00:00The ignorance that people have about HIV and like the progression of drugs and treatment and how we handle HIV these days is like astounding, even within the adult industry.
00:10Well, a fun fact that a lot of people don't know is that I was one of the first people to actually take PrEP before it was PrEP.
00:18Oh, interesting.
00:19So back then, which was like 10 years ago, there was three pills.
00:23There was a blue, a white, and a red pill that they would take.
00:26Um, and, uh, when I found out the situation that I found out, I was going to marry this person.
00:34So I was like, well, I'm already balls to the wall.
00:36So, you know, um, but we obviously took precautionary measures.
00:41Um, so we were like, well, what can we do?
00:45And one of the doctors was like, you can take one pill and it's kind of like a PrEP.
00:51It's, it's not FDA approved yet as a preventative, a preventative, you know.
00:58Can you explain to people who may not, because some people may not know what PrEP is.
01:01Okay.
01:02So PrEP is basically, and now it may be different than when I started taking it, but PrEP is a pill that you take that helps prevent, um, contracting HIV, um, the virus.
01:16Should you be exposed to, um, the virus, um, because how it works, and I don't know a lot about HIV and, and the medications that are out there now, but back then, and I'm sure that's how it is now, you have to take your dose every day.
01:35You have to be religious about your medication because if you're not, then your viral load will raise.
01:42And if your viral load is raised, that is when you are more contagious.
01:49Whereas if you're low, if your levels are, say, zero, the chances of you contracting HIV are very, very, very, very, very, very low.
01:58So, almost impossible, um, which is why people like Magic Johnson would be able to test and they would be like, oh, Magic Johnson doesn't have it anymore.
02:08No, he still has.
02:09I mean, I don't know.
02:10Now he probably doesn't.
02:12Now they probably have medication out there, but I haven't, I used to be such a huge advocate and be so involved with it because I experienced it.
02:23Um, but now I'm not so much educated, but just based off of what my previous education from it was, that's what PrEP is.
02:31And now I, it's under, I'm under the impression that performers actively take PrEP.
02:37It's very popular in the gay performer pool.
02:40And then some female performers take it now too.
02:42Yeah, if you're having, um, unprotected, wild, you know, um, interactions with people that you may not know or they may not know, because a lot of the times it's not like someone's going out there being an asshole and just, you know, it's a lot of the times they don't know that they have it, which is crazy to me because when you first get sick, you get very, very, very ill.
03:07From what he had described to me, it was the worst flu you had ever experienced in your life.
03:14So you felt like you were literally dying.
03:16So I was taking PrEP.
03:18So when I came out, I did have to reinvent myself because my name was like, great, I'm a, I'm a crackhead.
03:24I've got HIV, you know?
03:26So it wasn't cool to be associated with like the celebrity that I was associated with because unfortunately he was going through a hard time, you know?
03:35So his hard time, I was tethered to that.
03:39So I had to reinvent myself and a lot of it was just like, you know, a lot of therapy, a lot of just like accepting that this is what it is and that hopefully one day it'll go away.
03:53And I mean, I'm thankful that, you know, I don't get it as often anymore, but I still do get it sometimes.
03:59And it makes me sad because it's like, it's just, it makes me sad because that was somebody I loved, you know?
04:07So it's like, and what I think when people come up to me, they just think it was just some, like I was just some hired escort, which...
04:16Gold digger.
04:17Yeah.
04:17Like I'm sure you got all that stuff.
04:18Yeah, but that was not the narrative at all that, or the reality of it, that was not it.
04:27But the narrative was that I was this person.
04:30And so I think reinventing yourself from that is very, very, very hard, both professionally, but personally.
04:36I went through a lot of, you know, I had a lot of mental health issues and I had a lot of, sadly, you know, I had a suicide attempt and I almost died.
04:45And that changed my life forever.
04:49So I think that, you know, reinvention is so important, but being resilient is even more important.
Be the first to comment