Inspired by gay men Greg Louganis and Anderson Cooper, gay Olympic trampolinist Ji Wallace of Australia has announced he is HIV positive.
“I have been contemplating writing this for a while,” Wallace said in a letter to the Star Observer in Sydney.
Wallace won a silver medal during the 2000 games in Sydney.
Click here to read the complete article.
Update: Some readers have misunderstood Wallace's comment, that he is inspired by Cooper's recent coming-out as a gay man. Wallace did not say or imply that Cooper is HIV positive.
I don't believe you should be insinuating Anderson Cooper is HIV positive. He is not as far as I know.
Posted by: LOrion | August 08, 2012 at 01:02 PM
anderson cooper isn't positive
Posted by: Jim | August 08, 2012 at 01:37 PM
LOrion, I have updated the posting to spell out that Wallace is inspired by Cooper's recent coming out as a gay man.
But you should read my article yesterday about people still fighting the stigma of HIV and AIDS:
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/gaysouthflorida/2012/08/south-florida-treatment-and-training-network-targets-blacks-for-hiv-aids-prevention.html
Posted by: Steve Rothaus | August 08, 2012 at 02:04 PM
Oh no. Good luck getting visas... and forget about moving to another country now. The worst case scenario is to have an ex partner accusing you of hiv exposure in order to get money out of you... If gay people are protected by law, hiv+ folks are not. HIV discrimination is still institutionalized and hiv+ people are easily criminalized by exposure and transmission statutes in most states in America. Times changed, not the best of times to come out about this today.
Posted by: Balaklava | August 09, 2012 at 12:38 AM