Personal Stories

After being diagnosed with HIV in April 2018, Toraje Heyward realized that there was much work to do.

"It can't all be bad, right?" Charles Sanchez writes. "There are things in the coming year to look forward to, I know it, things that give hope."

Growing up in his father's church, Joshua Stovall had a religious upbringing. But it wasn't until he became HIV-positive that he discovered the real meaning of faith.

The passionate and prolific director talks about what it took to get this new version of the play mounted.

"Many of us who are younger don't know what those days were like," Giuliani Alvarenga writes. "But World AIDS Day should be a time when we remember those we have lost to the virus."

"I hate this!" Charles Sanchez pouted, as he sat helplessly on the floor of his hospital room. "I feel so pathetic. Christ!" The nurse, Anthony, cooed comfortingly: "I know, honey. Just let it out, darlin'."

Usually not just one issue, but a combination of challenges, leads to gaps in care -- and a detectable viral load.

Bryan Guyll, the author of The Surreal Life of the Eccentric Uncle, talks about his experience as a first-time author, as a long-term HIV survivor, and how he maintains his positive outlook on life.

Robert Gamboa -- an official for the City of West Hollywood who is living with HIV and in recovery from substance use -- chronicles the remarkable compassion displayed by his mother throughout 35 years dealing with HIV as a social worker and a parent...

George Sonsel, founding member and first executive director of Desert AIDS Project, looks back at the time people came together to help members of their community die with dignity through compassionate hospice care.