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Positively Positive
Living with HIV/AIDS
- Creating HIV/AIDS Awareness
18 Years
August 26, 2021 | By Bradford McIntyre
Bradford McIntyre Positively Positive Living with HIV/AIDS
(www.PositivelyPositive.ca)
2003 Website Webshot:
Bradford McIntyre Positively Positive Living with HIV/AIDS
(www.PositivelyPositive.ca)
On August 15, 2003, I launched my website: “Bradford McIntyre Positively Positive Living with HIV/AIDS” (www.positivelypositive.ca), designed to create awareness around the many HIV and AIDS issues and promotes messages of positive living with HIV/AIDS. Life affirming and supportive topics, my personal story, HIV/AIDS articles, news, videos, links and more are available.
As a long-term survivor living with HIV since 1984, my first HIV activism to combat stigma was made on national TV, being interviewed on the Dini Petty Show, World AIDS Day, December 1, 1994. An HIV activist, living positively with HIV to combat stigma and discrimination, shame and fear, and to encourage disclosure, treatment, care and support for people living with HIV/AIDS.
“Education and awareness surrounding HIV/AIDS and safe sex are clearly still desperately needed, so is political action.” Bradford McIntyre
My nephew, Trevor Uksik created the website for me after our conversation regarding my long involvement in HIV/AIDS Activism and through our discussion that I had a drawer full of pertinent materials: radio, newspaper, TV, magazine interviews and documentaries. Articles on HIV and AIDS that I wrote and articles that were written about me were published in newspapers, magazines and on websites around the world.
I participated in speaking engagements and HIV/AIDS conferences and campaigns locally, nationally and globally. Further, I participated in a variety of research studies and clinical trials. All of these involvements had accumulated since going public in 1994, about my living with HIV. Since 1994, I have volunteered in HIV and AIDS causes and events, locally, nationally and internationally. I have served on the Board of Directors of multiple AIDS Service Organizations. My contributions can be seen in my Vitae & HIV/AIDS Involvements accessible at this link: www.positivelypositive.ca/about/vitae.html
While the website houses my own personal story, providing for many people a face living with HIV, it is so much more. The original website, designed by my nephew had 20 pages. In 2004, I learned enough HTML code that I was then able to operate the website on my own. Today, there are over 5,500 files/pages, making it a useful HIV/AIDS resource and an ongoing archive.
The website name, Positively Positive is derived from my positive attitude and the name, positively positive given me by my family and friends. In 2005, I created a new logo using different fonts on some of the letters within the words Positively and Positive, which makes the word HIV appear in the middle of each word. Positively Positive Living with HIV/AIDS was intentional creating no doubt that I was living with HIV/AIDS. This is to combat HIV/AIDS denialism, which is a mis-guided belief that HIV does not cause AIDS. This continues to be an ongoing threat. Over the years, I have been confronting this HIV/AIDS denialism.
“HIV needs to be in the media each and every day as most people only see snippets of news and these are not effective enough.” Bradford McIntyre
Bradford McIntyre, Founder:
Bradford McIntyre Positively Positive
Living with HIV/AIDS
(www.PositivelyPositive.ca)
In 2007, I launched an HIV/AIDS News section, and an HIV/AIDS News Archive section, where people could find information on many HIV and AIDS related issues. According to the Google Search Engine, both are accessed in the top 5 HIV/AIDS News pages in the world.
Each day, health permitting, I research and sort through the latest HIV/AIDS news, along with the Google Alerts I have created related to infectious disease. Then, I decide what to include on the HIV/AIDS News page. In order to do this, I contact the specific source for their permission, so that I may create a link to their item or to reproduce it in its entirety. News items stay on the HIV/AIDS News page for a month and then, they are moved into the HIV/AIDS News Archives. Over the years, I have developed strong connections and friendships with sources around the world.
I continue to collaborate with individuals, groups, organizations and media throughout the world, to include their HIV/AIDS news, research, press releases, events, conferences, workshops and more on my website. The website allows me the opportunity to showcase their work. It is my way of giving back. The website allows me to be involved, when I am unable to physically participate because of chronic disabilities, due to HIV/AIDS illness, and neuropathy, a deterioration of the nerves in my legs caused by the drug AZT, in 1990. On top of that, I am aging with HIV!
For nearly thirty years, my vision and determination have provided hope and knowledge to people living with HIV. The scope of my website has allowed me to reach a broad audience.
Bradford McIntyre Positively Positive Living with HIV/AIDS (www.PositivelyPositive.ca) continues to be an internationally recognized HIV/AIDS information and resource site. Since launching in 2003, the website has reached millions of people globally. It provides me with the opportunity to educate, inform and build community. I have received thousands of letters from people around the world—men and women—concerned with HIV/AIDS. Many people believed an HIV diagnosis meant that they would die of AIDS. Upon visiting my website, they can see clearly that being HIV positive one can live a long and healthy life, have a partner, marriage and children. This has brought them hope.
“Our community was devastated by HIV, but we can be proud that we cared for those who were sick and fought to get treatment. Now people who are HIV-positive can live long and healthy lives, and we can be proud of that, too. We’ve come a long way, but we still have so far to go.” Bradford McIntyre
The cost of operating a website, domain name, server and SSL certificate has been a concern each year given my chronic disabilities and absence of work income. This year, I paid the costs of operating the website for the next two years. Living with HIV going on 38 years and at 69 years of age, I am unsure of how long I will continue with the website. I would like to continue to preserve the large amount of accumulated information gathered together for as long as I can. Thankfully, the Internet Archive: Wayback Machine has built a digital library of Internet sites and has archived my website (See: www.PositivelyPositive.ca for the years 2004 - to present), where you can visit a year and month, to see the pages as they existed. Currently, I continue to make additions to my website.
HIV-positive since 1984, I was told that I had six months to live in 1985. For nearly a decade, I lived alone in isolation. Since coming out about my living with HIV in 1994, I have been an advocate for enhancing awareness about HIV and AIDS. I have experienced a rollercoaster of illnesses and near death. Twice, I developed resistance to the HIV/AIDS medications that were available at that time. First in 2000, a Genome test showed that I was resistant to all available medications and again in 2015, when the HIV/AIDS medication was affecting my kidneys negatively. With my life threatened, my only recourse was to participate in clinical drug studies, with not yet FDA approved HIV/AIDS medications. These medications saved my life and were approved by the FDA at a later date. I am here today because of science and the endless care that I have received from the medical profession. I am thankful for the many people, who have contributed to my life and wellness.
I am grateful to my nephew Trevor for creating the website, and to both Trevor and my sister Heather, for their constant LOVE, support and encouragement throughout the years. I am happy to be celebrating 18 years as Founder and Operator of Bradford McIntyre Positively Positive Living with HIV/AIDS (www.PositivelyPositive.ca).
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Contact
Bradford McIntyre
www.PositivelyPositive.ca
bradford@positivelypositive.ca
Vancouver, BC, Canada.
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