More to Me Than HIV

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More to Me Than HIV

First published in Gscene July 2020 For last years World AIDS Day I put together a public project of work joining other people living with an HIV+ diagnoses at Jubilee library.For last years World AIDS Day I put together a public project of work joining other people living with an HIV+ diagnoses at Jubilee library. For the project I spoke openly about my journey having being           Read more

More to Me Than HIV: GScene post Aug 2020

More to Me Than HIV is a project that aims to breakdown the stigma that has historically been attached to this virus.  When I saw my piece in last months Gscene to promote the More to Me Than HIV project, I was extremely proud, but a small part of me was filled with anxiety; but why should I feel this way? I have been on effective antiretroviral therapy since the Read more

More to Me Than HIV: first published in GScene July 2020

For last years World AIDS Day I put together a public project of work joining other people living with an HIV+ diagnoses at Jubilee library. For the project I spoke openly about my journey having being             diagnosed HIV+ 32 years previous. Back then there was no treatment and a lot of fear and misinformation concerning how HIV was transmitted. As such stigma was rife, Read more

Graphic Novel

Right-wing Group One Million Moms Hate Campaign on Graphic Novels Backfires

There’s a gay hate group in America, dressed up with the rather fluffy name, One Million Moms. OMM is a right wing group in America whose main objective is to stir up fear and hatred about homosexuality. Their latest target is Marvel and DC comics who are both introducing positive storylines involving major characters. OMM main bone of contention runs along the line that with the upcoming copy of Marvel’s comics, Astonishing X-Men #50 there long running male characters, Northstar and Kyle are getting married in New York.

 

A quick peek at OMM website has lines like: “Can you imagine little boys saying, “I want a boyfriend or husband like X-Men?” To the Moms who subscribe to this group, such statements read, “When I grow up I want to be Satan.” Such thinking has a very good chance of their children either growing up afraid to come to their parents or leading to them having an inbuilthatred of all things homosexual.

 

On the flipside to these vile women spouting bile about homosexuality in graphic novels, has led to a huge interest in comics that have a positive gay storyline; a point that was picked up by bleedingcool.com. OMM turned their attention to mainstay comic Life with Archie. In copy number 18, the front-page splash was dedicated to the marriage of Kevin Keller to his long-term boyfriend. Before OMM got involved the comic was selling for $4.00. But once OMM got involved and the national press took up the storyline, instead of a mass outcry and people taking to the streets to burn copies of Life with Archie, the sales of the magazine sold out in shops and copies have been selling on EBay for $50.00. There has even been suggestion this price could increase to $100.00 as demands for this particular issue increases.

 

On the grand scale of things such actions may not seem hugely significant, but they are important in helping shift people’s attitudes from the ground up and more importantly it gives a positive message to people of all ages that being gay is not a sin.  Most recently Barack Obama has once again made clear his pledge for LGBT people, to not have more rights or better rights then anyone else but to have equal rights, which includes the right to get married to the person you love regardless of their sexuality.

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Sequential Art: From Bosch to the Beano.

At the beginning of 2012 QueenSpark Books ran a competition (Alt Brighton) asking writers to send in a short story based around Brighton’s history; from the hundreds of entries, thirteen stories were picked to be developed into a graphic novel later in 2013. My own story, Dead Famous was one those chosen, but during the first meeting I opted to develop a new story centred around some of the key moments in Brighton’s LGBT history, more of that later. As part of my research I have looked into the history of sequential art.

Part one: in the beginning…. Read more

Posted on by admin in Brighton & Hove, Fiction & Books, Gothic horror, Leisure, LGBT, Literature, QueenSpark Books Leave a comment