{"id":350,"date":"2026-10-09T11:46:50","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T11:46:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beyondpositive.org\/sluktest\/?page_id=350"},"modified":"2026-10-09T11:49:25","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T11:49:25","slug":"scott-agnew","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.beyondpositive.org\/sluktest\/our-campaigns\/positive-people\/scott-agnew\/","title":{"rendered":"Scott Agnew, Comedian"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Scott Agnew, Comedian<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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I had struggled with my mental health for years. At age 25 I tried to take my own life. Drowning out the white noise of life with chem-sex parties, drugs and alcohol wasn\u2019t working. I was eventually diagnosed with bipolar, and later on in 2015 I also tested positive for HIV.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It doesn\u2019t sound like the start of a great comedy routine I\u2019ll grant you, but my life experiences have formed the basis of my stand-up shows, including \u2018I\u2019ve snapped my banjo string, let\u2019s just talk\u2019<\/em>. Stand-up has always given me a sense of being myself, and a platform to talk about things I\u2019m passionate about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The point of the show was actually less about HIV than it was about mental health, and a quiet homophobia that still exists. In my experience, a lot of gay men have real self-worth problems, and relative to the national average, the percentage of gay men with drug and mental health problems is pretty big \u2013 we need to be asking, how this can still be happening? Why is it still happening?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This show, and telling my story, is in part about shouting at the world, \u2018gonnae listen to us?\u2019<\/em>\u2013  there\u2019s something going on here with how we\u2019re living our lives. It needs to be noticed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can legislate all day and night, but unless attitudes change, it\u2019s not enough. There has to be much more done for gay men\u2019s health and that has to come from visibility in education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After talking about my HIV diagnosis so publicly I was overwhelmed by the support I received for being so open about HIV. I had over a thousand messages from people on Twitter from people, all incredibly supportive. It was amazing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I just don\u2019t think the message is getting through to people that people don\u2019t die any more. It\u2019s not the gay death plague! You can live as long as everyone else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s definitely a stigma that continues to surround the diagnosis, and there shouldn\u2019t be. I\u2019m lucky, being a loud brash character that isn\u2019t afraid to make a statement, with an open-minded family and being in the broad, accepting industry of stand-up \u2013 but there\u2019s always still that shock there on people\u2019s faces.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scott Agnew, Comedian I had struggled with my mental health for years. At age 25 I tried to take my own life. Drowning out the white noise of life with chem-sex parties, drugs and alcohol wasn\u2019t working. I was eventually diagnosed with bipolar, and later on in 2015 I also tested positive for HIV. It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":326,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-with-title","meta":{"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-350","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t