Pride season is an opportunity for us to celebrate the LGBT+ communities, reflect on the distance travelled and take meaningful action to advance equality.
 
I was 18 years old when I went to my first Pride. My friend and I escaped the small town – and the outdated attitudes of my old school friends – we grew up in, and headed to London feeling equal parts anxious and excited.
 
What we saw that day was life-changing – queer people from all walks of life donned chaps, leather and chokers. My first thought was – who knew anything like this happened?
 
My eyes were opened to the wonderful LGBT+ community who were loud and proud but also determined in fighting for the changes we wanted to see. In my lifetime I’ve seen huge strides in LGBT+ rights, including the repealing of Section 28, the Gender Recognition Act and the Marriage Equality.
 
In the same period, we’ve also achieved tremendous progress around HIV – none of which would have been possible without the contribution of our forbears, the people who fought for 40 years to make things better.

People on effective HIV treatment can’t pass it on to their partners. PrEP, a free pill that protects you from HIV, is now available in sexual health clinics across the UK. It used to take weeks to get the result of an HIV test, but now it can be done in the comfort of your own home using a self-test – with just minutes to wait before finding out your status.

For many queer men like me, HIV is something that casts a shadow over many of our formative experiences.
 
Coming out to my dad. A condom breaking. The wait at the STI clinic – and the even longer wait for the results. Finding out the most handsome man I have ever met had died of AIDS-related illnesses in a phone call from his heartbroken mother. Every conversation on every ‘dating’ app including the words ‘are you clean?’ The nightmare to get a PrEP appointment.
 
There’s still so much more work to do – but Terrence Higgins Trust is more focused than ever on ending new cases of HIV by 2030 and ensuring that people living with HIV can live fulfilling lives free from stigma. We are also determined to make sexual health a national priority so that queer people can enjoy happy and healthy sex lives and relationships, as well as work with our friends in the LGBT+ sector to fight the forces that are trying to controversialise our identity, love, and relationships.
 
Our charity will always be a staunch supporter of trans rights – we want to see an end to the culture war. Trans and non-binary inclusion is the future, and there is an urgent need for all sexual health services to be inclusive and fit for purpose. To start addressing this, we launched specific sexual health information for trans and non-binary people as everyone should be able to access sexual health information that is relevant to their life and their body.   
 
The incredible generosity and support of the LGBT+ community and allies means that our charity has been funded for 40 years to fight against HIV and for better sexual health for all.
 
The dedication of our supporters means we can call time in HIV. We must end new cases by 2030. Get it right and we could be the first country in the world to do it. There are still 5,150 people living with undiagnosed HIV across the UK – over 2,000 are members of the LGBT+ community. Everyone needs to know their status.

With your support, we are now able to deliver on average 50 self-test kits across the UK every day. This means that where you live, your income, your age, race or sexuality doesn’t have to stop anyone from accessing tests.
 
If people test and everyone knows their status then they can be on treatment. Everyone on treatment living with HIV can’t pass the virus on.

Please stay with us while we finish the job – together we can end the HIV epidemic.

Richard Angell is Chief Executive of Terrence Higgins Trust.