As long as we have known about HIV/AIDS, people needed to handle the crushing and brutal reality of coming out as living with HIV. Disclosing your HIV status to your family and friends can be quite difficult, and when you’re in the public spotlight, coming out as living with HIV adds yet another layer of decision if you want the whole world to know about it or not.
In fact, many celebrities have decided to share that part of themselves with the public. More often than not, that choice can also help us all: by coming out, they can humanize the virus for all the people out there who wouldn’t otherwise be aware of how many people live with HIV. This is meant to help increase awareness and fight stigma.
Billy Porter
Billy Porter’s Emmy award-winning performance as Pray Tell in the groundbreaking television series Pose might have made him a household name, but Porter has been, nonetheless, a star his entire career.
That’s what makes his May 2021 disclosure in the Hollywood Reporter that he has been struggling with HIV since 2007. Instead of simply resting on his laurels, Porter decided to use the interview to let the world know. He stated, “I am way more than this diagnosis. And if you don’t want to work with me because of my status, you’re not worthy of me.”
Jonathan Van Ness
Jonathan Van Ness is the famous star of Netflix’s Queer Eye reboot. Since the new Fab Five gained quite a lot of prominence and a place in pop culture, Van Ness decided to come out about having HIV in a 2019 profile in “The New York Times,” before the release of his memoir, “Over the Top.”
In the profile, Van Ness went on to discuss his own past experience of sexual assault, as well as his drug addiction and compounding traumas. “When Queer Eye came out, it was indeed difficult because I was, ‘Do I want to talk about my status?'” as he declared.
“The Trump Administration has done everything it could to increase the stigmatization of the LGBT community around me.” But then he added that it is, nevertheless, important to talk about this.
Charlie Sheen
Charlie Sheen is well-known for his off-screen antics as much as he is for his on-screen comedy chops. When he came out as living with HIV back in November 2015, he was four years out from leaving “Two and a Half Men,” where he was replaced by Ashton Kutcher.
Sheen is also well-known as the youngest member of the Sheen acting family, which also includes Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez. He was also known as something of a Hollywood “bad boy,” openly discussing drug use and sex addiction.
Compared to others, Sheen was forced to come out while the National Enquirer was crafting a story that would have outed his HIV status, proving that HIV stigma can still negatively affect people with HIV up to this day.
Magic Johnson
It would be quite difficult to talk about celebrities living with HIV and not mention Magic Johnson. When one of basketball’s greatest players came out as having HIV in 1991, it was quite a shock in the world of HIV awareness.
He was one of the strongest, most potent athletes, and he decided to come out before HIV medications were effective, and when the most common depiction of someone with HIV was a person dying from HIV.
Ever since his diagnosis, he has kept on thriving, which has changed the perspective of many people. Through his appearances, he kept on educating people and reminding them that he is not, in fact, cured, just on effective medication.
Rock Hudson
Rock Hudson must have been the epitome of the 1950s straight macho male in many movies. His AIDS diagnosis and AIDS-related death back in 1985 were a shock to many. Before coming out, his publicity team declared he had liver cancer.
Hudson came forward in July 1985 and was, at the time, the first major celebrity publicly admitting he was living with AIDS. Hudson died a couple of months later, back in October 1985, at 59 years old.
For many, seeing Hudson gaunt was definitely a far cry from the buff matinee idol he had been only a decade prior. In the wake of his death, his Giant co-star Elizabeth Taylor became yet another well-known AIDS activist, leading the fight within Hollywood to raise money for research.
Mykki Blanco
Back in June 2015, then 29-year-old genderqueer rapper Mykki Blanco publicly said on their Facebook page that they had been living with HIV since 2011. He decided to fight against stigma and hide in the dark.
Since he came out, Blanco called out some well-known national AIDS organizations for typecasting stars who are living with HIV. In February 2018, Blanco tweeted: “It would be amazing if you would book me to perform at your shows like you do with many HIV-negative pop stars instead of perpetually using me as a token.”
Freddie Mercury
Freddie Mercury was a famous bisexual sex icon and the frontman of Queen, which is up to this day one of the best-selling rock bands of all time and the masters behind iconic stadium rock songs such as “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “We Will Rock You.”
Mercury tested positive back in 1987, and ultimately died of AIDS-related pneumonia four years later, only one day after he shared his HIV-positive status with the world. If you have watched the film Bohemian Rhapsody, then you must know that the movie didn’t correctly tackle all the facts regarding his diagnosis.
That was, in fact, one of the many controversies surrounding the film: it fudged the timeline to make him seem apologetic for his health condition, and being quite reckless.
Gia Carangi
Gia Carangi was one of the first supermodels, but her career was unfortunately cut short when she died in 1986 after struggling with heroin addiction. Carangi was also known for paving the way for some of the biggest names in fashion modeling, including Naomi Campbell and Cindy Crawford. Despite her huge fame, her funeral service took place in a small and modest venue and wasn’t widely publicized. Angelina Jolie ultimately portrayed Carangi in the HBO biopic Gia.
Keith Haring
Even if you might not know what Keith Haring looks or who he was, there’s still a great chance to see his art. The HIV-positive artist, who tragically died in 1990 after being diagnosed with AIDS in 1988, is behind some of the most well-known symbols in commercial art. His graffiti dancing figures have also been featured on absolutely everything, from Adidas apparel to clothes at Uniqlo.
Eazy-E
Rap legend and co-founder of N.W.A., along with Dr. Dre and Ice Cube, Eazy-E came out in 1995 as having been diagnosed with AIDS. The N.W.A. album Straight Outta Compton went double platinum in 1988 as the most influential albums in rap history.
Eazy-E died only a couple of months after his AIDS diagnosis, at 31 years old. His diagnosis and death were widely depicted in the Academy Award-nominated film Straight Outta Compton, released in 2015. In the movie, Eazy-E was played by Jason Mitchell.
The film shows the three members of N.W.A. planning to reunite at the time of his death. There were longstanding rumors, in fact, that Eazy-E was deliberately infected with HIV with an acupuncture needle, which is also part of a longstanding and harmful myth that HIV is always weaponized. These rumors are, however, completely untrue.
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