As I do everyday, I went to the gym to workout with some of my favorite people. In the end, we had an activity where we put on a mask, shared with the group what kind of mask we sometimes wear. I shared that I used to be ashamed of my HIV diagnosis. I shared that I used to conform to what everyone’s image of me was. Then we had to remove the mask and reveal our “true identity”—the person that we are without our mask on. I shared that today, I am a woman who is proudly LIVING with HIV, who is married to a man who is HIV negative and we have 11 HIV negative children! It is IMPOSSIBLE to hide behind a mask anymore and I refuse to even try!
