Pose's Billy Porter: I'm Living With HIV

Billy Porter has come out as HIV-positive.

The gay Pose star told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview published Wednesday that he was diagnosed as positive in June 2007. He kept this diagnosis a secret even from his collaborators on the groundbreaking FX series, in which he portrays an HIV-positive character, Pray Tell.

“I was able to say everything that I wanted to say through a surrogate,” said the 51-year-old Emmy winner.

It's a story that, as a survivor, he now feels is urgent to share with the world. “Why was I spared? Why am I living?” he said. "Well, I’m living so that I can tell the story. There’s a whole generation that was here, and I stand on their shoulders. 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."

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Read Porter's full account on The Hollywood Reporter.