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I'm Not HIV-Positive

   Last week I was alerted to a Buzzfeed article, asking the reader to 'Meet The Man Who Stopped Thousands Of People Becoming HIV-Positive'. Imagine my surprise when, upon opening the article, I was left wondering if I had indeed already met the man, in the mirror!

   As well as the familiar image catching my eye, a checklist accompanying the banner also got me questioning if it was indeed me.


  • Homeless? Technically no, but I'm also not what you'd call a homeowner.
  • Unemployed? At the time of reading the article, yes.
  • Stopped Thousands Contracting HIV? Technically yes. By not having HIV, nor sleeping with thousands of people, I'd say I fit the criteria.

   It soon became clear, once I'd navigated past the image, that the article wasn't about myself. It was actually about Greg Owen, predominantly referred to by his surname Owen; a homeless, unemployed, former sex worker, with a soft-Belfast accent. Had it been about me, I'd have loved the Buzzfeed UK LGBT Editor to have referred to me as Greatrex, but as I've clarified it's not.

   The general gist is that HIV-negative Owen, a GHB (club drug) taker and crystal (meth) smoker, begins to take PrEP in 2015 (a new drug regime being used to prevent HIV), whilst blogging about his experience to raise awareness. Ironically, although the article was never about me, I am also now blogging about it. I'm also left wondering if I look like I take club drugs and smoke meth? Perhaps you can leave a comment of yay or nay below?

   To condense the story, if we fast forward to 2017, the number of gay men in London being diagnosed with HIV in the previous 12 months, dropped by 40%. Across England it was down by a third. Great news, in no small part down to Owen and iwantprepnow.co.uk. In sadder news, Owen unfortunately discovered one day into the study that he was indeed HIV-positive.

   So what of the future? I can personally only see this going in one direction, and that's all the way to Pinewood Studios. You may recall the Academy Award-winning Dallas Buyers Club? If not, that's ok, I've just reminded you about it. That particular film, namechecked in the article, was about HIV and drugs and stuff, so why not make the British equivalent? We could call it PROUD (the name of the PrEP study), starring yours truly as Owen.

   I've got the homeless, unemployed, former sex worker look down to a tee, and pride myself on my range of regional dialects, including that of soft-Belfast. We'd have to overcome the fact that there's already a film called Proud from 2004, about an historic World War II battleship with an entirely segregated black crew, but it would be so worth it.

   Should anyone, anywhere, with links to the film industry be interested, I've included stills below highlighting my appropriateness, whilst further reading on my acting credentials can be found here.




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