26 Great Gifts for People Living With HIV

Encouraging a friend to start treatment may be a great heartfelt gift, but it's a little hard to wrap. So instead here are some awesome gift ideas that will share the love and keep your gift recipient happy, healthy, and laughing well into 2018.

It's hard not to love the GoRoll, the world's only portable, lockable, foam roller and gym bag all in one. Work those muscles after your workout.
 

Mr. Friendly’s Love Is Love Tee is the most popular of the many t-shirts made by HIV activist and Mr. Friendly founder Dave Watt (that's him pictured in the T-shirt). His other t-shirts, including those with the signature Mr. Friendly logo face, are great ways to bust HIV stigma.

"I worked on the concept of a symbol to fight stigma for years," Watt tells us. "I wanted to show that I was poz-friendly and to let others know that they could openly discuss HIV with me no matter their status. Yet I didn’t want a button that said 'poz-friendly' since to some that encouraged the question about my own status. I witnessed many people living with HIV being treated poorly, like second class citizens. Phrases like 'drug & disease free – you be too' and 'I’m clean, expect the same,' which all add to stigma. Mr. Friendly was carefully designed with equal weight for both a positive and a negative symbol. It’s important to me that the symbol is for everyone without indicating the person’s status. Poz or neg, we are all in this together!" 

If you're wearing the Mr. Friendly t-shirt or pin, everyone knows they can talk to you honestly without fear of stigma. That's easily worth 20 bucks.

The Jabra Elite Sport wireless earbuds will let you jam to your playlist while also monitoring your heart rate and fitness tracking. 

Why didn't we think of this? This stylish contraption, the Asobu Pill Organizer Bottle, combines a pill organizer (which will help keep you adherent) and a bottle of water to wash it down! #Brillz

 Buy it here!

The Certified Organic Essential Oil Master Extension Kit + Home and Car Diffuser comes with a gorgeous wooden defuser, tons of essential oils (including lemon, lavender, frankincense, tea tree, and peppermint), and an in-car mini aromatherapy humidifier and essential oil diffuser that works as both air humidifier and aroma diffuser and contains extra USB inputs so that you can charge your mobile phones and other devices on the go! 

These cute holiday-themed ATN Compression Knee-Hi Socks will get your season started. They look cute curled by the fireplace but they're helpful for anyone with diabetes or leg problems. They're great for flying too since compression socks help prevent varicose veins, thrombosis, and swelling.

The Nokia Steel HR is a great combination of a fitness tracker and classic timepiece, allowing users to get the most up-to-date health tracking information including 24/7 heart rate monitoring without compromising on style. Bonus: Steel HR boasts the longest battery of any heart rate tracker on the market.

Need a cool way to stretch your achy back? Try the excellent Plexus Wheel, which will help align your sign and relax tense muscles after a day hunched over at your desk.

As you and your family gather together for the holidays, think about this: what do you really know about where you come from? Thankfully, 23andMe’s DNA Ancestry Kit allows you to learn more about your heritage, who you're descended from, and who else you're related to (their free, optional database offers connections with distant blood relatives if you have interest). But, people living with HIV might want to upgrade to 23 and Me's Health+Ancestry Kit, which looks also at your genetic health and tells you what you're more or less likely to experience in terms of many health conditions, from lactose intolerance to Alzheimer and cancer. All you do is a simple saliva test via the mail.
 

With the Namaste, Bitches Yoga Mat, you’ll do downward dog right.

These Jew Jitsu socks are the perfect gift for those with a duel black belt in karate and latke frying. They're so fun and funky you can give these Hanukkah socks for all 8 days. All proceeds go to Reboot, a non-profit organization dedicated to "reimagining Jewish conversations in real life," and their great gifts are for anyone "whether you're Jewish or Jew-ish." If you're in San Francisco, check out Reboot 2nd Annual Hanukkah Pop-Up Shop, a holiday bazaar of unique Hanukkah gifts and events with a special spin on holiday traditions from Nov. 30 - Dec. 3, 2017. The Pop Up Shop will be open daily with special events, including The Great Hanukkah Debate with author Ayelet Waldman -and lesbian comedian Heather Gold will throw down their arguments against Hanukkah and its rituals in a parliamentary-style debate with filmmaker Tiffany Shlain and Rabbi Sydney Mintz of Congregation Emanu-El defending the holiday. (Or just go snag their Dr. Dreidel Knit Coozy, too.)

Happy Holiday zzzs with the Sleep Number PlushComfort Ultimate Pillow, the perfect pillow for anyone. It has three removable pillow inserts that let you change them out depending on whether you're sleeping on your back or side, or need different pillow heights as your sleep needs change over time.  

This must have in case of emergency: the Weego 22 Portable Power Jump Starter can jumpstart your car’s engine and charge your phones and devices. Bonus: it also features a 14-hour light.

You're already hip to the Calm sleep app, right? Well, their new Calm Sleep Mist helps you double down on rest, relaxation, and meditation. For the holidays, it also comes in a limited edition set, which includes the Sleep Mist, a Calm book and a 1-year subscription to the app.

From the creative mind and heart of designer Adam J. Kurtz comes Things Are What You Make Them, an upbeat and heartfelt rallying cry for creators of all stripes. Based on his series of popular essays, this tiny and creative handwritten book offers up wisdom and empathy from one creative that applies to the rest of us. Perforated tear-and-share pages make it easy to share or display the most crucial reminders like paper inspo. 

Using medical marijuana to deal with your med side effects? Time to stop carrying your herb in plastic tubes. The Elevate Accessories’ Colfax Dugout Kit V2 (which comes in walnut or maple) is nearly airtight and watertight dugout/bat combo that holds 2 grams as well as the glass joint you can use to smoke it with.

Stocking stuffers that are healthy are kind of awesome. What's cool about Ancient Nutrition Bone Broth by Dr. Axe is that its a powder that comes in unexpected flavors like Peanut Butter, Turmeric Spice, Mocha, French Vanilla and Chocolate, which will have them forgetting that that same stocking wasn't filled with candy. Better yet, each packet has 20 grams of the healthiest type of protein. 
 

The unisex Cool-it Caddy Tote comes in multiple colors and is cool because it has a freezer bag inside that keeps any of your meds cool when you travel.

Complaining about his daily HIV meds? Send him this book. Leeches, bloodletting, snake oil, ice-pick lobotomies, radium spa hotels, cocaine toothache drops, tobacco toothpaste, arsenic cosmetics, mercury-laden teething powders — it’s all here, proving that when it comes to medicine, humans will try literally anything in our quest for perfect health. Written by Dr. Lydia Kang, MD, a practicing internal medicine physician, and Nate Pedersen, a librarian and historian, Quackery offers 67 tales of outlandish treatments that seamlessly combine macabre humor with science and storytelling to reveal the odd and often disturbing side of the ever-evolving field of medicine, and how those treatments have influenced medicine today.

Because all the muscles in your head are interconnected, stress, anxiety, and tension can cause headaches. Stretching the jaw muscles with Relēver will release this tension and will have a cascading effect throughout the head and neck muscles, ultimately relieving your tension headaches and associated head pain. It's an easy stocking stuffer but admittedly a goofy-looking little contraption when you're working it.

Vegan, organic Brooklyn-made Melati Bath and Body sets help promote wellness and relaxation. They're too big to fit in a stocking but so worth the splurge.

The perfect hostess gift for your gay friends: the OUT standing Red Tom of Finland wine. The wine is a blend of Zinfandel, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Petite Sirah that's delightfully rich and features Tom of Finland’s artwork on the label. Even better than the label? A portion of the proceeds from each purchase goes directly to Tom of Finland Foundation, which promotes human rights and sexual expression through art.

Memories become all the more cherished around the holidays, and photos are how we remember. The Fridge Gallery offers a streamlined magnetic organizer so photos (and menus) look like an art gallery in your kitchen.

The Green Goo First-Aid Travel Pack is an awesome stocking stuffer. The homeopathic First Aid products in here are the first defense for your wounds that won't increase antibiotic resistance. 

Books are usually good gifts for thinky types, and Wisdom & Wordplay is perfect and light. Author Robert Eddison, is a journalist and playwright from the UK, was just called a “modern-day Oscar Wilde” by The London Times, and this book offers some good examples as to why.

Help support the body’s ability to ward off sickness during the holidays with Coral LLC CellEnergy H2, a supplement using fossilized coral and harnesses the power of molecular hydrogen. What's that mean? Molecular hydrogen, according to the makers, generates an electron-rich potential that's uniquely found in fresh, raw living foods and juices, mother’s milk, and many of the world’s healing waters. Check with your doctor, though, before you take any new supplements.

We love gay-owned LQD Men’s Skin Care products for its various ways to help you have healthy looking (and feeling) skin.