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On the FX seriesPose,Billy wearThe stars as prayed, an emissue and a militant who learns throughout the show that he is HIV-positive. Now, in the middle of the third season of the show and after winning aEmmy Price For his performance, the actor revealed that he had a common diagnosis with his character. In a new room forHollywood journalist, Billy Porter shared he learned thathe was HIV-positive In 2007 and has since retained the private information outside anyone "needed to know". To learn why the stage of the scene and the screen kept its status secret (and his mother) for 14 years and why he speaks about it now, read.

Talk toTHR, Porter stated that he was tested for HIV every six months, respecting the common recommendation. The test that produced the positive result took place when he went to the doctor for another reason. Wearing had a painful button on his back.

"One day I was like", I have to take care of that, "he said," so I went to the Callen-Lorde Clinic and the Reception Queen was like an HIV test they only $ 10. I said, "Yeah, yes, it's time." "

"I was the generation that was supposed to know better, and it happened anyway," said timing of his diagnosis. "It was 2007, the worst year of my life. I was on the precipice of darkness for about a decade about, but 2007 was the worst. In February, I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes . Of March, I signed bankruptcy papers. And by June, I was diagnosed with HIV-positive. "

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The aged 51 actor then explained how his financial and career struggles and his education contributed to the stigmatization of his diagnosis of HIV.

"The shame of this period aggravated with the shame already [accumulated] in my life cut me and I lived with this shame in silence for 14 years," said Porte from Pittsburgh. "HIV-positive, from where I come, grow in the Pentecostal Church with a very religious family, is the punishment of God."

While wearing has had films, television and theater credits for its name before 2007, its major departure moment took place in 2013, when it played the role of Lola in the production of Broadway.Kinky bootsAdapted from the film and won a Tony price for that. Five years later came to pray say andPose, which is placed in the ball scene in the 80s and the 90s New York and deals with many LGBTQAIA + problems, including the AIDS epidemic.

"For a long time, everyone who needed to know, knew - except my mother," said wearingTHR. "I was trying to have a life and a career, and I was not sure that I could if the bad people knew. It would be another way for people to discriminate against me in a profession already discriminatory." The actor talked about the discrimination he has already faced a black gay man, as at a New Yorker Festival Interview 2019 (via the deadlineWhen he said an early agreement has not been panicked because the music industry was "extremely violently homophobic".

There was a moment when wearing "makes a pact with [himself]" he would keep his diagnosis a secret of his mother forever.

"My mother had already crossed a lot of persecution of his religious community because of my Querness, that I just did not want that she had to live through their" I told you that "" "he explained . "I did not want to put it through that. I was embarrassed. I was ashamed. I was the statistics that everyone said I would be."

But get married with his partnerAdam SmithIn 2017, prompted to want to give up his secret because "shame is destructive".

Porter said that he and his sister had planned, after being fully vaccinated, go see his mother so he could tell him in person. But the last day of thePoseShoot (this current season is also last season), the actor had the sudden desire to call it.

"So I torn the group and I told him," Bearer's reminder. "She said," Are you wearing about 14 years? Never did that. I am your mother, I love you no matter what. And I know I did not understand how to do that early on, but it's been decades now. '

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"That's what you now look like HIV-positive," continued to wear. "I'm going to die from something else before dying from that. My T cell levels are twice yours because of this medicine. I go to the doctor now - like a black man, aged 51, I go to the doctor every three months. It does not happen in my community. We do not trust doctors. But I'm going to the doctor and I know what's going on in my body. I am the healthiest than I have been in my whole life. It's time to let all come and tell a different story. "

The star says that whenPoseHe is originally coming around, he considered it "an opportunity to work through shame" and "to say everything that [he] meant by a substitute." But after sharing the truth with his mother, he was ready to come out completely from behind prayer.

"So I got up before the [Pose] Cast and Crew and all the people who helped create this space and told them the truth because the truth is the responsible way, "said wearing." The truth is healing. And I hope it frees me. "

The actor understands that if the stigma of HIV and AIDS has been weakened, it still exists. And there will be people trying to reduce it to his status.

"And I'm sure it will follow me," he said. "I'm sure it's going to be the first thing everyone says," HIV-positive blah, Bla, Bla, Bla. "Ok. It does not matter. It's not the only thing I'm. I'm so much more than this diagnosis. And if you do not want to work with me because of my status, you are not worthy of me. "

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