Karl Schmid Is Dedicated to End HIV Stigma with +LIFE Media

Media personality, host, creator and executive producer of +LIFE Media, Karl Schmid, is called to encourage people to live their best lives. He’s also dedicated to end HIV myths⁣ through the multi-platform brand +LIFE inspired by ABC Karl’s own story of living with shame and fear of having HIV due to the amount of ignorance and stigma surrounding the virus.

On this episode of The Q Agenda, Karl stopped by to share his own story of living with HIV. 

“Because of the way that I was brought up, I thought that being queer was wrong, and then you know, my mother said when I came out ‘okay I accept you, again I love you, just don’t get AIDS. Then 10 years later I was diagnosed with HIV,” he shared on The Q Agenda.  

“If someone gets cancer we run towards them and we embrace them. 

If someone is diabetic we say ‘ugh that’s awful,’ 

but if someone says is HIV positive, we go ‘oop!…ok, how did you get it?’  

This is the reason why Karl kept his HIV diagnosis to himself in a professional sense. His family knew and his friends accepted it, however it wasn’t until one day he had “two martinis and a Xanax, felt cute” and decided to post he is HIV+ on social media. His story was covered all over the media giving him the opportunity to continue spreading awareness for others in his community. Check out his full interview coming up!

Check out more stories surrounding life with HIV on our exclusive series Living Y Ready.