“I met a guy who was on vacation in NYC at the beginning of his trip. He was beautiful, seductive and convincing. He told me he was from TX and that he was returning home in a few days. I was 16 at the time and my lust for him came on quickly and intense,as does most teenage affairs. On the last night of his trip he asked me to return to TX with him. I threw everything up in the air and said yes. As soon as we deplaned and arrived at his home, I experienced the most terrible shift of my life, the rudest awakening ever. I walk into this cruddy crack den he calls a home and find two small beautiful children, ages 2 and 5, and he introduces them to me right away; ‘these are my babies’. I had no idea he had children. Where’s mommy? In prison. The money he was blowing on our extravagant New York adventures was an overdue child support fund that a judge declared the mother pay him. He dropped his bags, went straight into his room and started smoking crystal meth, right in front of his kids. I was in total shock, numb, sensationally surreal. After I learned about my diagnosis and posted about it on Facebook he called me immediately, crying ‘I am sorry I never told you I was positive, I was afraid you wouldn’t like me anymore’. My response: ‘Are you f*cking stupid? Now I REALLY don’t like you’.
When I first found out I was positive I immediately thought that my love life would be over. I was so wrong. The men that I have been meeting now are far more intelligent, open-minded, considerate. I would never want to date someone who is uncomfortable being with someone positive, because that just blatantly shows a serious lack of education, intelligence, adaptability and ignorance.
I suppose that people having access to Truvada helps me in the sense that many who would have never considered being with someone who is positive, now consider it thanks to things like PrEP and PEP. My ex-boyfriend was and still is negative. We had unprotected sex for the length of our relationship and he only got on PrEP a few months into us dating. If you are sexually active, get on PrEP! I wish it existed back then.”
Nicholas, 22, undetectable. Chelsea, NYC. Freshman at the Fashion Institute of Technology