The inspirational journeys of people who are long-term survivors of HIV
Porchia
Porchia
Los Angeles, USA
Porchia, a long-term #HIV survivor in Los Angeles, was born with the virus in 1986 in San Bernardino, California. While initially hesitant to share her status and story, she now proudly speaks up and advocates for others. Photographs and story by Porchia.
My name is Porchia Dees, and I am a Beautiful Black Queen Living with HIV. It has taken a long time for me to come to terms with that double statement, because the concepts of beauty and HIV don’t usually go together.
I remember sitting in a classroom of about 30 kids with the health educator showing us all these disgusting pictures of STIs, and listening to how grossed out everybody was. When she started talking about my experience, I got really quiet. The pictures she showed didn’t look anything like me. Instead, they were pictures of middle-aged white, gay men, or Africans wasting away. They were all pictures of people who were dying—there were no pictures of people who were healthy and living.
It took me time to understand that the insults, judgements and shade that people attempted to throw were actually projections of their own pain and insecurities. They had absolutely nothing to do with me. Disclosure has been one of the scariest, most difficult things to deal with, in my experience. Yes, I have encountered a lot of ignorance and hate.
However, I have also found a lot of people that understand me, and that like me—no, love me, regardless! I mean, can you blame them?
In hindsight, I can’t believe I let STIGMA keep me silent for so long.
By remaining silent, I was unconsciously allowing that stigma to perpetuate. Contrary to what people believe about my experience, it has been a BLESSING in disguise, and I know now that this is a GIFT. I believe God created me specifically for this purpose, to change people's perspective on what it means to live with HIV. To KNOW me is to LOVE me, and the beauty in that lies in the fact that my whole being dispels the STIGMA. I am a Beautiful Black Queen, and my status doesn’t change that. I make HIV look sexy.
Porchia has found a world of supportive and loving people, and she is taking charge of her narrative by sharing her story.
Today, Porchia is an HIV influencer who comes at activism from a very innovative and new-aged approach. She considers herself an ARTIVIST (artist-activist). This passion has all the ingredients of activism, but is charged with the wild creations of art; where edges are pushed, imagination is freed and a new language emerges altogether. She finds liberation in being able to express herself freely through her blogs, in particular on The Well Project’s A Girl Like Me platform.
T a k e a c t i o n
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