Tell me part of your story of living with HIV?
I was a young Professional Bull rider when I met the first guy I had ever been with sexually. We met at a Rodeo in Cheyanne Wyoming and he was a bareback bronc rider. We clicked instantly and we travelled together as a couple and did rodeo all over the US and Canada’s.
After 7 years of being together as a couple, Stewart became ill and many tests were ran and finally a doctor asked if we were together intimately and we said yes. They ran a blood test and sent it away and he tested positive and his T-cells were very low, so he had AIDS. I was tested as well and on Valentine’s Day of 1989 I was diagnosed with HIV. Neither of us had much of a chance to live.
My partner admitted to having sex with others while we were at Rodeos and that is how he got the virus. I had been monogamous and was heartbroken. Stewart died in my arms four month’s later.
I moved to Portland Oregon and was able to get into a study for AZT and got very involved with advocacy efforts for people living with HIV/AIDS. I did hospice care for friends who were dying from AIDS. I was arrested in 1992 for chaining myself naked to the White House fence while protesting in DC for passage of Ryan White Care Act.
I am a certified HIV tester and have ran many Ryan White Planning Councils over the years. I was the Public Policy Director for the largest AIDS Organization in TN and Director of the Tennessee AIDS Advocacy Network. We successfully passed the needle exchange law in TN in 2017.
I have lost over 300 friends and 3 partners to this disease and will never stop fighting. Now that I live in Indiana I have recent joined the movement to modernize the HIV Criminalization laws.
What would ending the HIV Epidemic mean to you?
It would mean the world to me. I was at the World AIDS Conference in DC in 2012 and the AIDS Memorial Quit no longer fit on the Washington Monument Mall. It was displayed all over DC. The thought of not having to add more pieces to that quilt brings tears to my eyes.
What does U=U mean to you? How does it affect your life?
It means that with me having an undetectable viral load and maintaining those undetectable levels I can not transmit the virus to anyone.
U=U has brought us living with HIV the ability to get our dignity back as we are no longer considered monsters with a death sentence virus. We can now talk about it more openly and how we can’t transmit the virus being undetectable.
How long have you been undetectable?
35 years
Anything else I should know about you?
I still work full time but I no longer work in the HIV field as the many years I did wore me down and HIV meds have damaged my kidneys and I am now a type one diabetic as HIV destroyed my pancreas.
