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After Coming Out as Poz, Jonathan Van Ness Is Destigmatizing HIV
"I’ve accomplished more than many HIV-negative people will ever have the chance to do."
Queer Eye star Jonathan Van Ness has always been inspiring, but he started a new movement for change by sharing his positive HIV status with the world this past weekend in a candid interview with the New York Times.
"It’s hard for me to be as open as I want to be when there are certain things I haven’t shared publicly," he said. "These are issues that need to be talked about."
And Van Ness is talking about them! The non-binary reality TV star's book, Over the Top: A Raw Journey to Self-Love, came out today and he's teamed up with Planned Parenthood to tell the world his story—and that undetectable means untransmittable.
When he was diagnosed, Van Ness worked in a hair salon. After fainting while taking care of a client, he took an STI test at a nearby Planned Parenthood and found out he was HIV+.
Like many people who don't know any better, Van Ness thought his status was a death sentence.
"I’d been very fearful as a small child," he explained on the Today Show. "I was born in 1987 so growing up in the midst of the HIV/AIDS crisis and having two parents who were the age of seeing people [die]. We lost an entire generation of people."
Then his doctor explained that with modern medicine, he could live a healthy lifestyle. Van Ness’s HIV was undetectable in his blood in just two weeks.
"Once I was undetectable, I was no longer at risk of infecting anyone," he says in the book, according to HIV Plus Magazine. "Once I found out I was positive, I never held back my HIV status from my sexual partners. No matter how clunky and no matter how many dates or sexual encounters it meant I wasn’t having."
"I take a pill every day now, and I see a doctor every three months, but other than that, I’ve done nothing but get cuter, realize my dreams, look better topless than I’ve ever looked before, and my new figure-skating curves? Don’t even get me started. Postdiagnosis, I’ve accomplished more than many HIV-negative people will ever have the chance to do."
Van Ness is destigmatizing living with HIV one day at a time, and we're so proud to see it!
Taylor Henderson is a PRIDE.com contributor. This proud Texas Bama studied Media Production/Studies and Sociology at The University of Texas at Austin, where he developed his passions for pop culture, writing, and videography. He's absolutely obsessed with Beyoncé, mangoes, and cheesy YA novels that allow him to vicariously experience the teen years he spent in the closet. He's also writing one!
Taylor Henderson is a PRIDE.com contributor. This proud Texas Bama studied Media Production/Studies and Sociology at The University of Texas at Austin, where he developed his passions for pop culture, writing, and videography. He's absolutely obsessed with Beyoncé, mangoes, and cheesy YA novels that allow him to vicariously experience the teen years he spent in the closet. He's also writing one!
