living with hiv

It Started with a LinkedIn Post

This morning I woke up and did something I've never done before. I posted on LinkedIn and told the world I have AIDS.

Not in a dramatic way. Not asking for sympathy. Just — the truth. I lost my job. I lost my benefits. I went almost a week without my HIV medications. And today I was taking an FMLA day to fight through the red tape and get things back on track.

By the time I hit publish I wasn't sure what would happen. Within hours it had over 100 views. And then my phone rang. It was Dan — a sales manager from my former employer. Not calling on behalf of the company. Just calling because he's a good person who saw a post and wanted to check in.

That call reminded me why I posted in the first place.

The FMLA Day That Became a Full Production

I spent the first two hours of the morning buried in Social Security paperwork. Documentation printed. Calls made. Doctor looped in. My doctor reached out to the manufacturer directly to get my medications covered during the gap. By mid-morning the serious stuff was handled.

And then — I pivoted. Because I had something to say. And I had the tools to say it.

The Campaign — "You Need a Hero"

AI-generated campaign imagery from ElevenLabs — part of the "You Need a Hero" series

The visual campaign came together fast. I'd been generating AI images in ElevenLabs using myself as a reference — and what came back genuinely surprised me. The glasses. The beard. The expression. It looked like me. Living. Thriving. Not performing wellness — actually being it.

Four images. Yellow hoodie. Campus scenes. A desk with a cat. A figure on a bike. Each one carrying little text fragments baked right into the illustration: Still here. Still me. Still thriving. HIV+ — not just a label, it's part of me, not all of me.

The color language is intentional. Living in yellow. HIV+ in red. Warm. Alive. Not clinical. Not scary. Just real.

HIV Don't Stop and Neither Do I — The Video

The video script came out of everything I've been sitting with. Fifteen years of living with this. The week without meds. The paperwork. The phone calls. The biking down country roads in Illinois just because I can. Because my body lets me. Because the medications work.

I wrote it in one sitting. Six minutes. No fluff.

And then when it came time to add music — I almost went to YouTube Audio Library like I always do. But something made me pause. I've been working on Sonata — my live piano practice album. And I had a new track called Glitterati.

My own music. Under my own story. About my own life. At 27% volume it sits perfectly — present but never competing. It gives the viewer emotional permission to feel something without telling them what to feel.

I cried editing it. That's how I knew it was right.

Thank You, Gilead

I want to say this clearly and publicly: Gilead Sciences has been part of keeping me alive for 15 years.

And when I hit that coverage gap — when the insurance disappeared and the clock started ticking — their Advancing Access program is what bridged it. Real help. Real people. Real fast.

If you are living with HIV or AIDS and you are in a coverage gap, uninsured, underinsured, or just don't know how you're going to afford your next prescription — please use this resource right now:

Gilead Advancing Access Program

Support for patients who need help affording their HIV medications — regardless of insurance status. Don't go without your meds because of a coverage gap.

Get Help Now → gileadadvancingaccess.com/patient

What Pride Means This Year

Pride was born from people who were told they were too sick, too broken, too much. People who showed up anyway. Who marched anyway. Who loved anyway.

This year Pride means filing the paperwork. Making the calls. Getting on the bike even when your body is tired. Posting the truth on LinkedIn even when your hands are shaking. Making the video. Writing the blog post. Doing the whole damn thing in one day because you have something to say and you're still here to say it.

Fifteen years. Still here. Still building. Still creating. Still riding.

What's Next

The video goes up on YouTube, TikTok, and across all my platforms. The campaign images will roll out across social media through Pride Month. The biking photos are next — a whole series of "stopped on the road to document that I'm still moving" content.

And Sonata keeps growing. Glitterati is just one track. There's a whole album being built — live, in real time, one piano session at a time. Come watch it happen.

If this post reached you — share it. Tag someone who needs it. Post the Gilead link in your bio. Be loud about the things we're supposed to be ashamed of. Because shame doesn't save lives. But showing up does.

— SolarBluSeth  |  June 12, 2026