{"id":840523,"date":"2026-08-01T14:31:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T14:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/840523\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T14:31:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T14:31:11","slug":"canada-has-everything-it-needs-to-end-hiv-so-why-are-rates-rising-among-young-gay-men","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/840523\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada Has Everything It Needs to End HIV. So Why Are Rates Rising Among Young Gay Men?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Design by Soph Holland.<\/p>\n

This story was produced with the support of MISTR<\/a>, a telehealth platform offering free online access to PrEP, DoxyPEP, STI testing, Hepatitis C testing and treatment and long-term HIV care across the U.S. MISTR did not have any editorial input into the content of this story.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

PrEP has been approved<\/a> for HIV prevention in Canada since 2016\u2014and America\u2019s Food and Drug Administration did so<\/a> in 2012. However, Marcus says his doctor had never heard of the medication.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe basically told me to be patient while he did some research and said I should use condoms,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like another statistic\u2014a gay man who moves to the city, gets sexually assaulted, gets HIV,\u201d says Marcus, who asked to use a pseudonym because of HIV stigma.<\/p>\n

\u201cCanada has all the tools it needs to end the HIV epidemic,\u201d says Brook Biggin, director of policy and education at the Community-Based Research Centre<\/a> (CBRC)\u2014a nonprofit dedicated to improving the health of LGBTQ Canadians. \u201cDespite this, Canada\u2019s government has failed to turn the tide on HIV.\u201d<\/p>\n

Biggin says the biggest factor fueling this new surge is a lack of funding. CBRC told Uncloseted Media that the federal government\u2014which oversees the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) and is responsible for the nation\u2019s HIV response\u2014has kept HIV funding at about $75 million CAD since 2004, not adjusting for inflation. This is a mere 5% of PHAC\u2019s roughly $1.5 billion 2024-25 budget<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This has resulted in fewer services to combat the virus. Earlier this year, Canada\u2019s oldest HIV organization, the AIDS Committee of Toronto<\/a>, permanently closed its doors. They cited government funds being frozen at $3 million for more than six years, despite rising costs, as part of the reason for the closure.<\/p>\n

And Biggin is concerned that additional funds will be taken away.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s no secret that the current government is looking for ways to save the Canadian taxpayer money, that includes reviewing different grants and contributions,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019ve heard whispers from a variety of sources that community-based HIV funding is on that list.\u201d<\/p>\n

To preempt such a move, Biggin\u2019s organization launched a letter-writing campaign<\/a> in July to dissuade politicians from allowing money for HIV to be allocated elsewhere. \u201cCanada has all the tools it needs to end the HIV epidemic. \u2026 Despite this, [it] has failed to turn the tide on HIV,\u201d the organization wrote in a post about the campaign. \u201cCutting community-based HIV funding puts decades of progress at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Biggin supports reducing inefficiencies, he says, \u201cThis is achieved through careful collaboration, not a wholesale reduction, dilution or merging of HIV funding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead, Biggin wants the government to meet the moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have all the tools, but it requires investment. And if Canada was serious about ending the HIV epidemic, it would leverage this opportunity by doubling down, investing more and going the extra mile,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Amid funding challenges, there has also been a rollback of HIV-related education in some Canadian schools.<\/p>\n

For example<\/a>, last year Alberta\u2019s conservative government<\/a> mandated that teachers get all sexual education lessons, worksheets and learning materials approved by the education ministry. Only three of roughly 200 pre-approved<\/a> sexual health materials explicitly deal with HIV, and they are from 2011 and 2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s actually become a challenge to access sex ed resources in real life,\u201d says Shamin Mohamed Jr., founder of LetsStopAIDS<\/a>, a national organization dedicated to engaging young people in the struggle to end HIV. \u201cPolitical efforts that try to prevent discussions on gender identity and sexual orientation can make it very difficult for teachers to step in and teach something that could change a student\u2019s life.\u201d<\/p>\n

This erosion of sex ed may be contributing to a decrease in safe sex practices.<\/p>\n

Mohamed says that while there are dozens of online resources about HIV, the young people he talks to want to spend less time on the internet, not more.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re dealing with a generation that grew up for most of their lives online,\u201d he says. \u201cSome may have gone through their entire high school or postsecondary through COVID, so you now have a generation that\u2019s thriving for in-person experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition, young people can\u2019t always trust what they come across online: A 2021 study<\/a> found that 90.5% of health misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic came from the internet.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why LetsStopAIDS goes into schools and conducts in-person workshops with students\u2014including role play that directly reflects what young people are telling them about their social and sexual lives.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Mohamed and his team don\u2019t have the finances to reach as many students as they once did. \u201cA lack of government funding, along with a challenging grassroots environment, has made it difficult to sustain some of our programming.\u201d <\/p>\n

Share<\/a><\/p>\n

Even if organizations like Mohamed\u2019s could reach all high school students, migrants and temporary residents\u2014which include many international students\u2014represented two-thirds of the new HIV diagnoses<\/a> in Canada in 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not providing them with any support when they get here, especially not culturally competent support,\u201d says David, the program lead at HYPE<\/a>, an Ontario-based support and education program for and led by HIV-positive people ages 18 to 29.<\/p>\n

David, who asked Uncloseted Media not to use his last name due to the ongoing criminalization of HIV nondisclosure<\/a>, sees international students come through his programs all the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor Canada in particular, we have a very international student body who are coming almost exclusively from backgrounds that are much more culturally conservative and often have access to fewer sexual health assets,\u201d he says. By the end of the 2025 academic year, Canada hosted nearly<\/a> 700,000 international students\u2014nearly half of whom came from India or China, countries where open discussions of sexuality are often considered<\/a> taboo<\/a> and where gay marriage is illegal.<\/p>\n

Think of a newcomer\u2019s first time in Toronto\u2019s gay village: In a 3-block radius, there are two bathhouses and a dozen clubs, some of which feature glory holes or darkrooms. The novelty of these experiences, coupled with a lack of prior sex ed, may lead to rash decisions like condomless sex without PrEP with anonymous partners\u2014prime conditions for contracting HIV.<\/p>\n

Cultural differences can exacerbate HIV risk even after one\u2019s education is finished, says Ower Alexander Oberto\u2014a care manager at the Toronto People With AIDS Foundation <\/a>(PWA Toronto).<\/p>\n

Oberto, an HIV-positive immigrant from Venezuela, helps newcomers navigate the health and immigration systems. He says young professionals may come to Canada for work, but soon discover the abundance of dating and hookup apps like Grindr, Sniffies and Scruff. \u201cWe don\u2019t have these back home\u2014and suddenly to have sex is as easy as making an order on Uber Eats,\u201d Oberto told Uncloseted Media.<\/p>\n

Some of the HIV-positive people he works with\u2014many from regions where gay apps are blocked, like China and parts of the Middle East\u2014didn\u2019t use a condom simply because they were asked not to.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Oscar Aldana. Courtesy of Aldana. <\/p>\n

Oscar Aldana\u2014a fellow Venezuelan immigrant Oberto met through his work with PWA Toronto\u2014felt he was doing everything right as a young gay man in Toronto. <\/p>\n

He says he took pride in taking care of his sexual health, getting tested for STIs every three months. He always wore a condom, unless his partner was on PrEP or was undetectable, meaning the amount of the virus in their blood was so low that they couldn\u2019t pass it on. He even kept a running list of every hookup he had in case he tested positive for common STIs like chlamydia or gonorrhea and needed to notify them.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Oscar Aldana. Courtesy of Aldana. <\/p>\n

So in the fall of 2021, when Aldana went in for a routine STI test, he was shocked to hear he was HIV positive. At 27 years old, he remembers standing in the clinic he\u2019d been to dozens of times, coming to this alarming realization.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was pissed, but I take responsibility for not being on PrEP and not using condoms.\u201d<\/p>\n

Part of Oberto\u2019s work is helping newcomers, who may not be fluent in conversational English, understand the importance of the medicines as well as medical distinctions\u2014such as the difference between PrEP and DoxyPEP, a medication that can reduce the risk of transmitting some STIs like syphilis, chlamydia and gonorrhea but not HIV. It\u2019s why community organizations like PWA Toronto are trying to offer more HIV resources in different languages. Oberto himself speaks four, a helpful tool for engaging people on their own terms.<\/p>\n

But at the end of the day, it comes back to money.<\/p>\n

Marcus agrees that ending the spread of HIV in Canada is about the money. He references community organizations that do webinars and go into clinics to provide toolkits about PrEP and other interventions, the likes of which may have educated Marcus\u2019 doctor sooner. But the work of on-the-ground organizations relies on public funding.<\/p>\n

If objective, nonpartisan, rigorous, LGBTQ-focused journalism is important to you, please consider making a tax-deductible donation in the U.S. through our 501(c)(3) fiscal sponsor, Resource Impact, by clicking this button:<\/p>\n

Donate to Uncloseted Media<\/a><\/p>\n

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