Labour MP Kevin McKenna revealed his HIV status during a Commons debate as he urged people to get tested and described huge changes in treatment in the last 30 years
Labour MP describes living with HIV in powerful speech
A Labour MP has been praised after a powerful speech about living with HIV.
Kevin McKenna revealed his status during a Commons debate. Urging people to “just get tested”, Mr McKenna said that with treatment you won’t pass it on – adding that living with HIV is “boring and mundane”.
He said there should be no stigma attached to the condition during a discussion to mark HIV Testing Week. Mr McKenna told MPs: “You won’t pass this disease on when you’re treated.
“You won’t suffer. And honestly it’s boring and mundane.” In a moving speech described as a “body blow” to the stigma around the condition he said: “I have lived a long time as an HIV positive man.
“I have lived a long time in my life starting off with friends taking tablets that did have quite severe side effects, some side effects that were very unpleasant and led to them still suffering from HIV and then AIDS.
“Now it’s whittled down to one tablet a day – and as I get in to my fifties it sits alongside my statins and my arthritis medication. By the time I was properly coming out in the early 90s, I met lots of friends and lovers who had AIDS or HIV.
“I spent a lot of time going to hospitals and it was there that I realised that nursing would be something that suited me.”
The MP for Sittingbourne and Sheppey was praised for his comments. Richard Angell, chief executive of the Terrence Higgins Trust, branded the remarks “a hugely significant act but delivered as he would like it to be treated – as just another long term condition.”
He continued: “Kevin talked to the change in his lifetime. He shows that people living with HIV cannot just access medicine that means they can live a healthy life and cannot pass on the virus but they can go on to succeed and serve our country.
“Today Kevin has delivered a body blow to HIV stigma and will continue to change hearts and mind in the way HIV is viewed by the general public.”
