MP shares in Commons he is living with HIV

During a House of Commons debate, an MP publicly disclosed that he is living with HIV. Kevin McKenna, MP for Sittingbourne and Sheppey, became the third MP to reveal his HIV status in a Westminster Hall debate on Thursday, according to ‘BBC’. McKenna shared that visiting friends in hospital with HIV in his youth inspired his former career as a nurse. Urging people to “just get tested,” he said, “It is just a little scratch on the finger and there should be no stigma.”

The Labour MP, newly elected in the 2024 General Election, assured: “You won't pass this disease on when you're treated. You won't suffer. And honestly it's boring and mundane.” McKenna follows in the footsteps of Lord Chris Smith, who spoke out in 2005, and former Brighton Kemptown MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle, who did so in 2018.

In his speech, McKenna remarked, “I have lived a long time as an HIV positive man. I have lived a long time in my life starting off with friends taking tablets that did have quite severe side effects, some side effects that were very unpleasant and led to them still suffering from HIV and then AIDS. Now it's whittled down to one tablet a day - and as I get into my fifties it sits alongside my statins and my arthritis medication.”

Reflecting on his past, he said, “By the time I was properly coming out in the early 90s, I met lots of friends and lovers who had AIDS or HIV. I spent a lot of time going to hospitals and it was there that I realised that nursing would be something that suited me.” His announcement coincided with a debate on HIV Testing Week, held from 10 to 16 February.

Richard Angell, chief executive of the Terrence Higgins Trust, described McKenna's disclosure as “a hugely significant act but delivered as he would like it to be treated - as just another long term condition.” Angell noted, “Kevin talked to the change in his lifetime. He shows that people living with HIV cannot just access medicine that means they can live a healthy life and cannot pass on the virus but they can go on to succeed and serve our country. Today Kevin has delivered a body blow to HIV stigma and will continue to change hearts and minds in the way HIV is viewed by the general public.”