So...I got the news that any family member of an openly homosexual man sort of half expects and dreads. My brother was diagnosed with HIV on February 4th, 2020.
As one would expect, it hit him really hard when he got the news. But he is healthy and in a good head space, all things considered. Number one being the fact that he's in the midst of divorcing his abusive soon to be ex-husband and dealing with COVID stresses on top of it all.
Part of the reason it hit him so hard is that he's spent the better part of a decade teaching others how to not get HIV/AIDS, and here he is sitting with the diagnosis. But he put a positive spin on it because now he can teach others how to deal with it if they ever get that diagnosis, and he can use himself as an example for how seemingly-harmless behaviours can still see you get infected.
He's got a great health team around him, so that's a huge relief off of my mind. It can be so difficult to get that sort of thing, especially in the city he lives in.
Even knowing that HIV is no longer the death sentence it used to be, it is still hard to wrap your mind around somebody close to you getting infected with it. He's my baby brother and always will be - he's ten years younger than me and I will ALWAYS be protective of him. I always was, even when we fought like cats and dogs over the years. He may have pissed me off several times, but gods help anybody who decided to target him for bullshit reasons. If the reason was legit that was a different story, of course.
My brother does not want our mother to know, and I don't blame him at all. She's the sort that would use that information to get pity for herself, but then vilify my brother whenever it suited her. She has done similar to me and my sister concerning our issues. Ugh.
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