Every year on 14 July, we mark World Non-Binary Day, a day that sits exactly halfway between International Women’s Day and International Men’s Day. It’s a symbolic reminder that not everyone experiences or expresses gender in the same way.

For many people, being non-binary isn’t a political statement or a trend. It’s simply the most honest way to describe who they are.

Non-binary is an umbrella term used by people whose gender identity doesn’t fit exclusively as male or female. Some feel they are both. Some feel they are neither. Others experience gender as something more fluid. What unites them is a desire to live authentically, rather than trying to force themselves into categories that don’t reflect their lived experience.

The UK Census found around 30,000 people identified as non-binary. While that may seem like a small number, every one of those people deserves the same dignity, respect and opportunity as everyone else.

For many non-binary people, life can be challenging. Something as simple as introducing yourself, filling in a form, using a public toilet or correcting someone who has used the wrong pronouns can become a source of anxiety. Public debate about gender often means people become the subject of discussion rather than participants in it.

You don’t need to fully understand or relate to someone’s experiences of sex and gender to treat them with kindness. Respect doesn’t require complete understanding, it simply requires recognising another person’s humanity

Using someone’s name and pronouns, listening to their experiences, and avoiding assumptions about who they are costs nothing. Yet those small acts can have an enormous impact on someone’s wellbeing and sense of belonging.

At Sahir, we know that everyone deserves to feel safe, valued and able to be themselves. For more than 40 years we have supported LGBTQ+ people and people living with HIV across the Liverpool City Region, and we have seen first-hand the difference that acceptance and inclusion can make.

This World Non-Binary Day, let’s choose curiosity over judgement, compassion over hostility and respect over division. We may not all share the same experiences, but we can all choose to treat one another with dignity.

Because everyone deserves the freedom to be themselves.

Simon Harris

CEO – Sahir

By Christine Goffinet

Chair in Virology

Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine

For over 125 years, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) has been a world leader in global health research, helping to identify, treat and eliminate some of the world’s deadliest diseases. Today, my research team is focused on finding a cure for HIV, a life changing disease that affects over 112,000 people in the UK, and millions worldwide.

Antiretroviral therapy (ART) is one of the greatest achievements in global health research. It can keep the virus suppressed and can allow people to live long, healthy lives. But it isn’t a cure and was never designed to be a permanent solution. Many suffer side-effects, serving a daily reminder of their HIV status.

Worldwide, 39 million people live with HIV, and 1.3 million acquired the infection last year. Keeping them on ART for life costs over $21.9 billion annually and access to these drugs depends on political will, continued funding, and complex supply chains. The fragility of this system was recently brought into stark relief by significant funding cuts to global HIV programmes. These cuts are projected to drive up new infections and deaths in the coming decades. A cure wouldn’t remove the need for HIV investment overnight, but it would create a far more robust and reliable system.

But, if the need is so great, why hasn’t a cure been found? HIV is a very sophisticated virus. It hides, dormant, inside immune cells, invisible to treatments and the immune system. My team is seeking to outsmart the virus with “shock and kill” treatments; waking the sleeping virus up, and then using natural immune signals to help the body’s own immune cells to recognise and destroy it. This is cutting edge science being worked on right here in Liverpool.

LSTM’s research also focuses on HIV as a global disease. Most HIV cure research focuses on the viral subtype most common in the US and Europe, but a different subtype found in Southern African and Southeast Asia accounts for nearly half of infections worldwide. A cure for only on subtype will never be effective, so I’m reaching out beyond Liverpool, working with researchers in South Africa, Malawi and beyond to develop a truly global and lasting cure.

An HIV cure can’t be designed solely in a lab. Recently, Sahir House and George House Trust invited us to learn from people living with HIV at an event titled “Have Your Say on HIV Cure Research”. We had fascinating discussions, learning that some were happy to continue ART indefinitely, but that many were desperate for a cure. It was also clear that proving people’s cured status was essential, although this would require finding an alternative to a standard antibody test because HIV antibodies would always be present even if cured. We’re now working with both organisations to expand this work with an ongoing Patient Advisory Group, so community voices can continue to shape our research.

There is a famous, anonymous quote that I often think about, “One day, I’d love to say, ‘I used to have HIV'”. These words inspire me, finding a cure and helping to realise this person’s dream keeps me going. The power of these words also shows that the voices of people with HIV are essential in shaping LSTM’s work and convincing funders and governments to continue supporting research efforts.

I’m grateful to Sahir House and George House Trust for their partnership, and to everyone who has shared their experience with us. If you’re living with HIV and want your voice heard, we’d love to hear from you.