Billy Porter reveals he's been living with HIV for 14 years, saying: 'I hope this frees me'

• Actor Billy Porter said he has been living with HIV for 14 years, in a Hollywood Reporter interview.
• The "Pose" star said he was diagnosed in 2007 and kept his status private, fearing backlash from the entertainment industry.
• "I'm living so that I can tell the story. There's a whole generation that was here, and I stand on their shoulders," Porter said.

Emmy Award-winning actor Billy Porter said he has been living with HIV for 14 years, in a new cover story for the Hollywood Reporter.

The "Pose" star told the publication he was diagnosed with HIV in 2007 and kept his diagnosis private out of fear the entertainment industry would reject him as an actor and artist.

"The shame of that time compounded with the shame that had already [accumulated] in my life silenced me, and I have lived with that shame in silence for 14 years," Porter said.

"HIV-positive, where I come from, growing up in the Pentecostal church with a very religious family, is God's punishment."

The 51-year-old told the publication that his role as Prey Tell on "Pose," an HIV-positive man, allowed him to speak his truth unashamedly.

As the show's popularity skyrocketed, Porter wanted to tell his own story and be a voice for the 325,000 people killed in the US between 1987 and 1998 during the HIV/AIDS epidemic, a majority of them being queer and trans people.

"I'm living so that I can tell the story. There's a whole generation that was here, and I stand on their shoulders," Porter said.

"I can be who I am in this space, at this time, because of the legacy that they left for me. So it's time to put my big boy pants on and talk."

Porter said he wanted to reveal his status to break stereotypes around living with HIV.

Since 1996, when the first treatment for HIV was rolled out, treatments have advanced to such an extent that studies show it is now possible to live with the condition without passing it on.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in 2017 that evidence shows people with HIV who take anti-retroviral therapy medication religiously for at least six months - and keep taking it - have viral loads that are undetectable. Once a person's viral load is undetectable, the CDC agreed, they cannot pass the virus on to other people.

Porter said he's the healthiest he's been in his entire life despite misconceptions about living with the condition.

"There's no more stigma - let's be done with that. It's time. I've been living it and being in the shame of it for long enough," Porter said.