HIV Made Felix Perez Healthier

For Felix Perez, being diagnosed with HIV was one of the best things that ever happened to him.

Of course, nobody wishes for a medical diagnosis, nor do they hope for a future with HIV. But, in Perez’s case, living with HIV has added purpose, health, and understanding to both his life as a gay man and his work as an HIV clinical researcher.

“I joke with my friends. The science shows that folks with HIV are actually in many ways statistically much healthier than their counterparts,” Perez says on his episode of the LATV docu-series, Living y Ready.

According to Perez, one of the leading causes of death for American men is heart attack caused by preventable heart disease. In many of these instances, it’s men who avoid the doctor and thereby go without check-ups before the condition becomes fatal. If you have HIV, you do blood tests regularly, keeping your overall health in line.

“Living with HIV has made me healthier. I am more conscious of what I eat, of drinking, of not doing drugs, of exercising, of trying to control my stress,” he adds.

The youngest of five siblings, Perez grew up in a relatively impoverished neighborhood in Houston where heteronormativity and Mexican machismo was expected. Fortunately for Perez, a sporty kid, traditional masculinity came naturally, even after being outed as gay during his freshman year of high school. He found solace and community on his school’s swim team.

Throughout childhood, he was familiar with HIV. When he was ten years old, his mother went to care for her brother (his uncle), who eventually passed away from AIDS complications. As a teenager, he joined the Health Occupation Students of America club, where he became an HIV American Red Cross Educator and talked to students about exposure and treatment.

Well into his 20s, he continued on this path, working first on crisis hotlines and later with patients directly de-stigmatizing the condition and guiding folks recently diagnosed and in distress.

“I would see 4-5 patients every day for years on end and talk to them about HIV exposure, and treatment, and prevention. Once they were diagnosed, [I would] connect them to resources in the community as far as housing or clothing or shelter or support groups. I would sit with them and tell them what their journey was going to be like in terms of healthcare: how often to come for visits, lab work, what to expect,” Perez explains.

When Perez was diagnosed positive himself in 2011, it really deepened his understanding of living with HIV. He discovered that it was a personal, emotional, and psychologically challenging experience aside from the physical implications about which he was well-educated.

He got on meds right away and threw himself into his work. But it took a few years before he was truly comfortable with himself about his identity, his status, his place in the world, and what he wanted with his life moving forward.

Felix Perez in “Living y Ready”

He has since moved to California and moved in with his boyfriend, an HIV physician, in Downtown Los Angeles.

It’s important to Perez that there are emotional support spaces for people who have recently been diagnosed with HIV, so he’s going back to school to be nurse practitioner with a focus on HIV healthcare and LGBTQ+ wellness at large.

Check out Felix Perez’s full story in his episode of Living y Ready.