Exhibition shows the forgotten stories of 40 years of HIV in the Netherlands

by time news

ANP

NOS News

Forty years ago, the Netherlands first heard about HIV. To reflect on that, today is the exhibition House of Hiv opened in Amsterdam. This exhibition focuses on groups that were hit hard by HIV at the time, but received little attention.

The disease is still often associated with gay men. This group has suffered greatly from the disease, but it is certainly not the only one. House of Hiv also shows the experiences of sex workers, drug users and transgender people. They often received little care and attention from the government. The exhibition shows the suffering of the forgotten communities, and the wonderful initiatives to support them.

Stigma on sex work

“We highlight the forgotten stories,” says Iris de Munnik. She is coordinator of the Prostitution Information Center (PIC) in Amsterdam, one of the seven organizations that contributed to the exhibition. The exhibition can therefore be visited in seven locations in the capital.

The PIC represents the interests of sex workers. De Munnik says that in the 1990s this group was often accused of cooperating in spreading the virus. “But that’s unfair,” she says. “Sex workers are actually one of the best at protecting themselves.”

Sex work was stigmatized at that time and the government showed little interest in HIV prevention for this group. Through the now bankrupt foundation De Rode Draad, sex workers drew attention to their situation and a lot of information was also distributed about safe sex. After all, they were the experts in this field. The municipality eventually recognized this and later put the foundation forward as a source of information about HIV and AIDS.

gender diversity

Trans United Europe’s contribution to the exhibition addresses the experiences of transgender people of color. According to co-chair Dinah Bons, that group has been hit very hard by HIV. Especially the white gay man was in the spotlight, other people fell by the wayside, Bons recalls. “There was also very little information for those who did not speak the language or who did not have a residence permit.”

For trans people, the threshold to seek help was high. “In the 1990s, there was very little attention for gender-diverse people, both nationally and internationally,” says Bons. Not everyone was tested or knew how to stop the spread of the virus.

There were no safe spaces or special information centers for these groups. Only in 2018 did Trans United Europe fill that gap. At their location in Amsterdam, all transgender people are welcome and can obtain information about HIV, among other things.

Share needles

Another community at high risk of HIV that received little information was drug users. Bee Mainline in Amsterdam they focus on this group. The foundation was established in the 1990s to educate users about HIV. They often shared the needles with which they injected drugs, which allowed the virus to spread quickly.

It Mainline magazine was created to reach drug users, says director Machteld Busz. “We deliberately chose to make it a nice magazine. It quickly caught on with the target group and we were able to put a lot of information between the lines.” In collaboration with the municipality of Amsterdam and later the central government, the magazine was distributed to places where there were many users.

Huge resilience

In addition to looking back at 40 years of HIV, the exhibition also looks ahead. Although it is now possible to live well with HIV with the right medication, there are still many vulnerable groups. “There is tremendous resilience within the community,” says Trans United’s Bons. “We built ourselves up after so much suffering, HIV was a real blow.”

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