A Kickstarter-funded photography book by Bill Bytsura documents the people behind the AIDS activist movement. Click through for a look at this striking time capsule.
Lexi Love may be best known as the high-energy queen from season 17 of RuPaul’s Drag Race, but today, she’s making waves by sharing her HIV status and calling out the Trump administration.
In the wake of the wake of this move by Trump, the trans queen took to Instagram to speak out and seems to have announced that she’s HIV-positive in the process.
“My health and well being as an entertainer is at risk now,” Lexi wrote about the information being pulled from the White House website. “I am personally affected by this stance and will work to use this new platform to not only find resources for myself but those who I am connected to socially and here! I’m so sorry everyone! This is hard and it’s frustrating and it’s insulting.”
While the post was mostly met with support from followers, some people were rude and clearly didn’t understand why having HIV information and resources on a government website is important.
When someone asked if people actually turn to the federal government website for those resources, Lexi opened up and shared her own personal experience.
“I actually utilized the government funded program for over 10 years and it’s the only reason that I am alive today,” she responded.
“My heart is broken for the lack of education surrounding HIV protection in our community; I really did not think that I would have to explain myself like this today but it seems appropriate and necessary,” she captioned a screenshot of the back-and-forth she had with the commenter.
Vladimir Yazev/Shutterstock; Fred Duval/Shuttestock; Kathy Hutchins/Shutterstock
These celebrities are helping the world by talking openly about their HIV status
Vladimir Yazev/Shutterstock; Fred Duval/Shuttestock; Kathy Hutchins/Shutterstock
The AIDS crisis of the 1980s and ‘90s was a dark time in queer history, but since then, medical advances have been made, and the stigma against HIV continues to dwindle every year.
While there are still people who are uncomfortable talking about the disease, there are celebrities who are public with their HIV-positive status and are using their star power to fight for people living with HIV all over the world. Some opened up about their status decades ago, and some have shared more recently, but they all use their stories to open people’s hearts and minds.
So, we’re shouting out the LGBTQ+ celebrities living with HIV who are helping to change the way the world see how you can truly live with HIV.
Jonathan Van Ness
Kathy Hutchins/Shutterstock
Jonathan Van Ness, one of the hosts of Netflix’s Queer Eye, was diagnosed with HIV when they were 25, but when the show first started Van Ness wasn’t sure they wanted anyone to know their status. Ultimately, the hair stylist decided being open and vulnerable was worth it and they now lives their life out, proud and in the spotlight.
“When Queer Eye came out, it was really difficult because I was like, ‘Do I want to talk about my status?,” Van Ness said in a New York Times interview in 2019. “And then I was like, ‘The Trump administration has done everything they can do to have the stigmatization of the L.G.B.T. community thrive around me.’” He paused before adding, “I do feel the need to talk about this.”
Mondo Guerra hit it big when he was the runner-up on season 8 of Project Runway, later taking home the big prize on the first season of Project Runway Allstars. The fashion designer was diagnosed with HIV when he was in his twenties, but was willing to risk dying from the disease rather than seek treatment and risk anyone finding out. Years later he decided to come out publicly with his diagnosis on Project Runway and at the viewing party for the episode Guerra raised money for the treatment center that helped him get healthy.
The wildly successful TikTok star Zachary Willmore has already amassed 1.9 million followers on the app, and he’s only 20 years old. In February of this, when he was only a college freshman, Willmore opened up to his TikTok followers and told them he had recently been diagnosed with HIV. He was terrified about what this meant for his life, but now, nine months later, he’s surprised by how little has changed, and both his fans and his family have been supportive. “I’ve been so lucky,” he told Teen Vogue. “HIV has not impacted my life. … Besides taking a pill in the morning, I have been pretty much unchanged.”
Billy Porter
Fred Duval/Shutterstock
Queer actor Billy Porter first learned he had HIV in 2007 but kept it secret for over a decade because he feared the stigma. Porter finally worked through these feelings while starring in Pose, about the ballroom scene during the AIDS crisis of the '80s and ’90s in New York City. Porter finally broke his silence when he realized he had lived when others had not. “Well, I’m living so that I can tell the story,” he said, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “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.”
Danny Pintauro spent eight years playing the younger brother on Who’s the Boss? Pintauro was first diagnosed 20 years ago when he was struggling with an addiction to crystal meth. He was terrified people would find out, but in 2015, he decided to be brave and share his HIV status on an episode of Oprah: Where Are They Now, and he’s been open about it ever since.
RuPaul’s Drag Race star Charity Kase first spoke openly about living with HIV on season three of Drag Race UK. Since then, the fierce queen has used her platform and fame to raise awareness about the virus and the remaining stigma. Two years ago, for World AIDS Day, Kase raised money for the National AIDS Trust to try and change the way HIV is portrayed in the UK. “I like to use the voice that I have to speak up on issues that I think are important and so I did that for HIV as it’s something that I know very well as it’s my experience,” she told the Gay Times.
Trinity K. Bonet
Kathy Hutchins/Shutterstock
RuPaul’s Drag Race season 6 star Trinity K. Bonét, revealed her HIV positive status back in 2021 when she was a contestant on Drag Race Allstars. By sharing her story on TV, Bonét has sparked conversation about HIV within the drag community and has helped to normalize it for the viewing audience too.
Javier Munoz
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Gay Broadway icon Javier Muñoz is best known for playing Usnavi de la Vega in the 2008 musical In the Heights and as Alexander Hamilton in the musical Hamilton from 2016 to 2019. Muñoz, who is also a cancer survivor, found out he was HIV positive back in 2002.
“I want to kick the shit out of stigma, and knock it on its fucking teeth,” Muñoz told Plus back in 2016. “I’m tired of its existence. It has no place in 2016, going forward from this day on. Period.”
Back in 2015, genderqueer rapper Mykki Blanco revealed on Facebook that they’d been living with HIV since 2011. “Fuck stigma and hiding in the dark,” they wrote in their original post. “No more living a lie,” they added in the comments. Since then, Blanco has been fighting stigma by calling out hypocrisy within the national AIDS organizations that the star says tend to typecast the stars they choose to represent HIV survivors.
Andre De Shields is an accomplished actor, singer, dancer, choreographer, and director with 14 Broadway credits, a Tony Award, and an Emmy to his name. After three decades of hiding his status, De Shields came out as HIV positive in 2020.
“First of all, I love myself,” De Shields said in an interview with The Body. “I’m not in love with myself, but I do love myself, because I’ve learned if I can’t love me, how can I love someone else? And I trust myself, which is why my soul is not ready to leave. Because we’re having a good time here. We’ve got things to do, places to go, people to see, things to achieve.”
Actor and HIV activist Nathaniel Hall is so open about his experience living with HIV that not only did he star in It’s a Sin, a miniseries about a group of queer friends during the AIDs crisis, but his own life story about contracting HIV during his first sexual experience at age 16 became material for his play First Time.
But when he first was diagnosed, he was so ashamed that he kept it a secret from his friends and family for 15 years while his life spiraled out of control. “I wasn’t dealing with the stigma and shame. I was a loud and proud gay man but behind closed doors, I was carrying so much shame,” he told The Independent. Today, he is open about his status and is in a loving relationship with a man who accepts him as he is.
Conchita Wurst
Featureflash Photo Agency/Shuttestock
Drag queen and Eurovision winner Conchita Wurst came out publicly as being HIV-positive back in 2018 when an ex-boyfriend allegedly threatened to reveal her status without her consent. She had been diagnosed several years earlier, and while her family and friends already knew, she didn’t want to let he ex control how the information was disclosed to the public, so she released a statement on Instagram instead.
“Coming out is better than being outed,” she wrote, according to the Guardian. “I hope to show courage, and to take another step towards the destigmatisation of people who have become infected with HIV due to their actions or through no fault of their own. To my fans: the information about my HIV-status may be new to you – [but nothing about me has changed]! I’m healthy and well, and I’m stronger, more motivated and liberated than ever. Thank you for your support!”
Oliver Sim
DFP Photographic/Shutterstock
Oliver Sim, singer and bass guitarist for the British indie pop band the xx, kept his HIV-positive status under wraps until 2022, when he released a solo project with a single about his complex feelings about living with HIV since his diagnosis at age 17. The single, “Hideous,” off of his first solo album Hideous Bastard, was the first time he ever publicly discussed living with HIV.
In a letter to fans that accompanied the album's release, Sim wrote, “Two thirds in, having a good idea of what the record was about, I realized I’d been circling around one of the things that has probably caused me the most fear and shame. My HIV status. I’ve been living with HIV since I was 17 and it’s played with how I’ve felt towards myself, and how I’ve assumed others have felt towards me, from that age and into my adult life.”
Greg Louganis
Vladimir Yazev/Shutterstock
Olympic gold medalist Greg Louganis contracted HIV in the late ‘80s at the height of the AIDs crisis during a time when most people had to hide their status due to stigma and few people survived. He immediately went on antivirals, but in 1993 his health began to fail and he gathered his friends and family to say a final goodbye. Luckily he survived and in 1994 he came out as gay at the Gay Games and in 1995 he spoke publicly for the first time about his HIV-positive status in an interview with Barbara Walters during the real of his memoir Breaking the Surface.
Louganis went on to become an LGBTQ+ activist and HIV awareness advocate and now spends his time fighting for LGBTQ+-inclusive mental health resources and support for older queer people living with HIV, according toHealthline.
RuPaul's Drag Race star Ongina spoke out for the first time about living with HIV on an episode of the first season of the popular reality competition show. “It was when I first told people that were outside my family and friends. I had just won the challenge on Episode 4, where we had to create a MAC Viva Glam campaign, and because of the work the campaign does to help people living with HIV/AIDS, I was overcome with emotions and shared my status,” Ongina told Latin Alternative TV. “It was such a defining moment in my life because once the words came out of my mouth, I felt a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. I felt free to live my life without holding back to letting people know who I am entirely.”
Dahli, the nonbinary season 4 winner of The Boulet Brother's Dragula, has been outspoken for years about being HIV-positive, including posting about the medication they take and educating their fans on what it means to have an undetectable viral load.
What sounds better than a weekend full of wine, gays, and drag queens in one of the most iconic wine regions in the world?
Honestly...nothing!
Every year, the Gay Wine Weekend from Out in the Vineyard takes over the Russian River Valley and Healdsburg wine region in Sonoma County for a three-day event to celebrate wine. The benefits from the weekend head toward Sonoma County's HIV/AIDS Network, Face to Face.
Out in the Vineyard is an "experiential Wine Country Event and Travel company for out LGBTQ+ community" that offers luxury events in the area for the "discerning gay traveler and our friends."
Thanks to the Out in the Vineyard Facebook page, we got a look into the VIP Opening Reception, sponsored by the Russian River Valley Winegrowers. It also gave us a look into the Twilight T-Dance held at the La Crema Winery Estate, the Winemakers Dinners, the Drag Queen Brunch and Wine Auction, and the Pool Soiree.
To make sure you don't miss out next year save the dates for July 18-20, 2025. You can subscribe to their newsletter to keep up to date with when the tickets will go on sale, with VIP passes available as early as November.
Regarding the photos from the weekend, Out in the Vineyard's Gary Saperstein says, "I am full of smiles as I look back on the weekend and the community and connection that was made for so many of us. I hope you'll enjoy the pictures!"
Here's When Gay Drama 'Fellow Travelers' Comes Out
Here's When Gay Drama 'Fellow Travelers' Comes Out
GLAAD released its annual State of HIV Stigma report Thursday, which tracks knowledge, attitudes, and sentiment around HIV and HIV stigma across the U.S. Among GLAAD’s findings was that most Americans know something about HIV, Gen Z knows the least out of the generations, and fewer people believe there is stigma around living with HIV.
“The state of HIV stigma in America could not be more clear: stigma is finally on the decline, and now is the time to accelerate the education that can save lives, through sharing stories of people living with HIV,” Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of GLAAD said.
Stigma around HIV has decreased, but why?
The report, a partnership between GLAAD and Gilead Sciences, found that 85 percent of Americans said they believe HIV stigma exists, down four points from 2020 — more than the margin of error. It also found more and more people know something about HIV.
However, the lack of stigma, GLAAD said, may be due to a lack of awareness around HIV.
“What’s starting to be prevalent now is HIV invisibility,” Jeremiah Johnson, who is living with HIV and is the executive director of the nonprofit organization PrEP4All, told GLAAD in the report. “In some of the most privileged communities, HIV is not as intense and therefore, to them, it no longer exists and is no longer focused on. It’s challenging if you are part of a community that doesn’t have that as your situation and for whom we still need to be doing important awareness raising and policy work.”
And while about 90 percent of Americans said they knew something about HIV, only 37 percent of Gen Z said they were knowledgeable.
Why does Gen Z know the least about HIV?
The report attributed the lack of knowledge on Gen Z’s part to several issues: being born after the early days of the AIDS crisis, seeing less HIV-related stories in media, and also a lack of general access to HIV information than previous generations.
GLAAD, which focuses mostly on LGBTQ+ representation in media, said a decrease in HIV-related stories in media has harmed people being comfortable around those with HIV.
“While this year’s State of HIV Stigma Report reflected a slight uptick in Americans who say they’ve heard of HIV but don’t know much about it — 1 in 10 — GLAAD found that only half of Americans say they feel knowledgeable about HIV, 40 years since the first cases of what later became known as AIDS were officially reported. And, as compared to 2020, more people self-report being uncomfortable interacting with a co-worker or neighbor who was living with HIV,” the report states. “Knowing the power of entertainment media, the loss of stories about HIV can indicate a dangerous backslide at a time when information about the virus is needed most.”
There is a lack of stories about people living with HIV in media
The stories about Americans living with HIV aren’t being told or written, the organization said. GLAAD only counted one character on television living with HIV on broadcast, cable, or streaming scripted primetime programming this year. That’s seven less than last year.
The character? Tim Laughlin (played by Jonathan Bailey) on Fellow Travelers.
Author Ted Kerr told the organization that the stories that include HIV doesn’t have to make the virus the plot point. “It doesn’t necessarily need to be the main character. It doesn’t need to be the main plot line. I think it can be a meaningful thread. You get more bang for your buck when you understand that it is part of the fabric of our lives,” Kerr said.
GLAAD notes that there is evidence that visibility in media can make people more comfortable around those living with HIV — up to 15 percent even. GLAAD attributes fewer stories about those with HIV to a decline in people believing that those with HIV can lead long, healthy lives, which people living with HIV can. Today, those on effective treatment, cannot transmit HIV since the medications suppress the virus. This is the center of the U=U campaign, which underscores that when HIV is undetectable, it is also untransmittable.
“Together with game-changing HIV prevention tools like PrEP and advanced HIV treatment options, we must seize the opportunity before us to close the knowledge gap between generations,” Ellis said. “Ending HIV and HIV stigma should be every generation’s lasting achievement, and we have never been closer to that accomplishment.”
Uh oh, Grindr is in trouble again, and this time, it’s through a class action lawsuit with the High Court in London.
The law firm Austen Hays claimed that the app’s “covert tracking technology” deployed and shared personal information, including people’s HIV statuses, with outside parties. They say there are almost 700 claimants, though “thousands” of users in the UK may have been affected.
This isn’t the first time the queer dating app has come under scrutiny for this topic, either. Back in 2018, SINTEF conducted an experiment to analyze the privacy leaks from the app, and Buzzfeed posted a follow-up article that detailed how people’s HIV statuses and other personal information were shared.
At the time, Grindr said it would stop sharing HIV status information with other companies. But the new lawsuit indicates that isn’t wholly true. Following the mishap in 2018, the company was subsequently sued by Norwegian authorities for violating their General Data Protection regulations. It was slapped with a $6 million fine in 2021. Grindr was again reprimanded by the UK’s data watchdog in 2022 over its data protection practices.
Each time, Grindr has appealed the decision.
According to the BBC, Chaya Hanoomanjee, the head lawyer from Austen Hays leading the claim, said the claimants have “experienced significant distress over their highly sensitive and private information being shared without their consent,” and that “Grindr owes it to the LGBTQ+ community it serves to compensate those whose data has been compromised.”
The time in question for the lawsuit focuses on what happened before 2018. However, it alleges some data was also shared between May 2018 and April 2020.
In April 2020, the app changed its consent mechanisms and, according to the Guardian, would “respond vigorously” to the claim, with a spokesperson saying, “We are committed to protecting our users’ data and complying with all applicable data privacy regulations, including in the UK. We are proud of our global privacy program and take privacy extremely seriously. We intend to respond vigorously to this claim, which appears to be based on mischaracterization of practices from more than four years ago, prior to early 2020.”
As of this moment, the two main companies suspected in the leak, Apptimize and Localytics, have yet to respond to the claim. An estimated 13 million users frequent the app, which makes Grindr the most popular LGBTQ+ app in the world.
