World Aids Day: Honouring Lives and Advancing Awareness

The origins of World Aids Day

World Aids Day (WAD) is observed every year on December 1, and serves as a vital moment to remember those who have died from Aids-related illnesses and to support those living with HIV and Aids. Established in 1988 by the World Health Organization (WHO), it was the first-ever global health day. The aim was to raise awareness, combat stigma, and foster a spirit of solidarity as the epidemic was raging across the globe.

In the early 1980s, as HIV cases emerged, misinformation and stigma pervaded public understanding here in the UK. Government campaigns, such as the “Don’t Die of Ignorance” initiative of 1987 were designed to educate the public about HIV transmission and prevention. At the same time, grassroots and activist organisations sprang into action to advocate for those affected, raise awareness, and promote safe-sex practices explicitly targeted at gay men who were impacted the most (1 in 10 gay men in London had HIV, compared to 1 in 150 for heterosexuals). 

Taking action

One of the UK’s earliest and most influential organisations was the Terrence Higgins Trust (THT), founded in 1982 in memory of Terry Higgins, one of the first known people to die of an Aids-related illness in the UK. To this day, THT remains central to providing education, support, and policy advocacy around HIV and sexual health. Their campaigns have destigmatised HIV testing and advanced access to treatments like antiretroviral therapy (ART), which has transformed HIV from a fatal diagnosis into a manageable condition.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, organisations such as Stonewall, where I worked for many years, and OutRage! emerged to address the crossover between LGBTQ+ rights and the HIV/Aids crisis. Both groups spotlighted the disproportionate impact of HIV on gay and bisexual men, alongside other marginalised communities. (HIV significantly and almost exclusively impacted the gay and black communities, which explains why effective treatment took many years, unlike the response to COVID-19).

Transformative treatments

In 2011 I founded the charity UK Foundation for Aids Research, which engaged people living with HIV in research needed, especially as people aged with HIV (a relatively new concept then). But with advances in treatment, the need for this charity became redundant, as today, their HIV status (for people living in Western countries, anyway) rarely troubles them – it’s other people’s ignorance that causes most of the issues. 

This is why World Aids Day is still so important and continues to resonate as a day of remembrance and a call to action. The red ribbon, now a universal symbol of HIV awareness, underscores a shared commitment to ending stigma and achieving universal access to prevention, treatment, and support. 

Helping HIV charities

Here at Fat Beehive we’ve actively sought to work with HIV and Aids charities, and have some exciting projects with HIVStory and the National Aids Trust about to go live, which we will tell you about in due course. 

But this Sunday we reflect on the tireless and invaluable work all these organisations do, and honour the progress achieved as we work together to reduce HIV infections to zero by 2030.

Contact us today and find out how we can help with your projects.