COVER STORY
Continued From 36 logged in the first 2 and half months and about half of those people stay and make a profile. We’re not competing with a lot of other big sites right now. It’s a different kind of community. It’s growing slowly. I think there will come a point in time where it hits this critical mass and people know of the brand and will be talking about it.
What’s the next step for And then a year after you came How has your health been? Volttage? out you found out you were I’ve been really, really lucky with my own health. I think a lot of it We’re trying to give it traction positive? is luck. Because it’s just one of somewhere. So we’re focusing on New York where 40 percent of the membership is. Then we’ll go to L.A., San Francisco, Chicago and once the buzz gets going in the U.S., we’ll go to go global. Obviously we can’t target one area at a time but we want to be viable in one community. We’ll probably have an event down in Miami in the next year.
What’s different about Volttage than other websites? How long have you been positive? The important thing I’m realizing now for me is that it’s about the visibility and fighting the stigma of HIV — anyway that I can. Whether that’s just being a visible person or talking about it, or all of the campaign and media stuff that I do. This website is another way of doing that. Bringing together all of these people, starting this movement. We’re going to add bloggers, more staff and have more content. I’m meeting with my partners in January to figure out which features we should have. We want to give people more reasons to go to the site beyond sex. The thing that’s cool about it is that we don’t ask about status at all. We’re clearly marketing to the HIV community and to those people that feel disenfranchised from other websites. We’re HIV neutral which is great. Since we don’t ask about status at all it provides some freedom. You should always assume people are positive anyway, which most people don’t do.
Why should people assume that? People have a false sense of security when they check a box that says you’re negative, or someone tells you that they’re negative. What does that even mean? Unless you go to the doctor with them how do you really even know? I just think that’s a false sense of security?
I found out in 1990. I sero converted in 1989. So it’s been 23 years. Nowadays it’s much different finding out you’re positive. Right? I figured I would be dead by the time I was 25. Everyone was dying. It’s different now, and it’s the same. The challenge back then was basically surviving. Nowadays it’s more about the stigma. If you do everything “right.” If you get on medications early, have health insurance, HIV is very manageable. What it is now though is that no one wants to talk about it anymore.
I got sick and they said you should have an HIV test…it was in the throes of the HIV epidemic. I only had sex with like 10 people. I thought I’m not positive. I can’t be. So, surprise.
How did you come out about your status? I didn’t tell my family for about 4 years. I was freaking out. Everyone was freaking out. I finally told my mom after my partner died in 1996 and I told her at that time because I was having a nervous breakdown. She was good. My mom is amazing.
those things. In the early days no one knew what was going to happen to you. I just happened to make the right choices. Not because I knew what the right choices were, but because I was a competitive swimmer so I have always been very health conscious. I got on medication really early. They only had AZT initially. I took all of the drugs subsequently in the next few years. I found a medication in the early years that worked for me and I stayed on it for about 15 years. So yeah, I don’t know the reason why I’m doing so well, but I’m glad I am.
HIV has been around 31 years is there really a stigma still? Still today when I post on Facebook I get comments from gay guys that are like “oh there’s no HIV stigma anymore.” I’m like are you insane? You’re clearly neg. If you don’t think there’s an HIV stigma I challenge you to post I am HIV positive on your Facebook page. Half the people that are positive don’t want to do that. If you don’t think there’s a stigma try wearing a t-shirt that says I’m HIV positive for a day then you’ll get a glimmer of what it feels like.
What age did you come out of the closet? Freshman year of college. I was kind of out in high school but I went to a very small high school.
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