Laverne Cox Says Her Work As An HIV+ Advocate Is About “Celebrating Everyone’s Humanity”

Laverne Cox has spent her life breaking through barriers. Now, she wants to help break another: the stigma and misunderstanding surrounding the HIV+ community.
Laverne Cox has spent her life breaking through barriers. Now, she wants to help break another: the stigma and misunderstanding surrounding the HIV+ community.
It’s that time of year again: gifts abound, families and friends reunite, and we all begin to contemplate the ways in which we might be able to give back to our communities.
“The first words out of my mouth were: ‘How long do I have to live?’ That’s how uneducated I was.” Hernando Umana had been seeing tremendous personal and professional success since he was a child.
Sometimes, it’s our own personal battles that inspire our greatest successes. In the case of Suzanne Moloney, it was her own Hidradenitis Suppurativa diagnosis that led her to create HidraWear, which are dressings specifically designed for people with HS.
After growing up in the Deep South, Asia Sullivan found her calling in healthcare, specifically for the LGBTQ+ community, and those with HIV.
When Jahlove Serrano was 16-years-old, he lost his virginity, and gained a diagnosis. Growing up in New York, Serrano said that condoms were “never a thought” when it came to safe sex practices.
When she realized how little information was available for holistic or alternative methods of treating Endometriosis, London-based writer and podcaster Jessica Duffin decided to make a media brand of her own.
Hidradenitis Suppurativa is a skin disorder in which pimple-like bumps appear on the skin.
For Jordanna Tucker, her Endometriosis diagnosis was as most women’s is: “drawn out and well overdue.” The 26-year-old Queensland native is now a graphic designer, and has put a lot of her skills to use on social media, where she…
For Hayley Ray, the first symptoms of Endometriosis started innocuously enough. By 12 or 13-years-old, she was experiencing increased bleeding during periods, clots, and cramping in her abdomen.