February is LGBT history month, and so an important time to reflect on how HIV impacts on lesbian, bisexual and trans women. In this edition of the Sophia Forum newsletter, we share articles exploring how HIV affects LBT women, and how their needs, priorities and experiences are invisibilised and even ignored. In the first piece, Sophia Forum trustees Felicity Daly and Sophie Strachan present the evidence on lesbian and bisexual women’s vulnerability to HIV acquisition and how this is largely missing from the research base. The next piece, by Kath Charters, describes her personal experiences of the failure to address the needs of lesbian and bisexual women living with HIV. Finally, we link to a piece on transphobic violence and family abuse, which explores how this under-recognised issue can be addressed.
Jacqui Stevenson, Sophia Forum