Susan, age 54 | New York, USA
I guess I don’t even think about it too much anymore. In the first few years? Like, almost 24/7, it was something that was on my mind: am I gonna be around for my kids? …
North America
Jesse, age 59 | Ellicot City, Maryland, USA
I was aware that I was likely positive. My late partner died of AIDS in 1985, and I am very certain that I had a transmission in about 1982 …
Jesus, age 56 | Mexico & California, USA
I arrived to USA in 1984. I knew what started to be in the news, everything about the gay cancer. Honestly I was not jumping from bed to bed …
Bob, age 69 | Warkworth, Canada
HIV is the kind of thing you can’t really understand until you experience it, because remember, in those days we’re talking about, it was a death sentence. And since then, …
Ron, age 50 | District of Columbia, USA
I was a closeted gay man working in international development. I had been a Peace Corps volunteer and was going to school for public health, …
Ron, age 66 | District of Columbia, USA
I was suicidal when I was thirteen. Because I was gay, or “sissy” as they used to say in those days. I was actually planning how I was gonna …
Olive, age 53 | Saint Catherine, Jamaica
I actually don’t do “My Story.” I don’t do testimonies. People like other people’s business, so it’s not what I do. It’s about the issues. …
Dave, 68 | California, USA
We got kicked out of our church. We got kicked out of our small group. The pastor was in visiting me when the doctor told me, and he told his wife. And so we ended up having to leave …
Deloris, age 54 | New Jersey, “Jamerican” (USA & Jamaica)
I am very fortunate. I’ve been able to educate myself to the graduate level. I hold down a really decent job. I make, in nonprofit, nonprofit-decent money…
Art, age 62 | Lac des Mille Lacs First Nation, Anishnawbe / Toronto, Canada
I’m 62 now, but I came out when I was 26. So it was quite late. And back then, being out was not– it was …
Doris, age 58 & Randy, age 48 | Canada
Doris: I was caught up in my addictions, and I thought the weight loss was connected to my substance use, until I started seeing …
Claire, age 55 | San Francisco, CA, USA
I just remember being very naïve, you know, and people would tell me to do something, and I would do it. I didn’t know any better. The good news is …
Hazel, age 54 | San Francisco, CA, USA
Getting older is like, um… Things are happening with my body that I don’t like. You know, my mind is still 25– my mind wants to be 25, my body is not…
Robert, age 62 | Medicine Hat, Canada
I was born in Louisville, Kentucky. I moved to Montreal, Canada, and lived for some 15 years in Germany, and now I’m living in the west of Canada…
Lorena, age 52 | New York, USA & Mexico
Al principio– sí, mucho rechazo. Primero porque era transex– soy transgénera, mujer transexual. Y luego el VIH, luego no saber el idioma …
Andrea, age “51 and a half” & Edward, age 55 | New York, USA
Edward: She used to follow me around all the time. I was 15, she was 11, so I looked at her like a kid, like my little sister, and she became my best …
Charlene, age 54 | Texas, USA
I always knew that there would be a possibility. I had some friends that passed away. I was a intravenous drug user. My lifestyle prior, from ‘80 to ‘88, wasn’t the nicest thing. But I …
Ron, age 59 & Milagros, age 47 | Tennessee, USA
Ron: I found out my status when I was incarcerated, as a result of seeing a dentist. The dental hygienist dropped one of the tools and it pricked her …
Flor, age 60 | Mexico City, Mexico
Me quité eso de que: “Porque Dios me castigó? Porque…?” De estar me martirizando, porque pensaba yo que Dios me había mandado ese castigo …
Bryan, age 52 | Ohio, USA
I’ve had cancer three times, I had stage four cancer. I’ve been through a lot. Every day is a bad day for me at some point or another. I got …
Bob, age 59 and Ann, age “over 50” | Arkansas, USA
Ann: I kept it a secret for a decade that I was positive. It would have cost me my job in my state – we don’t have job protection. And the only way …
Margot, age 59 | Maryland, USA
Getting old is a bitch. You go to bed feeling one way, and you wake up and it’s something else. Aging with HIV, you’re never really sure what it really is. And as a woman, I don’t know …
Barbara, age 55 | Florida, USA
I thought I might want to have a baby and I was 43, and I knew I would have to get tested before I would do that. I am unmarried and I’ve never been married, so I was sexually active. …
Jack, age 60 | Maryland, USA
I learned how to ride a motorcycle, and to get my motorcycle license I had to bring my motorcycle back into New York, ‘cause the test was easier in New York than it was in Connecticut …
Barb, age 58 | West Virginia, USA
It has totally changed my life. Before, I was a free spirit and, you know, loved to date. I still like men and dating someone, but that’s not such a focus anymore.
Derani, age 50 | New York, USA
My mother was scared of me. I was cooking, and I cut myself – ‘cause I was always the cook in the family. And I rinsed my hand off, and she went to put a band-aid on, and I went like …
Wanda, age 58 | North Carolina, USA
When you’re going through menopause, and you’re a seasoned woman, and you’ve been through three really serious relationships …
C. Bruce, age 63 | Texas, USA
I would like to be able to tell what is AIDS, and what is aging. That would be really wonderful, if you could tell me which one was which. Doctors can’t tell ya. I had what the doctor …
Fredricka, age 50 | California, USA
I sort of don’t have a person that I can say, “Just take care of me.” When I know I don’t feel well I stay home, I do more internal healing. Some days …
Ron, age 66 | Washington, D.C., USA
I became openly positive to many of my friends and my family first, and then as I became more comfortable, I started becoming more open to …
Guy, age 55 | Calgary, Canada
I believe some people are born with their glass half full, and some are born with their glass half empty, and mine is kinda full and brimming – more than full. So I would say that I have kind of…
Pat, age 57 | South Carolina, USA
In 1985, I was incarcerated at the women’s correctional institution in Columbia, South Carolina. And during intake they take your blood and they run these tests, and then usually …
Sharon, age 62 | Ohio, USA
The doctor said, “You’ve tested positive for HIV, it must be wrong. Come in Monday, we’ll retest you.” I think, as a white woman in the suburbs in Cleveland, they didn’t …
Steve, age 58 | Maryland, USA
It’s not so much that I fear that I’ll die with HIV or AIDS, ‘cause I don’t think that’s gonna kill me anymore. But I think that some of the other co-occurring conditions are premature …
Sister Vicious Power Hungry Bitch, age 60 | California, USA
In San Francisco, it was the community that had to come up with creative ways to deal with all of this, and The Sisters of Perpetual …
Scott, age 61 | New York, USA
Back in the ‘80s when I found out I was positive, I was just hoping to get to see my son graduate from high school. Never in my wildest dreams were grandchildren a part of the …
Anna, age 65 | Maryland, USA
Initially, a lot of responses were: are you angry? You know, even my grandson expressed that he was mad. But I wasn’t. I had to accept my own responsibility. Listen, I could have ..
José, age 60 | San Juan, Puerto Rico
I think that we’re not a priority in the health system. They are thinking more in the young person. We are fighting for medicines, for treatment, we …
Gregg, age 52 & Ruth, age 54 | Virginia, USA
Ruth: Through my sobriety process I started feeling better about myself, started looking better, and I was like, okay, now let me address my HIV …
Liz, age 57 | West Coast First Nations, Canada
I’ve been doing a lot of healing through my culture and traditions…It actually came by accident, when I started attending the Canadian …
Emmanuel, age 61 | Washington, D.C., USA
When I first discovered I was HIV, I started to reflect on my “formative years” as I call them, and they were so fantastic that I said, “You know …