Memories by Tom Matthews
HIV Services in Birmingham
"When I came in 1989 in HIV terms there was AIDSline West Midlands and also AIDS lifeline which was run out of Lancaster Street, a central Birmingham Health Authority initiative run by a guy called Rod Griffiths. AIDSline had been going for quite a l...
The Devastating Effect of HIV
By 1989 I had lost 50% of my peer group to AIDS....
Body Positive Crashed Spectacularly
"They decided to move because the building was under-used and due to a rent renewal they decided to move premises to Princip Street by St.Chads Cathedral in the beginning of 1995. "The building had lots of potential but needed a lot of work "I said t...
Body Positive
“Body Positive came out of AIDSline West Midlands, when they moved from Hurst Street to Smithfield House in Digbeth, Body Positive took over the room they had used at the Nightingale in 1987, on Thorp Street. I had attended occasionally before I move...
Worlds Aids Day 1989
“In 1989 the World AIDS Day Committee was formed and has organised whatever happened since. The first candlelight vigil was in 1989 in Chamberlain Square, followed by an "underground" march to St Martin's. After that it was held outside either in Cha...
A closeted gay scene in the early '90s
Tom says he found Birmingham very closeted in the early '90s. “At the Nightingale everyone was very proper in the queue outside, but as soon as the outer clothes came off they were gay, then when they left and put the clothes back on, the same. Very...
Birmingham gays like vampires
“I did not go on the scene much until the first Pride (1997) and remember Angels particularly, with its plate glass windows. I was amazed when I saw the gay community in the open as I always thought gay people in Birmingham were vampires.”...
Amazing Jester 1990s
“The Jester amazed me, I’d never been in a bar like that, it reminded me of the bar you get in railway station. It was ideal for cruising as you could see everybody in the bar from anywhere.”...
Abplus how it began
ABplus began life out of the ashes of Body Positive, founded by Tom and Ray, the former chairman of Body Positive. It originally met in peoples houses and then in 1996 they got rooms in the Gazette Buildings, Corporation Street. Abplus was formed to ...
AIDSline West Midlands the demise
AIDSline West Midlands closed a year after Body Positive folded in 1996. “They were providing support services and buddying, but they had a big internal squabble as some of the original founders thought the telephone line they operated was the most i...
Terrence Higgin Trust sensationalism
Terence Higgins Trust arrived in the city in about 2002 and came with headline grabbing news stories of an epidemic in the city’s gay clubs. “They launched on World AIDS Day with the most outrageous claims that there was more unsafe sex amongst gay m...