Cork man honoured with HIV Activism award accepts it 'in memory' of those who died with HIV/Aids

William Kennedy, from The Glen in Cork, was given the Noel Walsh HIV Activism Award on Saturday at The GALAS LGBTQ+ Awards

The Corkman who has received the Noel Walsh HIV Activism award said he accepted it in memory of people who went before him and to continue the fight against stigma.

The 11th LGBTQ+ Awards, hosted by the National LGBT Federation, took place at the Convention Centre in Dublin.

William Kennedy, from The Glen in Cork City, said it was “brilliant” this award went for the second year to a person living with HIV.

“It’s much more powerful when you are standing there in front of a room full of people and you are the one living with HIV,” he said.

In his speech, he spoke about how a commonly-used line in zombie films resonates with him.

“They always said 'we walk among you' and that’s what it is like to be living with HIV. We walk among you, the unseen,” he said.

Mr Kennedy spoke to people at the event who had lost loved ones to HIV/Aids.

“We don’t just do it for us, we do it as well in memory of them,” he said.

Stigma remains

However it frustrates him stigma against people living with HIV remains despite progress since the 1980s.

“I still come across people who don’t talk about their diagnosis," he said. 

I know there’s nearly 9,000 people living with HIV [in Ireland] and you still see the same faces speaking out.

He knows two men who have been diagnosed for over 20 years of whom he said: “They’ve never spoken to anybody about it outside their clinics that they go to.” 

He added: “I just think that’s appalling for them. It’s being afraid of judgement.” 

Mr Kennedy, now 64 and whose book My Secret Life details how he overcame judgement growing up in Cork, emphasised stigma shames people. 

William Kennedy: 'I still come across people who don’t talk about their diagnosis.' Picture: Chani Anderson

However he points to progress in the Fast-Track Cities initiative in Cork as a hopeful sign. This global project is seeking to end the HIV epidemic and involves the UN, among others.

“I think things might be changing,” he said.

“In Cork we’re having our first conference on Friday of the Fast-Track Cities, in the City Hall.” 

The project has been in Cork for five years but had stalled and it only recently held the first committee meeting, he explained.

Noel Walsh was HIV health editor of Gay Community News. He died in 2008.

In 2022, there were 884 new diagnoses of HIV in Ireland, two-thirds among men.

Heterosexual people accounted for 35% of all new cases that year, the Health Protection Surveillance Centre said in its most recent annual report on HIV.

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