Transcript of
HIV: Clint's story
I'm 28 years old.
I've been HIV positive since the age of 17.
My story of how I contracted HIV was really unusual and different.
I progressed to AIDS within three to six months,
had PCP, had pneumonia, had all these opportunistic infections,
so my body really...
Well, I saw the full brunt of what this virus could do to you.
You sure as hell know when you get that.
Those words, "You're HIV positive,"
there's nothing manageable about hearing that.
I do remember when I was asked questions about my history and past,
it was something that...
I didn't feel confident enough or old enough
to be able to talk openly and freely with my mum also present
when I was talking to this health professional because I was only 17.
I hadn't come out to my family as being gay,
so that made it even harder.
First my parents knew I was positive,
then "How can I tell them I'm gay as well?"
It's a double knock.
I found it really difficult to get my head round that.
I didn't tell them I was gay for a long time.
It's the worst kind of news you could be given at a young age.
I'd only been in two relationships at the time,
so I didn't have much experience
even in self-disclosing or how to tell partners,
so I kept, very early, much to myself.
I didn't want to try and date or go out.
I didn't have normal teenage years, I guess.
At the time I was really struggling with HIV,
what that actually meant, how I would deal with that.
Also making decisions and choices,
whether I was going to go to uni, what work I was going to do.
Coming to terms with being gay
and coming out to family and friends, how I was going to do that.
I found the HIV,
that wasn't a choice that I made in telling my parents,
they were just there supporting me.
I was that sick in hospital,
it was obvious that something severely bad was wrong with me.
I was extremely lucky.
I've been very healthy, I'm alive 11 years on.
That was a discussion that...
Doctors said if I didn't start treatments 11 years ago
I wouldn't be alive ten years later,
so they are working.
I'm normal, I'm healthy, I'm getting on with my life, I'm like everybody else.
And it can happen to anyone. It's not just a gay disease.
