Hernando Umana enfrenta el estigma del VIH

En un esfuerzo por trabajar en contra del estigma relacionado con ser VIH positivo, el actor de Broadway Hernando Umana, ha expresado su sentir respecto al VIH en un post sincero y conmovedor de Instagram.

El actor de 30 años comienza tomando un aliento literario y presenta los posts diciendo: «Este es, de lejos, el más importante, aterrador y liberador momento de mi vida». Umana comparte que le sorprendió su diagnóstico de VIH hace diez años porque «solo se acostó con 3 personas» en su vida.

Admite que el primer pensamiento que se le ocurrió fue: «¿Cuánto tiempo tengo para vivir?» Inmediatamente transforma ese pensamiento y lo llama «inculto», pero reconoce que muchos homosexuales habían sido adoctrinados en la escuela de pensamiento que en este de día y de edad, si contrae el VIH, es «debido a malas acciones y merece la pena morir».

«No hay NADA equivocado conmigo y estoy más saludable que nunca», aseguró el actor. Un punto de la publicación de Umana es alentar a las personas a hablar sobre el VIH y hacer preguntas. Hernando quiere que la gente sepa que no debería haber vergüenza al hacer preguntas y aprender a hablar sobre el estado de VIH.

::takes deep breath:: This is by far the most important, scary, liberating post of my life. Here we go- 10 years ago, at a young young age of 20, I was diagnosed with HIV. I’ll never forget the moment they told me. It wasn’t possible- I had only slept with 3 people in my life! This can’t be true. The first words out of my mouth were “how long do I have to live?” That’s how uneducated I was about it. It had been drilled in my head that gay people get HIV because of wrong doings and they deservingly die from it. Well I’m here to shut that shit down. There is NOTHING wrong with me and I am healthier than I’ve ever been. In the last 10 years I’ve met countless of HIV positive men. Some of these men are so affected by the stigma that they don’t tell a soul about their status, even go as far as not taking their medication. In our extremely privileged community the stigma is more dangerous than the disease. We still have a lot of fighting to do for the people who don’t have the privilege of cost affective medication. So I stand on the shoulders of people like @staleypr who risked his life for us. I stand on the shoulders of the millions of people who had to suffer and die from this disease. I stand on the shoulders of the gay men who were forced out of the closet in such a scary time. These men and woman fought and died to get to where we’re at now- To take a pill at night and never have to worry about dying. To get the disease to a point where it is IMPOSSIBLE to transmit (undetectable).How can I be ashamed of this? I honor their legacy by telling my story. So let’s talk about it. Let’s ask questions. Take your prep. Use condoms. Be SAFE. Let’s end this stigma forever and eventually end HIV forever! To those who have questions- don’t feel dumb asking anything about it. It’s not your fault there’s such a lack of education out there. To those who are afraid to talk about their status- you’ve got at least one guy right here 🙂 you are LOVED. You are BEAUTIFUL and there is nothing wrong with you. I, Hernando Umana, am a proud gay man LIVING with HIV. Fuck that feels good to say. #actup #fightthestigma #endthestigma #hiv #broadway #bcefa #mytruth

Una publicación compartida de hernandoumana (@hernandoumana) el 20 Ago, 2018 a las 9:37 PDT