It’s A Sin’s Real-Life Jill Has An Important Message About Monkeypox

The acclaimed Russell T Davies drama It’s A Sin captured the hearts and minds of the nation. The Channel 4 series told the story of a fictional friendship group in London during the peak of the AIDS crisis, which claimed the lives of thousands of gay and bisexual men. A standout character from the drama was Jill, played by Lydia West. Now, the real-life inspiration behind the beloved character, Jill Nalder, has spoken out on how the Monkeypox outbreak in the UK feels all too familiar.

Discussing her new book Love from the Pink Palace: Memories of Love, Loss and Cabaret Through the AIDS Crisis with PinkNews, the Welsh actor said that she has noticed “the same moral judgments” that she witnessed at the height of the AIDS crisis.

“I think in certain aspects of the media, they like to marginalise people and make them feel that there’s something wrong with the way they live their lives,” she explained to PinkNews. “That was very much what it was like in the ‘80s about AIDS. It was almost as though there were certain people that ‘deserved’ what they got because they were not behaving in the way ‘God intended.’”

The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the Monkeypox outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on July 23. International research also found that outside of endemic regions (remote areas of Central and West Africa) 99% of cases had occurred in men; 98% of whom were men who have sex with men (MSM).

Others have joined Nalder in criticising the UK’s media and government response to the Monkeypox outbreak, including the leading sexual health activist, Greg Owen, who previously told Bustle that the government’s apparent “wait and see what happens” attitude to Monkeypox is “extremely problematic and dangerous.”

As mentioned, the fan-favorite character of Jill in Channel 4’s It’s A Sin is based on Nalder’s real-life experiences in 1980s London. During this time, she campaigned and fundraised for causes aimed at helping those affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

“You’re living in London – which is all very exciting – and then all of a sudden, there’s a disease that literally changes everything,” she previously told Gay Times, revealing that she would also spend much of her time in the ‘80s visiting gay and bisexual men suffering with AIDS during their final days. “You’re taking a place, in a way, of a family member because you become that family together and just be there in a loving way,” she recalled.