits system when he moved. The Hardship Fund, which had helped to find him the housing, gave John a grant to help with the cost of moving.

Although things will not be easy for John with his family, he has finally been able to talk to them on his own terms and from an independent perspective. He has also found that being in a secure and more open environment has helped him to maintain better health and manage his HIV.