No Longer a Death Sentence!
Watch this video to see how HIV has affected people's lives and their mental health.
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We are showcasing people's stories and experiences living with HIV to empower others in the community and stop the stigma together!
Matt Webster
I always felt like I'd been in control of my mental health. I'd dealt with coming out and telling my friends and family that I was gay with mostly positive, and a few negative reactions but nothing could have prepared me for being diagnosed with HIV.
When I got the news, I was devastated. Knowing basically nothing about HIV, I thought that I was going to die and that my life was over. Eventually, this led to suicidal thoughts and intentions. I believed I'd never be able to have sex again, that no one would love me again and that maybe I would start to lose my friends over this. My self-stigma was awful - I even thought that my mum could contract HIV from hugging me.
After almost 10 years of living with HIV, it no longer affects me negatively. I've spent years learning, researching, talking to people and looking after myself. I've learned to not blame myself, or the person who I believe that I contracted it from. As you go through life living with HIV, self-care and looking after your physical, sexual and your mental health become paramount. Each day is a gift.
Earvin Johnson Jr.
"Magic Johnson"
An American basketball player who led the National Basketball Association (NBA) Los Angeles Lakers to five championships.
I tell you, it’s funny because the only time I think about HIV is when I have to take my medicine twice a day.
When I first found out I had HIV, I had to find somebody who was living with it, who could help me understand my journey and what I was going to have to deal with day-to-day.
I found out that a person named Elizabeth Frazier was living with AIDS at the time, and so I called her up, and she took a meeting with me. I enjoy being the messenger for God in terms of letting people know about HIV and AIDS.
Me having HIV has no bearing on my business.
Billy Porter
Billy Porter is an American actor, singer, and style icon. He graduated from Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama and achieved fame performing on Broadway before starting a solo career as a singer and actor.
I have to start in 2007, in June of that year, I was diagnosed HIV positive. Having lived through the plague, my question was always, “Why was I spared? Why am I living?” Well, I’m living so that I can tell the story. There’s a whole generation that was here, and I stand on their shoulders. I can be who I am in this space, at this time, because of the legacy that they left for me. So it’s time to put my big boy pants on and talk.
I was the generation that was supposed to know better, and it happened anyway. It was 2007, the worst year of my life. I was on the precipice of obscurity for about a decade or so, but 2007 was the worst of it. By February, I had been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. By March, I signed bankruptcy papers. And by June, I was diagnosed HIV-positive. The shame of that time compounded with the shame that had already [accumulated] in my life silenced me, and I have lived with that shame in silence for 14 years. HIV-positive, where I come from, growing up in the Pentecostal church with a very religious family, is God’s punishment.
Lynette
I was born with HIV. I was diagnosed at birth in 1990. My chances of survival were incredibly slim. I lived in hospitals for the first several years of my life. I’ve been on most HIV treatment regimens.
I was constantly educated about HIV but trying to understand it was so hard. Before I was eight, I’d lost both parents to AIDS. I resented the doctors, HIV and AIDS, my parents, even God. I didn’t understand my body; I was really skinny but with a bloated stomach, and thin cheeks, almost skeletal-like. I had other side effects from having this type of immune system and from taking treatment. I always felt different.
I want to raise awareness and educate others about HIV. It doesn’t have to be as crippling as it once was. I exercise, I work and I take part in anything I find interesting - I live a normal life.
I’m resilient. I don’t have to go through what my parents went through. I recall vivid images of their last days and think if only antiretroviral treatment was as advanced then as it is now, they may have lived. Their losses are a whole different story for another day, but I truly find myself a warrior!
