(AIDS CYCLE RIDE) DAY 5-24-Year-Old Rider Remembers The Night He Found Out He Was HIV Positive!

Many people wonder exactly what it's like when someone finds out he or she is HIV positive. Chris Richey, the 24-year-old founder of The Stigma Project, shares his personal experience.

I had never done a mobile testing unit in my life before. ... So I went in and the girl sat me down, she took blood first, I had to wait 20 minutes and she came back and said it was reactive. I think I went through shock at first because I had been tested a million times before and it had never come back that way and I was just assuming it would come back negative like it always had. And it didn't.


Through The Stigma Project which he founded, Chris wants "to create an HIV neutral world, free of judgement and fear." After hearing just one experience he had with an acquaintance who was hanging out at his home, it's easy to understand Chris's motivation:

This guy says something about someone I play dodgeball with in West Hollywood. ... He goes, "This guy right here has AIDS, that's so disgusting." And he just goes on this tangent, not realizing that I was HIV-positive. ... I went over and was like, "You know what, I'm going to take my HIV meds and go to bed." ... I pulled out my medicine and I took my pills in front of him and said, "You know what, I have to do this every day. And so does he. Just because you were dancing with him does not mean you'll get HIV.

Via ACRPT