Billy Porter Opens Up About Being HIV Positive

Billy Porter is publicly opening up about living with HIV. 

In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the Cinderella actor, Broadway legend, and Emmy winner, who currently stars as Pray Tell in the critically-acclaimed FX ballroom series Pose (a beloved character, who is also living with HIV), revealed that he first got his positive diagnosis back in 2007 and kept it private for years due to the shame and stigma that is, unfortunately, still associated with the condition.

"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," Billy told THR about that difficult time in his life (prior to learning he was HIV positive, he was also diagnosed with Type II diabetes and had filed for bankruptcy). "HIV-positive, where I come from, growing up in the Pentecostal church with a very religious family, is God's punishment."

Revealing how only a few close people in his life knew, and how he didn't reveal his diagnosis to his mother until just recently, he continued: 

"For a long time, everybody who needed to know, knew — except for my mother. I was trying to have a life and a career, and I wasn't certain I could if the wrong people knew."

"Then I woke up on the last day of [shooting] Pose; I was writing in my gratitude journal and my mama popped into my head. I was like, 'Let me just call her.' She said, 'You've been carrying this around for 14 years? Don't ever do this again. I'm your mother, I love you no matter what. And I know I didn't understand how to do that early on, but it's been decades now.' And it's all true. It's my own shame."

Thankfully, due to advancements in medical treatments for HIV, Billy has reached a point where the amount of virus in his system is so low, it is now undetectable, and he hopes that he can serve as an example of hope to others.

"I survived so that I could tell the story," Billy said. "That's what I'm here for."

"This is what HIV-positive looks like now," he later added. "I’m going to die from something else before I die from that. My T-cell levels are twice yours because of this medication. I go to the doctor now — as a Black, 51-year-old man, I go to the doctor every three months. That doesn’t happen in my community. We don’t trust doctors. But I go to the doctor, and I know what’s going on in my body. I’m the healthiest I’ve been in my entire life. So it’s time to let all that go and tell a different story. There’s no more stigma — let’s be done with that. It’s time. I’ve been living it and being in the shame of it for long enough. And I’m sure this will follow me. I’m sure this is going to be the first thing everybody says, 'HIV-positive blah, blah, blah.' OK. Whatever. It’s not the only thing I am. I’m so much more than that diagnosis. And if you don’t want to work with me because of my status, you’re not worthy of me."