Fridae

Having explored several religions to seek the purpose of life, SL Yang no longer sees HIV as a mortal enemy but has chosen to look at it as a reminder to live his life positively.

Friendships and peer support would help a newly-diagnosed person get over the initial challenges of living with HIV but ridding of non-supportive gossip behind your back types would help greatly too, says SL Yang.

Will you be accepting of a friend or potential partner if he or she came out as being HIV positive to you? How far have we come as a community in coping with the disease and accepting people with HIV?

HIV is no longer seen as a death sentence but as chronic and manageable disease. But the cost of taking the life-saving drugs is more than a financial one, says SL Yang who recalls having to battle the side effects and stick to a strict regimen of over 20 pills a day in the earlier days.

So what would you do if you had just found out you’re HIV+ – and then your brother keeps bugging you to tell him something he thinks you should? This was the dilemma SL Yang was caught in when he was diagnosed more than a decade ago.

First in a series of six articles on living with HIV/AIDS - this first-hand account of what it is like to be gay and HIV+ is written by Singaporean SL Yang, who has lived with the virus for more than 10 years.