The lead commissioner of the London HIV Prevention Programme, diagnosed at 17 in 1986, who didn't know anyone with HIV who looked like him - and built the representation, the communities, and the change he desperately needed.

Summary

In 1986, Marc Thompson was 17, newly out, and discovering the gay scene in south London - not Soho, not Earl's Court, but the Prince of Wales pub in Brixton and house parties on council estates in Peckham. The central London venues were not welcoming to Black queer people. Racist door policies. You had to prove you were gay. And if you got past the door, you faced racist punters inside. So Marc's community made its own spaces.

HIV, as far as he knew, was a white man's thing. The news coverage showed older white men in the United States. The rules in his community were simple: don't sleep with Americans, and this doesn't affect us. No one talked about protection. The first safer sex information for UK gay men hadn't been produced yet. And even if it had, there was no route for it to reach a young Black man in Brixton whose social life didn't go through the pubs where leaflets were left.

In November 1986, he went to Westminster Hospital because his mates were doing it. Two weeks later, the results came back positive. The world stopped. Walking to meet a friend for lunch, two things kept reverberating: how was he going to tell his Windrush-generation Jamaican grandfather, and he would never have children. He descended into a deep depression. When he accessed services, he was the only Black gay man there, the only young person, the only one who hadn't been ill. He didn't know anyone who had HIV who looked like him.

Marc has spent over three decades building exactly what he needed and never had: representation, community, visibility for Black queer people in the HIV response. He co-founded The Love Tank, leads the London HIV Prevention Programme, and uses the phrase "bung down Babylon" with the ease of a man who means it. His dedication is not to an individual but to all the nameless Black gay men who died in the epidemic in isolation, fear, and shame - forgotten long ago.

Key Moments

• [01:24] "Aren't they fucking on the graves of the people that died?" - the judgement of younger generations by older survivors, and why Marc pushes back against it
• [02:38] Brixton, 1986 - the Prince of Wales pub, house parties on council estates, and the spaces Black queer people created because central London wasn't safe for them
• [04:11] Racist door policies - having to prove you were gay to get into venues, and facing racist punters inside
• [06:42] "A white man's thing" - why HIV wasn't on the radar for a young Black gay man in south London, and the absence of any safer sex information that could reach him
• [09:10] Westminster Hospital, November 1986 - a test because his mates were doing it, and a result that stopped the world
• [10:23] The tunnel - walking to lunch with no sound, thinking only of his grandfather and the children he would never have
• [11:36] "I didn't know anyone who had HIV who looked like me" - the only Black gay man in support services, the only young person, and the weight of that isolation
• [52:08] Ageing without a plan - no pension, no financial stability, lost friends and lovers, and the fear of having to come out all over again to Maureen in the care home
• [54:36] The nameless Black gay men - alliums and calla lilies planted for every forgotten man who died in isolation, fear, and shame

Dedication

Marc does not name an individual. He plants alliums and calla lilies for all the nameless Black gay men in the UK and abroad who died in the epidemic alone, in fear, with shame, with no family around them - forgotten in the history because they were forgotten long before that.

About Marc Thompson

Marc Thompson is the lead commissioner of the London HIV Prevention Programme and one of the UK's most influential HIV activists. He was diagnosed at 17 in 1986 in Brixton. He co-founded The Love Tank and has spent over three decades building representation and community for Black queer people in the HIV response. His message to the world: be more love tank.

Resources

• Terrence Higgins Trust
• National AIDS Trust
• Prepster - HIV prevention for all communities
• The Love Tank

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