Tony Bird
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tonybirdlondon.bsky.social
Tony Bird
@tonybirdlondon.bsky.social
1.7K followers 240 following 2.4K posts
🏳️‍🌈 🇪🇺 ✅ Socialism and sequins. HIV+ he/him.

✊ 🇵🇸 🇺🇦 🏳️‍⚧️
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tonybirdlondon.bsky.social
Loved the exhibition of Diane Arbus portraits at David Zwirner.
Celebrities, nudists, faded socialites, friends, gender non-conforming people, teenagers
Two friends at home, N.Y.C. - 1965
www.davidzwirner.com/exhibitions/...
Black and white photo from the 60s showing two young people standing by a bed with rumpled sheets in a slightly down at heel apartment with windows behind them. A tall woman with glasses and a small beehive has her arm round a shorter androgynous person with slicked hair
November 28, 2025 at 12:11 PM
tonybirdlondon.bsky.social
The Maggi Hambling paintings at Sadie Cole HQ are exceptional
Wall of water XXIX (lovers) - 2024
www.sadiecoles.com/exhibitions/...
Painting with a white background. It looks to be an energetic abstract representation of a fountain of water mostly in pale greys and dark greys with some small (but vigorous) strokes of magenta and royal blue
November 27, 2025 at 11:41 AM
tonybirdlondon.bsky.social
Hot on heels on living in the coolest neighbourhood in the UK, Time Out have just voted me one the 8 best places in London's coolest Street
Picture of the outside of a bar called T.Bird The caption reads It was recently crowned London'scoolest street for 2025 - The 8 Best places on Blackstock Road, chosen by Time Out Editors
November 24, 2025 at 10:08 PM
tonybirdlondon.bsky.social
Fraudster
Keir Starmer's 10 pledges. My promise to you is that I will maintain our radical values and work tirelessly to get Labour in to power - so that we can advance the interests of the people our Party was created to serve. Based on the moral case for socialism, here is where I stand. Increase income tax for the top 5% of earners, reverse the Tories' cuts in corporation tax and clamp down on tax avoidance, particularly of large corporations. No stepping back from our core principles. 2. Social justice Abolish Universal Credit and end the Tories' cruel sanctions regime. Set a national goal for wellbeing to make health as important as GDP; invest in services that help shift to a preventative approach. Stand up for universal services and defend our NHS. Support the abolition of tuition fees and invest in lifelong learning. 3. Climate justice Put the Green New Deal at the heart of everything we do. There is no issue more important to our future than the climate emergency. A Clean Air Act to tackle pollution locally. Demand international action on climate rights. No more illegal wars. Introduce a Prevention of Military Intervention Act and put human rights at the heart of foreign policy. Review all UK arms sales and make us a force for international peace and justice. 4. Promote peace and human rights 5. Common ownership 6. Defend migrants' rights 7. Strengthen workers' rights and trade unions 8. Radical devolution of power, wealth and opportunity 9. Equality 10. Effective opposition to the Tories Public services should be in public hands, not making profits for shareholders. Support common ownership of rail, mail, energy and water; end outsourcing out NHS, local government and justice system. Full voting rights for EU nationals. Defend free movement as we leave the EU. An immigration system based on compassion and dignity. End indefinite detention and call for the closure of centres such as Yarl's Wood. Work shoulder to shoulder with trade unions to stand up for working peop…
November 24, 2025 at 12:32 PM
tonybirdlondon.bsky.social
Pink Dancers Ball - Carnival of the Animals - at @bishopsgateinst.bsky.social
Of course I’m going as a bird.

I've got to wait at bus stop in Camberwell like this
Me - a middle aged white guy with a greying moustache - in a huge red and black feathered collar that stands up and frames my head, and red and black face glitter
November 22, 2025 at 6:32 PM
tonybirdlondon.bsky.social
Ten years ago I wrote a facebook post marking the twentieth anniversary
Image of a weekly pill box. The text underneath reads Twenty Years November 20, 2015 I'm not sure about celebrating it, but I think this occasion should be marked. Twenty years ago this evening I was rushed to hospital and told I had an "AIDS defining illness" (bacterial pneumonia). I'd been ill for three months and weighed seven and a half stone. It was actually a relief to finally find out what was wrong with me. What was left of my immune system was too small to measure and at some point in the four weeks I spent in hospital “six months to live" was mentioned, although the probability was always that I'd last a bit longer. I survived like this for 12 months, fending off opportunistic infections. I’m still blind in my left eye from the two doses of shingles that destroyed the optic nerve endings. I tried various drugs. None of them worked, but they often had dreadful side effects. And then the famed protease inhibitor drug cocktails arrived. The first one I tried was unsuccessful and it took another six months and a second, much stronger, combination before my CD4 count became large enough to detect and my viral load started to fall. I can remember my consultant actually skipping down the corridor with a big smile on her face after she picked up the results. My immune system never completely recovered. It’s still half of what a normal person’s should be. But it works and it’s never dipped into the danger zone where I need to be worried. And apart from a couple of blips my viral load has been undetectable all that time. I never really believed the “six months to live” thing. But I never dreamed I’d last twenty years.
November 20, 2025 at 12:39 PM
tonybirdlondon.bsky.social
Thirty years since my HIV diagnosis today.
Thirty years since I was rushed to hospital weighing seven and half stone (48 kilos) and told I had an AIDS defining illness and six months to live.
I was 28.
It's been a bloody long six months
Pill box for seven days of the week. Thursday's is open showing a variety of different pills
November 20, 2025 at 12:36 PM
tonybirdlondon.bsky.social
My most popular tweet in the other place was pointing out to a bigot that I'd danced through Tower Hamlets in sequins and was perfectly safe
Brendan Cox @MrBrendanCox. Feb 26 I'm starting to think that these 'no go zones' are simply places that the person writing the tweet hasn't been to? Like me and Ibiza. Nige Devlin. Ex Tory Member @ItsPstupid · Feb 26 As a white middle age man I would not go to Bethnal Green by myself at night. Been there. My opinion. Tony Bird @TonyBirdLondon Oh honey, I'm a white middle aged gay man and I've danced through Bethnal Green at night while wearing sequins 4:22 PM Feb 27, 2024
November 18, 2025 at 10:41 AM
tonybirdlondon.bsky.social
It's been the same since I got my first smartphone
The lockscreen on my phone. The background is is multicoloured, very thin stripes. Sometimes only a pixel wide
November 13, 2025 at 12:39 PM
tonybirdlondon.bsky.social
Nice to get my first mail from the Green Party hand delivered by the member who'll be standing in my ward in the local elections next year.
And also to discover that my tiny block of 12 flats has other party members in it
Leaflet for Southwark Green Party. Member Mail 2025
November 13, 2025 at 10:19 AM
tonybirdlondon.bsky.social
MI6 building at Vauxhall looking ominous in the mist/drizzle on Friday night
MI6 building as a dark silhouette with a few sections spotlit - seen from across the river with lights reflected in the water
November 10, 2025 at 4:13 PM
tonybirdlondon.bsky.social
El Anatsui: Go Back and Pick at the Goodman Gallery.
After his dazzling 2023 Turbine Hall installation he's returned to working with the salvaged wood of his early career.
Luvi - 2025
goodman-gallery.com/exhibitions/...
Strips of wood in a row that have been marked by carved and charred lines and patterns. There are very small areas of bright coloured paint
November 10, 2025 at 10:53 AM
tonybirdlondon.bsky.social
Also
Keir Starmer flanked by union jacks saying "If you don't like the changes we've made, I say the door is open, and you can leave"
November 8, 2025 at 12:13 PM
tonybirdlondon.bsky.social
When Zack Polanski announced in his first speech as leader that the Greens were here to replace Labour I thought it would take more than eight weeks
Screencap of Zack Polanski saying "We're here to replace you"
November 6, 2025 at 7:27 PM
tonybirdlondon.bsky.social
Screencap of Keir Starmer flanked by Union Jacks saying "If you don't like the changes we've made the door is open and you can leave"
November 6, 2025 at 7:12 PM
tonybirdlondon.bsky.social
Andreas Gursky at White Cube.
His large scale photographs are incredible. This one's 4 meters across. Satisfying when viewed from a distance with incredible detail close-up. You can see into everyone's flats.
Paris, Montparnasse II - 2025
www.whitecube.com/gallery-exhi...
A large tower block of flats. 18 stories high and at least 4 times as long as it is high. It almost feels like an abstract grid of pattern
November 6, 2025 at 2:47 PM
tonybirdlondon.bsky.social
New profile pic.
I am now entering my Alexis Carrington Colby* era.
No further questions
Selfie of a middle aged man with a moustache and grey stubble in a very wide brimmed sun hat and large round black sunglasses. A floral purple scarf is wrapped jauntily around my neck
November 6, 2025 at 11:04 AM
tonybirdlondon.bsky.social
Cai Guo-Qiang - Gunpowder and Abstraction
2015–2025 at White Cube.
I wasn't sure what to make of these at first but as I went round I became completely obsessed with the textures
Outside My Window: April in the Year of Gengzi - 2020
www.whitecube.com/gallery-exhi...
White background with abstract explosions of colour. The mains ones are intense magenta and dark and light grey with smaller ones of royal blue
November 5, 2025 at 7:31 PM
tonybirdlondon.bsky.social
I don't post about US politics - but everything about Mamdani's campaign in New York really gives me hope. Here he is campaigning in a queer latino nightclub.
And as every gay that learnt their politics from Harvey Milk knows "you gotta give them hope"
November 4, 2025 at 10:55 AM
tonybirdlondon.bsky.social
What movie do you consider perfect?

(Pretty much any movie starring Madeline Kahn qualifies but this is my favorite)
A still from What's Up Doc. Barbra Streisand is cycling a delivery bike. Ryan O'Neill is sitting on the box on the front
October 31, 2025 at 11:31 AM
tonybirdlondon.bsky.social
We have the worst trans rights in Europe. Equal to Hungary and Russia.
A massive drop since Labour took over.
I'm a gay man who lived through the homophobia of the 80s - what Labour is doing now with transphobia is just the same.
rainbowmap.ilga-europe.org/categories/l...
ILGA map of trans rights in Europe showing the UK in the red danger zone along with Russia and Hungary
October 30, 2025 at 7:45 PM
tonybirdlondon.bsky.social
Whereas Faiza Shaheen is actually an academic but is labelled an 'activist'
Screencap from wikipedia Faiza Shaheen From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Faiza Shaheen (born 1982) is a British academic and economist in the field of economic inequality.
October 30, 2025 at 10:54 AM
tonybirdlondon.bsky.social
Sad news about Prunella Scales. I know she'll be best remembered for Faulty Towers but she'll always be the quintessential Miss Mapp to me
Prunella Scales and Geraldine McEwan as Mapp and Lucia. They're wearing 1930s clothes and sat back to back on a stool in a churchyard
October 28, 2025 at 10:58 AM
tonybirdlondon.bsky.social
This is the summary
Anthony Bird's HIV journey began dramatically in 1995 when he went from seroconversion to hospitalisation with PCP in just 4-5 months, an unusually rapid progression that fascinated medical consultants. Working as a graphic designer in London and deeply embedded in the vibrant gay club scene centred around Brixton's legendary Fridge nightclub, Tony's diagnosis came at 28 during the height of the pre-combination therapy era. His story captures the terror of thinking he wouldn't live to see 30, watching 30,000 balloons released at Pride representing AIDS deaths whilst believing one would represent him the following year. Yet Tony's experience stands apart from many others in its lack of shame or secrecy - his hospitalisation made his status obvious to friends, and he found himself surrounded by HIV-positive activists who provided community rather than isolation. From near-death to the miraculous transformation brought by combination therapy, Tony's journey continues to the present day where he's found unexpected joy in ballroom dancing, describing himself as happier than at any point in his life whilst living with HIV as mere background noise.
October 27, 2025 at 6:04 PM
tonybirdlondon.bsky.social
Your Party's company secretary and nominating officer is saying that Nazis and anti-Nazis are just as bad as each other.
Is this the party's official position now?
screencap of post on twitter Adnan Hussain MP The average brit: black, white, or brown, just wants to live peacefully. Co-exist with their neighbours and live a decent life with dignity The vast majority of brits do not want nazis crusading through our streets, nor equally absurd "counter-demonstraters." Calm down!
October 27, 2025 at 11:54 AM