How has your HIV status affected your family members and friends?

Fortunately, my children are the best support system that I have. The rest of my family ignores the issues and me.

My friends know that I am very out spoken and do not have a problem sharing my views on acceptance from others. You must accept yourself, feel comfortable with YOUR STATUS and walk the walk of confidence. For me GOD is my only true friend, for HE'LL never leave YOU or forsake YOU.

How has your HIV status affected your family members and friends?

I believe my being HIV positive has made most of my family and all of my friends more compassionate and understanding of people with HIV, or any major illness for that matter.

How has your HIV status affected your family members and friends?

My family is a big family. We are very united. We, like other families, face many challenges, like my father’s passing five years ago, and more recently, and the suddenly passing of one of my brothers two years ago.

The crystal meth epidemic has been a major cause of new HIV infections in recent years, and it also continues to wreck havoc on the health of those already positive. With the right support and financial backing (i.e., an organization such as the Elton John AIDS Fund), I would start a national detox treatment and networking agency called Tina Turnaround, a concept that I first conceived some seven years ago. “ Tina” is the main slang for crystal meth among gay men and Tina Turner has long been an icon in the gay community.

It would be a Transitional Housing Program for people living with HIV/AIDS that need a safe place to stay, free of charge, while their housing situation gets resolved. It would be a wonderful place supervised and programmed by qualified staff with help from volunteers. It would be funded by private resources and donations. My program wouldn’t be a shelter. It would be a program that provides a decent, safe and comfortable place to stay while the individual deals with the twists and turns of house/apartment inspections and/or any other specific issues.

Having HIV has resulted in my paying far more co-pays for medical visits, prescriptions and lab work over the years than if I didn't have this condition. The most significant factor was my inability to work overtime or have side jobs due to being exhausted from my full-time job, especially from 1995 to 2000, when I first started taking anti-viral medications to treat my HIV. During those years, I'd go to work, come home, cook dinner, feed my cat and pass out watching TV every night because my energy for the day would be spent by 7 p.m.

In addition to my work with HIV Stops With Us, I also advocate for other women living with HIV/AIDS by participating in groups such as the Positive Women's Network USA. They're a new organization that is organizing to address the specific needs of women living with the virus. They are an amazing group of women, and I am privileged to represent my transgender sisters by sitting at their table and giving voice to my community. I also co-facilitate a group for people living in their 20s who are poz.

I've led the HIV Long-Term Survivor support group at JRI in Boston for four years now. The members of this group support each other in the truest sense of the word. We discuss daily quality of life issues which include disclosure concerns, medication compliance, medication side effects and holistic approaches for reducing them, and strengthening the immune system.

I have been the facilitator of a group for young positive individuals, providing support mentally and socially. Many of our new members have been newly diagnosed when they come to us, and I have to say from my experience the group space has been very helpful with the process of learning to live with HIV.

I speak at forums and get my opinion out there. People need to see and hear from us. I add a face to this issue. I claim it and show that stigma does not serve our purpose or those that live behind it. I also serve on governmental and non-governmental consumer/community advisory boards to bear witness that the current actions in responding to the HIV/AIDS crisis are not working.