The Irish drag queen and gay rights activist Panti Bliss is turning the basement of her Dublin bar into an HIV-Aids testing clinic this weekend, in response to the rising number of infections among young gay men in the country.
From Saturday, the Panti Bar will offer a 30-second HIV-Aids test and the opportunity for those whose results are positive to speak to counsellors.
HIV-Aids infections rose 160% between 2005 and 2015, according to Ireland’s Health Protection Surveillance Centre. The Gay Lesbian Equality Network says there were 182 new cases among gay men in 2014 – the highest number on record.
Panti’s creator, Rory O’Neill, told the Guardian he wanted the downstairs section of his bar on Dublin’s Capel Street to help protect a new generation of young gay men.
O’Neill, who is open about being HIV-positive, said the current infection figures were alarming. The bar would be the first place in Ireland where HIV-Aids tests were conducted outside of a clinical environment, he added.
“From a pin prick to draw blood, it will take about 30 seconds to get a diagnosis from the test kit. And if a result for someone is positive there will be trained counsellors on hand in the bar to help anyone,” O’Neill said.
“I will be around too when I can be to tell anyone who tests positive ‘look, this is no longer the death sentence my generation of gay men thought it was back in the 1980s and 1990s’. I will tell them that I have been HIV positive for more than 20 years and I am still here!”
O’Neill said taking HIV-Aids tests out of the clinical environment and into centres of Irish gay life would benefit vulnerable sections of the Republic’s LGBT community.
“It will be particularly helpful for young gay men from the country who might be too afraid to approach a doctor or a local hospital to get tested for HIV-Aids.
“The important thing about this initiative is that it will stop gay men who don’t even know they might be HIV positive from infecting others. For those testing positive it will get them to the drugs that keep us alive and mean it is no longer a death sentence.”
He said that once anyone in the Panti Basement Bar test project is found to be HIV positive they will be immediately placed into the Irish health service’s treatment and counselling programme.
Asked why he thought there had been a spike in infections, especially among young gay men, O’Neill said: “People are not dying any more and there is a more relaxed attitude among the younger gay community, whereas my generation grew up with those dreadful ads with tombstones and Aids written on them back in the day.
“Younger men think that this was my generation’s problem and not theirs.”
O’Neill, who played a prominent role in last year’s referendum that made gay marriage legal in Ireland, added: “As long as there is a demand for the tests we will keep them going down in the basement.”
The Panti Bar testing programme is to be extended into the gay quarters of cities such as Cork and Limerick as well as other parts of Dublin later this year.
