The Men2Men Collective is led by a group of gay men, community workers, journalists, healthcare professionals and men living with HIV from Europe and Canada. The initiative has been established to educate and raise awareness around living with HIV, including issues on emotional and mental health, stigma and discrimination affecting gay men with HIV.
Mission
Our mission is to improve support for gay men with HIV and combat the effects of stigma. Our projects aim to:
- Improve the emotional wellbeing and support of gay men affected by HIV
- Challenge the stigma faced by HIV-positive gay men
- Build bridges between HIV-positive and HIV-negative gay men
Who we are
Please click on the names to find out more about us.
Luc Biecq
Luc is a French journalist and has been working in the field of HIV and gay life for over 10 years. His is currently editor-in-chief for French magazine the Tetu+ Guide, written for people living with HIV. Luc also writes regularly on different aspects of HIV for the gay magazine Tetu and other publications in France.
Michael Brady
Michael is a Sexual Health and HIV Consultant at King's College Hospital, South London, and Medical Director of the Terrence Higgins Trust (the UK's largest HIV & Sexual Health Charity). His professional interests include HIV transmission, and uptake of HIV testing in and outside of clinics. At the Terrence Higgins Trust, he advises on a range of national services around sexual health and contraception.
Michael Carter
Michael has worked in the field of HIV for nearly 20 years and is currently an editorial consultant for NAM, where he is responsible for the aidsmap.com news service. Michael is the author of two editions of Living with HIV, a patient resource providing an introduction to HIV. He also oversees NAM’s award-winning range of information booklets. Michael’s articles on HIV have appeared in the mainstream and community press.
Ricardo Fernandes
Ricardo has been working in the field of HIV for over ten years. In 2000, he joined Associaçao Positivo as coordinator of the Espaço Positivo de Lisboa project, providing psychosocial support around living with HIV. He has served on the board as treasurer since 2004. In the same year, he joined Grupo Portugues de Activistas sobre Tratamentos VIH/SIDA (GAT), and has since become Vice-President. Ricardo also contributes regularly to the newsletter Acçao & Tratamentos.
Michael Meulbroek
Michael was born in Amsterdam and has been living in Barcelona since 1986. In 1993, he co-founded Projecte dels NOMS-Hispanosida, which became one of Spain’s most important HIV community-based organisations. He is also a treatment counsellor for INFOTRAT (insert link), an educational program for people living with HIV. His latest project, BCN Checkpoint , is a community-based centre to promote HIV testing and awareness of other sexually transmitted infections.
Tom Platteau
Tom is a sexologist, working at the Institute of Tropical medicine in Antwerp, Brussels. His work focuses on research into sexual risk behaviour amongst men who have sex with men. He has also worked as a counsellor for people living with HIV since 2000 and also helps run Helpcenter, a screening centre for HIV that provides free and anonymous voluntary testing, outreach testing in gay saunas and fetish clubs, and reminder emails for people at risk of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.
Peter Rehberg
Peter holds the position of Adjunct Associate Professor of German Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.
He has worked in the field of Queer Studies including HIV both academically and journalistically and served as editor-in-chief of the German gay lifestyle magazine Männer and the HIV-magazine M+ from 2006 to 2011. He has published extensively on gay men and HIV and writes regularly for the website of Deutsche Aidshilfe, Germany's leading Aids organization.
Jürgen Rockstroh
Jürgen is a medical doctor, professor of medicine and the head of the HIV Outpatient Clinic at the University of Bonn, Germany, where his department treats the world’s largest cohort of HIV-infected hemophiliacs. His HIV research focuses on antiretroviral therapy, including new drug classes, the course of HIV disease in haemophiliacs, and co-infection of HIV and hepatitis . Jürgen has served as a study investigator in multiple clinical trials of antiretrovirals and of treatments for HIV and hepatitis co-infection. In 2007, he was elected as Chair of the German AIDS Society.
Peter Smit
Peter has worked pro bono for the Dutch HIV Association since 2002 and is founder of the legal focus group against criminalisation of HIV transmission, advising UNAIDS and WHO. Peter is also member of Poz&Proud, the gay men's section of the Dutch HIV Association, and is co-author and co-editor of 25+, a book on 25 years of HIV in the Dutch gay scene. Peter also edits Hivnieuws, the bimonthly magazine of the Dutch HIV Association.
Marc Thompson
Marc has been involved in the field of HIV and sexual health prevention for almost 20 years and served as deputy head of health promotion at the Terrence Higgins Trust. After volunteering for the Blackliners, the country’s first HIV support organisation for African and Caribbean people, Marc set up the first organisation to provide prevention and advice for black gay men and support group for those living with HIV.