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“Pose” star Billy Porter revealed Tuesday that he has been HIV-positive for 14 years, saying he’s finally ready to talk about it and is feeling fine.
“This is what HIV-positive looks like now,” he told the Hollywood Reporter in a first-person piece. “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.”
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Porter called 2007, the year he was diagnosed, the worst year of his life. In addition to his HIV status, he was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes that year, and he signed bankruptcy papers.
‘Pose’ star Billy Porter reveals he has been HIV positive for 14 years
Updated May 19, 1:36 PM;
Posted May 19, 1:36 PM
POSE On The Run Season 3, Episode 1 (Airs May 2) Pictured: Billy Porter as Pray Tell. CR: Eric Liebowitz/FX
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Billy Porter has broken his silence over his HIV diagnosis, saying he told nearly no one for 14 years out of shame and fear of retaliation and marginalization in his industry.
“The truth is the healing. And I hope this frees me. I hope this frees me so that I can experience real, unadulterated joy, so that I can experience peace, so that I can experience intimacy, so that I can have sex without shame. This is for me,” the award-winning “Pose” star told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview published Wednesday.