Social Media Activists:
  The New Hope in the   Fight Against HIV

 By: Tyler Curry*

In the short but vitriolic history of HIV/AIDS, the narrative is one of immense depths and monumental peaks. The 80s and early 90s were defined by catastrophic loss, an ominous fear of anything to do with gay sex – and gay men, for that matter – and one of the greatest achievements in the history of activism. After almost two decades where gay men seemed to be doomed for extinction, combination antiretroviral therapy hit the market in 1996 was when everyone took a breath. AIDS related deaths significantly declined, an HIV diagnosis was no longer met with the question of cremation or burial and the shouts and cries of AIDS activists across the globe dulled to a murmur.

The decade that followed was what many refer to as ‘The Quiet Years.” Gay men with AIDS were achieving undetectable viral loads, the threat of imminent death was over, and the gay rights movement shifted focus to marriage equality, equal employment laws and other issues that were less dreary than AIDS. So HIV was forgotten, but not gone.

While the images of death from AIDS faded all but into a past nightmare, a new generation of young gay men entered into the playing field. These young homosexuals knew they were supposed to wear a condom and that HIV was bad, but didn’t seem to get the importance of the rubber as much as they were supposed to.

Meanwhile, the infection rates were rising among this youthful population. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), HIV infection rates among gay men reached an all time low in 1993. Since its peak of almost 80,000 infections in gay men in 1984, the number of infections had been reduced to under 20,000. But, as better medications continued to hit the market, rates once again began to rise back to around 30,000 in 2001, and that is where they have stayed ever since. Additionally, young gay men continue to be the only demographic where new infections are still increasing.

So every year since the introduction of achievement of antiretroviral therapy, more and more gay boys have been hiding their HIV meds and living under the dark and portentous cloud of HIV stigma. Yes, these kids are living. But when that life is filled with shame, regret and self-loathing, most of thes kids feel like are nothing more than dead men walking.

Which leads us to the state of HIV/AIDS activism today. Whereas the first era of HIV/AIDS was consumed with noise and the second filled with silence, a new era has begun – One that will go down as a movement to be equal, but aware.

Throughout the 20th International AIDS Conference in Melbourne, Australia, thousands of LGBT youth have gathered to participate in a meeting of the minds with one shared goal in mind – to once again raise awareness around HIV transmission and reduce infections to zero. Many older activists have voiced their disappointment with this generation, claiming that they aren’t being loud enough – certainly not as loud as in the ACT UP and TAG days where people screamed, shouted and did just about everything except spontaneously combust to get attention for their cause.

These veterans shake their fingers and often rebuke the younger generation, dismissing their obsessive Facebooking, Tweeting and texting as evidence of a generation lost. But while these young LGBT activists feverishly jam their fingers on their iPhones, they are quietly forging what is to be the new hope for an AIDS free world.

During the “Like Me, Post Me, Tweet Me” Session at the 20th IAC, bright young millennials from around the globe gathered to discuss the importance of using social media to engage at-risk populations about testing, prevention and awareness. Among the panelists were the creators of two successful social media campaigns who, through creative messaging to target populations, have been able to tap into the minds of the young gay men who are most at risk for HIV infection.

Yvees Calmette is the Principle Planner of the Ending HIV campaign, a program of the AIDS Council of New South Wales, which launched in February 2013 in Sydney, Australia. Calmette, along with a small team of media savvy group of gay men, created the campaign as a platform to educate and mobilize people around prevention with a advantageous goal to end the spread of HIV by the end of the decade.

But before Ending HIV began, Calmette and his team launched the Know Your Risk campaign, which was designed to target sexually adventurous gay men and to educate on the variables of risk, including undetectable viral load, sero-positioning and men who are unaware of their status. The campaign involved a web application that allowed gay men to calculate their risk of transmission by entering in their sexual habits. According to Calmette sexually adventurous men (e.g. lots of sex, group sex, sex on drugs) were only 15% of the gay male population in Sydney but represented 35% of HIV infections.

Recognizing the need for a more inclusive campaign, the team created Ending HIV to include everyone at potential risk for HIV infection.

We wanted to create a universal message to reach the entire community,” said Calmette.” But we also use specific targeted messages through social media to reach specific groups within the community such as positive men, young men, men in relationships, transgender people and so on.”

With a constant focus on producing material that promotes interactive communication, Ending HIV has made a huge impact in the effort to resurrect the dialogue around HIV prevention and awareness and renew the commitment to reducing HIV infection to zero.

Apiwit Tibamrung took on a slightly more salacious approach with his campaign, Suck, F#ck, Test, Repeat (SFTR). This Bangkok based testing initiative was created to reduce stigma around getting tested through the use of provocative and often hilarious viral videos.

One of the SFTR campaign videos opens with hypnotic dance music and scenes from a late night with two men who are about to hit the sheets. The two men’s sexual dance speeds up as clothes continue to shed until both are in their underwear and the inevitable is assumed. Then, both boys abruptly lie onto their backs and lift their legs into the air, revealing that the men are both bottoms. A campaign tagline then appears on the screen, “There are more awkward things than getting an HIV test.” The video pans to both men going into an HIV clinic with fast-moving camera shots of the testing process.

“There is a lot to be embarrassed about with sex,” Tibamrung says. “Two bottoms, two tops, farting… the point is to show that testing doesn’t have to be something to be embarrassed about.”

In the United States, organizations like the San Francisco AIDS Foundation  (SFAF) are employing social media savvy young people like Megan Canon to create interactive, informational online forums to engage at-risk men in the gay community. Canon, a young heterosexual woman and the social media manager at SFAF, is uniquely in tune with the culture and sexual behavior of gay men. She is the brainpower behind PrEPfacts.org, a new type of educational website designed to inform those who are at higher risk of HIV exposure about the use of Truvada as an HIV prevention pill.

With the purposefully vague slogan, “Love May Have Another Protector,” and the use of sexy pink and teal imagery of a naked cartoon man reminiscent of 70s porn, the marketing looks like anything except an HIV awareness campaign. And that was exactly Canon’s point. But with all of its stylish appeal and San Francisco hipster vibe, it is a comprehensive educational initiative about the latest in HIV prevention.

“An informed no is just as good as an informed yes,” said Canon. “Our goal is to provide people with the information they need to make the right decision.”

In the 80s and 90s, when large scales of explosives by way of organizations like ACT UP and TAG were utilized to achieve what was needed - and as the body count continued to rise - the sound of the fight was almost deafening. Veteran observers of today’s activists may be at first underwhelmed by the lack of explosions and fireworks coming from the younger generation, and may be wondering why we aren’t screaming and shouting for change. But the fight against HIV has drastically changed, and so have the weapons we use. The virtual voices of today’s HIV activists and educators may not be sending supersonic ripples through the headlines like the activists of yesterday, but their digital reach has the potential to target the deaf ears of at-risk youth and put a end to this epidemic for good.

*Tyler Curry is the Senior Editor @ HIV Equal Online. This article was originally published on 7/24/14

 http://www.hivequal.org/social-media-activists.html