Tree Tells His Story - "HIV has changed my life completely"

[today is Natl Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day]

I was born August 1986 in the crazy streets of Chicago. I spent most of my childhood on the South Side, and when I tell you my life was full of events…. It truly was! 

 
via HIV Stops With Me

"HIV has changed my life completely. Before I was an actor, now I’m a producer. I don’t just “act” like who I want to be….I am who I want to be! I can now experience life as it is. My career has changed a bit. At the time when I found out, I was a fitness trainer. Now I have committed myself to HIV/AIDS care and prevention. This came about when I attended groups and heard all the horror stories of disclosure. I also thought back to my high school’s sex ed class and just remembered hearing about how to get tested and that HIV leads to AIDS. But I remember that picture of that guy with the gonorrhea in his eye, and that picture of the penis with warts the size of Reese cups, and more. So where were the pictures of HIV? I think we need more education on HIV/AIDS worldwide, especially with youth. The only way to do that is to show them a picture. Show people that HIV really does exist, and that’s it’s not just something from T.V. or from the distant past."

Read all of Tree's story.