The 32-year-old cast member of the online streaming platform of Netflix's Queer Eye, Jonathan Van Ness, shared that he is HIV positive in an interview on September 21. He further added that he hoped to clear any misconceptions about being HIV positive and was happy about being a part of a wonderful HIV positive community. 

A childhood filled with pain

In his interview, he revealed that he was sexually assaulted as a child and in addition to that he stated that a lot of people who have gone through the cases of sexual assault have a lot of aggravated trauma. Through treatment, Van Ness later understood that sexual abuse pushed him to destructive practices. He shared that initially, he engaged in sexual relations with men he met on the web, and when he was in his first year of school he promoted sex for cash on Gay.com to compensate for spending through cash from his mom on cocaine. Van Ness later dropped out of school, went to an 11-month beautification program and started working at hair parlors. Regardless he battled with chronic drug use in his mid-20s and went to recovery twice for smoking methamphetamine. He said he relapsed multiple times. However, he has not done hard drugs in years.

Van Ness revealed that when he was 25, he went to Planned Parenthood in after encountering flu-like side effects, and tested positive for H.I.V. 

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'A Raw Journey to Self-Love'

He wrote in his memoir, Over the Top: A Raw Journey to Self-Love, that particular day was similarly as devastating as one would suspect it would be. He further added that when Queer Eye released, it was a difficult time for him because he was not clear about what he wanted to do about his status. He further added that it was time to come out and talk about is as the Trump-led government had done everything possible to restrict the freedom of the LGBT community around him. 

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A lot of people came out in support of Jonathan and congratulated him for coming out and sharing his story. 

Padma Lakshmi thanked the Queer Eye star

The National Aids Trust also spoke in favor of the Netflix star.

 

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