The New Zealand AIDS Foundation needed to help fight the stigma of HIV by showing the world that through effective treatment, people living with HIV have an undetectable viral load, meaning they can’t transmit the virus to another person.

On World AIDS Day 2019, alongside NZAF, Body Positive and Positive Women NZ, we launched Sperm Positive: The World’s First HIV-Positive Sperm Bank. The online sperm bank gave men living with HIV the opportunity to become sperm donors, creating a story that was shared in 94 countries to an audience of over 1.8 billion, and showed the world that HIV cannot be passed on in the most undeniable way possible – childbirth.

 Now, Sperm Positive isn’t just changing beliefs, it’s changing lives. To date, 4 babies are due, 32 women have registered as recipients, 27 HIV-positive sperm donors have joined, and at 2:05pm on January 27^th, 2021, the first baby from an HIV positive sperm bank was born, creating living proof that HIV cannot be passed on. She’s a girl.