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Have you ever been surprised by the love or support you received from someone after disclosing your HIV positive status?

6 | July | 2011
Shawn

I went public with my status on the Internet in 1996 at age 20. I was fully prepared to face the same fears that I encountered when I was diagnosed nearly ten years before, particularly with the anonymity that cyberspace provides. But on the contrary, I found a kind response, and that really helped in wanting to continue to educate by sharing my experiences as someone living with HIV. Before "going public", I never really disclosed my status. After high school, though, when I was hanging out with my brother- then a college student- and his friends, I did disclose to one of his hot friends in a private moment. To make a long story short, she let me feel her up. That really surprised me. Looking back, it really was a turning point in that it made me realize that often I was the one who was making a big deal about my status by thinking that I had to keep that information to myself.

Comments

Submitted by Dora (not verified) on September | 19 | 2011.

You really found a way to make this whole process easier.

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Infected with HIV as a child through the contaminated blood products used to treat his hemophilia, Shawn learned early in life about discrimination. Within a month of testing positive for the virus, he was kicked out of the 6th grade. By all accounts, he wasn’t expected to live five years. During his freshman year of high school, he met his favorite band, Depeche Mode, through The Make-A-Wish Foundation, and lived to see graduation. At age 20, he opened up about his life with HIV after a decade of silence, creating one of the first "poz blogs" in 1996. After humorously describing his life, he caught the attention of Poz magazine and began writing a column entitled "Positoid", a word he created as a way to describe himself as someone living with HIV.

In 2006, his memoir, My Pet Virus: The True Story of a Rebel Without a Cure, was published by the Penguin Group. Today, Shawn is happily married to his wife partner, Gwenn Barringer, and the two speak together as a couple, educating about how they keep her HIV-free in their safe and healthy relationship. (Hint: condoms.)

In his spare time, Shawn drinks iced mochas and fronts a synthpop duo, Synthetic Division. In 2010, he released a CD to commemorate the twenty-year anniversary of his dying wish to meet Depeche Mode. He lives with Gwenn in Charlottesville, Virginia.