Without PWA (people with AIDS) participating in all levels of HIV/AIDS awareness, education, research and support programs, there is no passion and therefore no motivation to move forward. Even if you work behind the scenes, it makes a difference.

I don't support marriage equality simply for other people. I want to walk down the aisle one day. But in the community in which I live, Palm Springs, Calif., I find that there is an immense shortage of single, available, poz-friendly, sober-friendly total tops.

Are you currently facing stigma? Well, know this: You matter, your life matters, and you are filled with purpose! You are no less of a person because you have HIV. Your dreams are not infected. Don't let HIV take away your power; instead, become empowered and rise up to HIV!

Discrimination is like a virus, infecting the masses before anyone knows what hit them. I was exposed to a new strain of the D virus just recently, after I wrote an piece called "HIV-Positive, Unapologetic and Fabulous."

As I stand outside of my second closet door, I realize that my fears of coming out positive stem from being scared not to love again consider myself the consummate clumsy romantic, and I admit that I was scared to lose that part of myself.

Don't get me wrong: As I begin to drag this conversation out of the closet and take it with me to hang out with the boys, I plan on doing so with a healthy amount of self-tanner, copious doses of sarcasm and a shot of tequila every now and then.

Don Lemon, who remembered our first visit and never mentioned the circumstances, who knew this interview meant growth for me, a sort of redemption, perhaps, and who even knew a little about overcoming shame himself, reached out in a gesture of support: a hug.

You have to ask yourself if you are truly committed to combatting stigma. If you aren't, if you want to wield stigma as a weapon to impose your point of view, then you are part of the problem. To stigmatize PrEP or the people who take it will only lead to more HIV infections.

Social stigma, whether it be homophobia in the world at large or HIV-related stigma within the gay community, limits our ability to tackle HIV/AIDS at all levels. This holds particularly true for LGBT Americans. Too often the LGBT community itself has reinforced AIDS-related stigma.

For the successful gay 20-something, the threat of HIV can almost seem outdated, a scary memory that our community is lucky to forget. This dangerous fallacy is what led me to get gobsmacked with a dose of reality during my routine, "socially responsible" STD test.

I believe one antidote to stigma is pride, and by taking pride in our HIV status, we can foster a feeling of responsibility and openness -- to seek medical care, disclose our status to our partners and serve as models for those who are too afraid of HIV to even get tested.

People with HIV are not walking public health threats, despite how the law treats us. We are human beings and we are far more than the virus we carry. Laws based on ignorance, fear and shaming of people with HIV are the real danger to public health.

I am not ashamed of my HIV-positive status, and I don't hide the fact that I have HIV, but I have never taken the time to write my personal viewpoint, mostly due to fear: fear of the response from the ignorant, or from people who are just hateful.

HIV and AIDS have historically had a negative stigma attached to them, and when it comes to dating individuals who are HIV positive, there are still t...

Can we please remove this insulting, dangerous and unproductive question from our lexicon? There is an alternative to The Stupid Question.