March 11, 2015
HIV/AIDS has been a part of Darwin Thompson’s life from the day he was born. Raised in foster care, his birth parents were both HIV-positive. Although he tested positive as a newborn baby, he later tested HIV-negative, indicating that his exposure at birth was limited and his mother’s antibodies were no longer in his system.
“As a young person, it has always surrounded me,” he says. “HIV has always played a role in my life.”
Even as he overcame numerous barriers, he never considered a career as an HIV/AIDS activist.
“When I look back over my life, I was told I would never succeed, that I would be a statistic and contract HIV,” he says. “But at a very young age, I decided against that. I decided I was going to succeed, that I was going to get my education, that I was going to make something out of myself. Everything to me is about beating the odds, showing that regardless of what people say, you can always be better.”
Fresh out of college, Thompson got a job in HIV/AIDS advocacy and quickly “fell in love with teaching other people like me how to protect themselves.”
Thompson left activism for several years, but came back, “because of the numbers of people who are continuing to contract HIV in Atlanta – which is one of the reasons I moved back to Atlanta from D.C.”
Now he works as the Director of Programs for NAESM, Inc., an Atlanta-based nonprofit that works to provide national and local leadership to address the myriad of health and wellness issues confronted by black gay men through advocacy, services, and education.
“I think HIV should be important to everybody,” Thompson explains, “but it’s important to me, first of all because of its disproportionate effect on African Americans, especially gay people, transgender people and women. But HIV affects every community. Almost everyone knows someone who is HIV-positive or affected by HIV, so for me, I want to be that support to those people.”
Thompson knows that he’s fighting more than a virus – he’s also fighting against stigma, misconceptions, and the marginalization of LGBT African Americans in the South.
“As a gay man living in the South, there’s this perception that ultimately you’re going to become positive and there’s nothing you can do to protect yourself,” he explains.
But Thompson knows that perception doesn’t have to become reality. The prevention strategies Thompson teaches are tailored to his clients’ individual circumstances.
“I spread knowledge,” he says. “I’m always talking to people about prevention; I’m always talking to people about PrEP. I talk to people about building their whole selves. Part of building a community is building up individuals who live in that community. Whether I’m connecting them to resources, whether I’m just listening, I’m working to build community by educating people.”
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"Fear Eats the Soul"
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