Pride Month is a vibrant celebration of identity, love, and how far the LGBTQIA+ community has come. But true pride cannot exist without self-care, and self-care demands that we look after our health without shame. For this year’s pride, the brand Straightforward partnered with LoveYourself for a campaign to champion HIV awareness and testing.
The Test is Normal, The Reaction is Not
Through this collaboration, together with LoveYourself founder Dr. Vinn Pagtakhan and LoveYourself ambassadors, Inah Evans, David Yatco (Chix), Bong Gonzales, and Red Spiegelman, the organizations strongly stripped away the complex web of fear and stigma surrounding HIV awareness, transforming HIV conversation into a straightforward part of a modern lifestyle.
For years, getting tested for HIV has been weighed down by unnecessary dramatic tension, whispers, and fear. And truth-be-told, when we hear HIV and testing, people are quick to stigmatize. But this collaboration is to twist the paradigm and change the narrative.
Taking an HIV test shouldn’t feel like walking into a room of judging eyes, it should feel as ordinary and normal as getting checked up for health concerns.
Video courtesy of Straightforward
What Needs to Change
The problem is not the test itself, but it is quite the reaction people make when there’s testing involved. That is why LoveYourself and Straightforward joined forces to bring awareness to all that testing is part of self-care and it should only be seen as a normal practice because it is! Who’s going to take care of ourselves more than us, right?
Everything has got to start somewhere before it acquires a larger market. So, it starts with you. Practice having yourself checked and tested regularly and the rest will fall like dominoes.With this change, we hope that everyone will not deem testing as disgusting and unusual.
On Pride Collection and the Ultimate Goal
Straightforward has always been about simplicity, clarity, and eliminating the unnecessary fluff from your wardrobe. LoveYourself operates on a similar wavelength: cutting through the noise to provide accessible, judgment-free sexual healthcare and education.
This collaboration includes new bag pieces from Straightforward (that is still yet to be completed!) And of course, the collection doesn’t just end with a colorful collection, but it has a continuous cause to end the darkened perception about self-care, sexual health, and simply taking control of your body.
With advancements in modern medicine, HIV is a completely manageable condition, and preventions like PrEP and PEP are more accessible than ever. The only thing we are fighting against is public perception.
This Pride Month, let’s change the narrative. Wear your pride on your sleeve, book your appointment at any LoveYourself hubs, and remind everyone around you that testing is normal. It’s time our reactions became normal, too.
