Pose star Billy Porter says he a “free man” after recently revealing his HIV status to the world.
“I’ve been positive since 2007. And, you know, having lived through the AIDS crisis, it was heavy for me. It was a heavy year, 2007,” he told Jimmy Fallon.
J. AUGUST RICHARDS COMES OUT
“I lived with the shame of it for a really long time and last week I released that shame, I released that trauma and I am a free man, honey! Free!” he continued. “I’ve never felt joy like this before.”
“And, you know, we talk about it in the Black church. You know, this joy that I have — the world didn’t give and the world can’t take it away,” he added. “I got it. I got some joy now. It really feels good, it really feels great.”
Porter revealed HIV diagnosis in an essay for THR earlier this month.
“I was the generation that was supposed to know better, and it happened anyway,” he wrote. “I was on the precipice of obscurity for about a decade or so, but 2007 was the worst of it. By February, I had been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. By March, I signed bankruptcy papers. And by June, I was diagnosed HIV-positive.”
