Viral Memories: Interviews With Gay Men on HIV, AIDS, and COVID-19 in the UK, 2023-2024

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Comprises qualitative interview transcripts generated as part of the ESRC-funded project Viral Memories: From HIV to COVID-19 and Beyond (ES/X003604/1). The primary aim of the study was to explore how gay men’s memories and experiences of HIV and AIDS shaped their understandings of, responses to, and wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic, and how experiences of COVID-19 in turn reframed memories of HIV and AIDS. The research consisted of 50 semi-structured interview transcripts collected online between October 2023 and August 2024 with gay men aged between 23 and 82 living across England, Scotland, and Wales. Participants include men living with HIV as well as HIV-negative men, with diverse ethnic backgrounds, geographical locations, and generational relationships to the AIDS crisis. Most transcripts are anonymised (Cohort A), while a small number form a non-anonymous cohort (Cohort B), reflecting participants’ explicit consent and their public histories of HIV and AIDS activism. Interview topics include memories and knowledge of HIV and AIDS; experiences of COVID-19 and public health measures; perceived similarities and differences between HIV/AIDS and COVID-19; identity, sexuality, intimacy, and community; and reflections on wellbeing, risk, and care across pandemics. The dataset is accompanied by detailed documentation, including a research protocol, interview guides, consent materials, and a transcript information table containing demographic and interview metadata. Please note that this dataset includes only 29 transcripts from Cohort A. This is due to he remaining participants from Cohort A not agreeing to share their transcripts publicly. Transcripts from Cohort B (5) are being processed.

COVID-19 has altered how we feel about risk and wellbeing. In some ways, this has happened before: in the 1980s and 90s, HIV caused the AIDS pandemic, which transformed how we related to each other. Today, for many, HIV remains associated with gay men, who have turned to their experiences and memories of it to understand and live through COVID-19. Through interviews with younger and older gay men, I will explore how they remember HIV during COVID-19, and how their memories and experiences of HIV help them navigate COVID-19 risk in the UK. I will work with community organizations to develop better ways of communicating about risk and writing a new chapter in the history of gay communities.