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Queer Eye's Jonathan Van Ness reveals he is HIV positive

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Jonathan Van Ness, the 32-year-old star of Netflix’s Queer Eye, shared that he is H.I.V. positive in a powerful interview with the New York Times on Saturday. He said that he hopes he can bring attention to misperceptions about being H.I.V. positive, saying that he is healthy and a proud “member of the beautiful H.I.V.-positive community.” Van Ness revealed to the Times’ Alex Hawgood that he was sexually assaulted when he was a child, and explained that “[f]or a lot of people who are survivors of sexual assault at a young age, we have a lot of compounded trauma.” Through therapy, Van Ness later processed that the abuse pushed him to self-destructive behaviors.

He shared that in his early teens he had sex with older men he met online, and when he was in his first year of college he advertised sex for money on Gay.com, a chat and personals site, to make up for spending money from his mother on cocaine Van Ness later dropped out of college, attended an 11-month beautification program, and began working at hair salons. But he still struggled with drug addiction in his early 20s, and went to rehab twice for smoking methamphetamine. He said he relapsed both times, but has not done hard drugs in years. 

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3 hours ago, ajp said:

Being HIV+ is not a death sentence but I do hope he didn’t infect others because of poor judgement. brit12

 

1 hour ago, Miss Show Business said:

Can't say I'm surprised carla1

 

1 hour ago, ShutUpRae said:

A sad story but people need to be responsible with their bodies

Is that what you're all getting from this rip4   He got the disease several years ago when he was 25 and still learning how to be gay. More so he was dealing with abuse and and eventually drug addiction which is common with gay men who aren't nurtured by their families in the right way. I'm sure he didn't mean to catch it. Let's not HIV shame and say he is irresponsible. Yes he was a prostitute, but people who sleep with prostitutes know the risk on their part. and for his other sexual partners, unfortunately that's the nature of sex. He should've got regularly tested but testing is still hard for many - either there is no clinic near them or inconvenient hours or booked for weeks.

 

There are many ways to catch HIV while being responsible. I myself just had a HIV scare because the condom broke and I immediately took it out and contemplated getting PEP - I did but it ended costing $350 with insurance. Not everyone has access to just drop money like that and prep without insurance is also not available to low income communities.

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From the image he portrays on the show and on Instagram I never would have known he's been through so much. It just goes to show that you never know what someone is really dealing with. Hopefully JVN speaking about being HIV positive will normalize and destigmatize it to his following.

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27 minutes ago, CHANEL #1 said:

Some of the replies in this thread are absolutely disgusting awk1 

Maybe an unpopular opinion but idc.

JVN is the most jarring of the "Fab" Five and his personality is quite unlikeable, from my personal perspective. If someone asked me who I thought would have HIV out of the five of them, I would have said JVN... Just, something about it doesn't surprise me at all. He seems very much like the type of guy who would be sleeping around and doing drugs... Like the kind of gay everybody here was trashing in that thread about gays and Crystal meth and I oop—

 

On a serious note, I do find it sad he has to live with that now, and didn't turn his life around sooner. Although it isn't a death sentance anymore and many HIV+ people live normal lives, If I were in that spot, it would only remind me of that time in my life, which is sad.

 

Anyway, Tan and Antoni outsold.

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25 minutes ago, Miss Show Business said:

Maybe an unpopular opinion but idc.

JVN is the most jarring of the "Fab" Five and his personality is quite unlikeable, from my personal perspective. If someone asked me who I thought would have HIV out of the five of them, I would have said JVN... Just, something about it doesn't surprise me at all. He seems very much like the type of guy who would be sleeping around and doing drugs... Like the kind of gay everybody here was trashing in that thread about gays and Crystal meth and I oop—

 

On a serious note, I do find it sad he has to live with that now, and didn't turn his life around sooner. Although it isn't a death sentance anymore and many HIV+ people live normal lives, If I were in that spot, it would only remind me of that time in my life, which is sad.

 

Anyway, Tan and Antoni outsold.

You really saw that other people thought your initial comment was disgusting, then proceeded to embarrass yourself more...

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1 hour ago, Miss Show Business said:

Maybe an unpopular opinion but idc.

JVN is the most jarring of the "Fab" Five and his personality is quite unlikeable, from my personal perspective. If someone asked me who I thought would have HIV out of the five of them, I would have said JVN... Just, something about it doesn't surprise me at all. He seems very much like the type of guy who would be sleeping around and doing drugs... Like the kind of gay everybody here was trashing in that thread about gays and Crystal meth and I oop—

 

On a serious note, I do find it sad he has to live with that now, and didn't turn his life around sooner. Although it isn't a death sentance anymore and many HIV+ people live normal lives, If I were in that spot, it would only remind me of that time in my life, which is sad.

 

Anyway, Tan and Antoni outsold.

I understand what you're saying, but there are things you keep to yourself. HIV is a touchy subject. There's a huge stigma around it, not only from straight people, but gay people themselves, and I can only imagine how much harder it is a femme man. It's very hard to come out as HIV positive and no matter how anyone got it, you should be positive. If JVN was your friend, even if you knew his sexual behavior, i'm sure you wouldn't be saying "I'm not surprised."

and most of these crystal meths users fucking raw are on PrEP. All these porn stars are on it. So be careful of making those assumptions about people who are sexually active. Sleeping with multiple people doesn't necessarily mean you're throwing all caution to the wind. As for other STD's, I can't speak on them but atleast they're curable...for now.

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32 minutes ago, Infrared said:

I understand what you're saying, but there are things you keep to yourself. HIV is a touchy subject. There's a huge stigma around it, not only from straight people, but gay people themselves, and I can only imagine how much harder it is a femme man. It's very hard to come out as HIV positive and no matter how anyone got it, you should be positive. If JVN was your friend, even if you knew his sexual behavior, i'm sure you wouldn't be saying "I'm not surprised."

and most of these crystal meths users fucking raw are on PrEP. All these porn stars are on it. So be careful of making those assumptions about people who are sexually active. Sleeping with multiple people doesn't necessarily mean you're throwing all caution to the wind. As for other STD's, I can't speak on them but atleast they're curable...for now.

herpes is for life sis burn1

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44 minutes ago, Infrared said:

I understand what you're saying, but there are things you keep to yourself. HIV is a touchy subject. There's a huge stigma around it, not only from straight people, but gay people themselves, and I can only imagine how much harder it is a femme man. It's very hard to come out as HIV positive and no matter how anyone got it, you should be positive. If JVN was your friend, even if you knew his sexual behavior, i'm sure you wouldn't be saying "I'm not surprised."

and most of these crystal meths users fucking raw are on PrEP. All these porn stars are on it. So be careful of making those assumptions about people who are sexually active. Sleeping with multiple people doesn't necessarily mean you're throwing all caution to the wind. As for other STD's, I can't speak on them but atleast they're curable...for now.

My assumptions are based mainly on the fact that I do not like JVN, so, I'm obviously biased. Let me start there. oprah14

I'm not trying to be mean about it, honestly. I know how stigmatized drug addiction and HIV+ people are, and I agree it is a problem. I also think, however, to a certain extent, there has to be some responsibility claimed. From my point of view, based on my personal experience, you have to be engaging yourself in many unsafe sex practices to get HIV, and typically people who do don't have any self respect. I know this because I lived it, too. If I had caught HIV, I'd have no one to blame but myself for getting involved with the wrong people, and for not being careful with my choice of sexual partners. Especially in the 21st century, we KNOW what HIV is and we know there are effective ways of preventing it, including condoms, and now we have PrEP which is pretty outstanding, and in general, just knowing your partners sexual history. The same thing when it comes to drugs. Clearly, chemical dependency is a real issue and not a choice. However, in alot of cases (not all) people have made choices in their lives that led them down the wrong path. They didn't choose to have a chemical dependency, just like a promiscuous person didn't choose to get HIV or any other STD, but the choices we make do matter. That's why making informed choices is so important.

In my personal experience, I have known ALOT of promiscuous/drug addicted people who have the very same personality traits in JVN that I highly dislike. I am even thinking of somebody right now I know who is a drug addicted mess and an extremely unlikeable person. It's not a crime, and no, I'm not "disgusting", for my not wanting to be associated with people like this. I don't think drug addiction and risky promiscuity are positive traits. That doesn't mean I don't think promiscuous people who have contracted HIV or STDs or that people with chemical dependencies don't deserve treatment or don't deserve to be treated equally.

And also let me clarify I know you don't have to be promiscuous to have HIV+ or STDs. I'm being specific to this case, where the person was sexually promiscuous.

Anyway, thanks for not just calling me "disgusting" and actually elaborating your beliefs. It's alot more effective to actually try and have conversations with people you may have differences of opinion with then to just dismiss them completely with foul name-calling.

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1 hour ago, Miss Show Business said:

My assumptions are based mainly on the fact that I do not like JVN, so, I'm obviously biased. Let me start there. oprah14

I'm not trying to be mean about it, honestly. I know how stigmatized drug addiction and HIV+ people are, and I agree it is a problem. I also think, however, to a certain extent, there has to be some responsibility claimed. From my point of view, based on my personal experience, you have to be engaging yourself in many unsafe sex practices to get HIV, and typically people who do don't have any self respect. I know this because I lived it, too. If I had caught HIV, I'd have no one to blame but myself for getting involved with the wrong people, and for not being careful with my choice of sexual partners. Especially in the 21st century, we KNOW what HIV is and we know there are effective ways of preventing it, including condoms, and now we have PrEP which is pretty outstanding, and in general, just knowing your partners sexual history. The same thing when it comes to drugs. Clearly, chemical dependency is a real issue and not a choice. However, in alot of cases (not all) people have made choices in their lives that led them down the wrong path. They didn't choose to have a chemical dependency, just like a promiscuous person didn't choose to get HIV or any other STD, but the choices we make do matter. That's why making informed choices is so important.

In my personal experience, I have known ALOT of promiscuous/drug addicted people who have the very same personality traits in JVN that I highly dislike. I am even thinking of somebody right now I know who is a drug addicted mess and an extremely unlikeable person. It's not a crime, and no, I'm not "disgusting", for my not wanting to be associated with people like this. I don't think drug addiction and risky promiscuity are positive traits. That doesn't mean I don't think promiscuous people who have contracted HIV or STDs or that people with chemical dependencies don't deserve treatment or don't deserve to be treated equally.

And also let me clarify I know you don't have to be promiscuous to have HIV+ or STDs. I'm being specific to this case, where the person was sexually promiscuous.

Anyway, thanks for not just calling me "disgusting" and actually elaborating your beliefs. It's alot more effective to actually try and have conversations with people you may have differences of opinion with then to just dismiss them completely with foul name-calling.

But saying that promiscuous people are bad people is only furthering the stigma. Especially when you say that out werent surprised solely based on his public character. 

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9 hours ago, Gilly said:

herpes is for life sis burn1

Yes, but most of the world has HSV-1 which can cause genital warts (which is typically what people associate with HSV-2). and HSV infection mostly occurs through outbreaks so it's not as easily spread. HIV infection is actually not as frequent as one would expect. The person infecting you has to have a high viral load. The variables have to be in place. That's why everytime you have unprotected sex there is a chance you may not get anything, but there is still a possibility. In general stds should be avoided...I know people take antibiotics but they're becoming harder to battle.

 

Image result for std chance of infection

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