The Bay of Plenty Times has been taken to task for a news story in which a person living with HIV was referred to by a reporter as "a gay HIV carrier," a description considered denigrating. The "unfortunate and dated" term was used by a Times journalist covering a Tauranga production of the musical Rent, which tells the story of an impoverished group of drug users and prostitutes and people with HIV living in the HIV-shocked New York of the early 1990s. Body Positive, the country's largest support and advocacy organisation for HIV positive people, says the term "gay HIV carrier" implies danger to society and "reinforces negative stereotypical images and subliminally reinforces discrimination." BP's Bruce Kilmister says its use in this day and age shows "ignorance and is quite distasteful... I wish the journalist had thought about it more carefully and chosen her words better." Although the BOP Times has not responded to GayNZ.com's enquiries on the subject we understand it quickly changed wording in the online version of the item after being contacted by the NZ AIDS Foundation. The print version was already too far through the production process for such a change. Body Positive is also questioning the impression a show it considers dated and flawed by current standards might convey when so much has changed socially and around the HIV epidemic. "It perpetuates the American stereotypes of the early 1990s of people with HIV being those who gather with injecting drug users and prostitutes," says Kilmister. "It conveys the hype and hysteria of those times and doesn't reflect these times of more empathy and understanding." Kilmister says he hopes the production's programme notes explain to the Tauranga Musical Theatre's audience that as far as gay men living with HIV are concerned the show presents a dated and innacurate impression. You can discuss this New Zealand glbt community news story in the GayNZ.com Forum
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Saturday, 16th April 2011 - 10:25am