CHICAGO -- Eighteen years ago, Chatrivia Kennedy learned she was HIV positive when her partner was hospitalized with an HIV-related illness. She was eight months pregnant.
She suffered in silence for many years, but eventually gained the courage to disclose her status on World AIDS Day 2018 in a video posted on YouTube, 14 years after her diagnoses.
Four years later, the power of going public was on full display last Saturday when friends, family and people hoping to learn more gathered at Chicago's Jesus Word Center in the Lawndale neighborhood to talk about how the deeply stigmatized disease has touched their lives. Openly sharing about the disease has changed their lives, those gathered said.
