00:01It's something that will always be a part of my story because it's been
00:06something that has always been a part of my life. I don't live with HIV. HIV really
00:11lives with me. I don't think of myself as a sick person. I would never ever call
00:16myself a victim. I would call myself a survivor.
00:26Since the epidemic of the 80s, HIV and AIDS have taken a backseat in American consciousness,
00:31only stirring up controversy of late in celebrity gossip magazines. So as World AIDS Day approached,
00:37I wanted to see what the virus actually looks like today. I started by traveling to the site
00:42of the largest outbreak in recent U.S. history.
00:44Austin is a strange little community. It's like there are two sides to Austin just like
00:52a coin has two sides. One side you have a very, very strict religious community and then there's
00:58a flip side to Austin.
00:59Indiana is now in the midst of the largest HIV outbreak in state history. 150 people have
01:05tested positive.
01:06The epicenter is in the small town of Austin, Indiana located just 30 miles or so north of
01:11Louisville, Kentucky.
01:13Idyllic Austin is the picture of small town America. So what caused the outbreak here?
01:19I've been living in Austin since I was six years old. I started using drugs when I was
01:2418 years old. First time the needle went in my arm, I was hooked. What stopped me is where
01:30I got diseases. I got hepatitis C and now I have HIV.
01:33What was it like to find out?
01:36I was scared and I was hurt. And I blame God for giving it to me. But the treatment, it
01:44helps.
01:44The treatment does. It helps.
01:46Jennifer receives treatment at Austin's only family practice, Foundations Family Medicine,
01:51which is led by Dr. William Cook.
01:52I've been here for 12 years. I was here before the attention, just serving a poor rural community
02:00because I felt that was the right thing to do.
02:03When I opened the practice in 2004 and just saw the depth of need here, I knew something
02:08needed to be drastically changed. And I committed myself to really try to do everything that
02:14I could to be part of that change. Dr. Cook, he's a good doctor. He educated me about the disease
02:21and started me on the treatment. When somebody's first told they have HIV, I mean, that's a pretty,
02:27it's a pretty big pill to swallow. I mean, there's few things that can be relatable.
02:34As soon as you're called in, you know what's up. You know what I mean? Because they don't
02:38call you in if it's negative. I met Paul, an Iraqi war vet, who agreed to speak with me
02:43about his positive status.
02:46I wasn't like this big drug addict or anything. When I got back from Iraq is when I kind of
02:52hit the slippery slopes. I had a lot of mental illness and I started looking for an escape.
03:00Before then I was just a regular college student, you know. I've been real careful about me using
03:06needles. There just happened to be a couple times when my addiction kind of overpowered
03:12my carefulness. All he had to tell me basically was like, oh, I know the people, they're clean
03:16and that, and that was enough for me to say, okay, I'll go ahead and do it.
03:20While Paul contracted the disease from intravenous drug use, across town I heard a different
03:24story from 29-year-old factory worker Janelle Manning.
03:28I am HIV positive. I contracted it from a male partner that didn't tell me. He passed away now.
03:36Before I had HIV, I really didn't know what it was.
03:40How did you feel when you first found out?
03:43I was kind of upset about it because the person didn't tell me. I just kind of stayed to myself.
03:49I've only had it for almost a year, so I feel like there is light at the end of the
03:54tunnel,
03:54but right now it's just, uh, I'm not feeling it too much.
03:58Jennifer, Janelle, and Paul are just learning what it means to live with HIV.
04:03But back in New York City, I met 25-year-old Kia LaBeija, an artist and activist who doesn't know
04:10life without it. I was born HIV positive. My mom found out in 1993. She passed away when I was
04:1714.
04:18Healing begins when someone else bears witness.
04:21Which is why Kia's activism takes form in dance and photographs.
04:24Most recently, she's been working with local organization Visual Aids to tell her story
04:29through powerful self-portraits that depict growing up with HIV.
04:32Do you feel like you were meant to be this person in this place at this time?
04:37I think I always kind of felt that I would like to tell my story. I have a list of
04:42things I want
04:43to do in my life. I wrote it when I was 16, and one of the things I wrote on
04:48my list was,
04:49tell my story to the world. I really felt like I had a lot of things to say, and I
04:57felt like being heard
04:59would be so healing for me.
05:01Are you ever scared? And if so, what do you tell yourself in those moments?
05:06Um, every once in a while, I have that little, you know, that little fear.
05:11You know, I think about my mother, and I think about how she was the strongest person I've ever
05:16known, and how I thought she was going to be here forever, and then one day she wasn't.
05:22So fear comes around sometimes, but I just kick fear in the ass, because I'm like,
05:26I don't have time for this. Like, I literally do not have time to be afraid.
05:31In addition to photography during the day, and dancing at some of the top Vogue balls at night,
05:36Kia is also in a committed relationship.
05:38This is my girlfriend Lyon. My initial reaction, she told me on our first date.
05:44Remember I said I was bold? I just, I grabbed her hand, and I was like,
05:50I think you're amazing. This doesn't change my heart at all. If anything, this just makes it,
05:56it, now, now I think of it, and it just, every moment with her is very precious to me.
06:05Life is short, not just for us as positive people, but for everybody, you know?
06:11Moved by her inner strength, I wondered what Kia's advice would be for someone just coming to terms
06:16with their HIV status. What would you say to someone who's at the beginning of their story?
06:23We're all human, and we all go through our shit. We all go through our shit. And this is our
06:28shit,
06:28you know? Embrace it. Be positive, you know? That's a word that I like to use a lot, you know?
06:35I don't use HIV positive so much. I just use positive. And take care of yourself, and love
06:40yourself, because you are beautiful. It's also important to see that, you know, it's something
06:44you can deal with, and it's something that you can deal with with your partner. And, you know,
06:50I keep her safe, and we, you know, we enjoy our life together.
06:58Along with the face of the disease, the medical treatment for it has also evolved dramatically
07:03since the 80s. Today, in 2015, the life expectancy of someone with HIV in treatment is basically the
07:10same as someone who's HIV negative, and that's amazing. Really, as long as you keep your CD4 up,
07:17um, and like, I don't want to make it sound like it's nothing, but so far it's, it hasn't been
07:21too,
07:22too hard on me as far as symptoms. How does HIV affect your daily life? I just know if I'm
07:29taking my medicine, I'm taking care of myself, I'm okay, you know? And I'm going to the doctor like
07:35I'm supposed to. When you take a regimen of medications, there's this thing called being
07:39undetectable, which means that the virus is still in your body, but it's dormant in your body,
07:44which means it's not replicating. It's not getting worse, and because it's so dormant,
07:49it's very hard to pass it on to another person. So being undetectable is like, it feels really good.
07:55Why is it important for you to share your story? It's important for me to share my story because
08:01everyone has a story, and if you don't tell your story, someone else will tell it,
08:05and they will tell it wrong. I couldn't help but think of the people of Austin.
08:09How would they tell their own story? How would their story end?
08:14I've thought about what the story of Austin is going to be for a long time, but the story isn't
08:22over. And when the final chapter is written on Austin, it's going to be one of a place where
08:28something bad happened, but the people didn't give up, and they kept fighting. And we're going to get
08:35there. We've got some work to do, but we're going to get there.
