“In sharing your story of being HIV+, you are saving lives and shattering stigma.”
Prince Harry is teaming up with Gareth Thomas to end the stigma surrounding HIV.
Over the weekend, the former Welsh rugby captain came out as HIV positive after “evils” were threatening to go public with the information. “I want to share my secret with you, because it’s mine to tell you,” he said on Twitter.
“Not the evils who have made my life hell, threatening to tell you before I do, and because I believe in you and I trust you. I am living with HIV. Now you have that information that makes me extremely vulnerable, but it does not make me weak.”
Thomas then pledged to “fight to educate and break the stigma”. Many supported him in the comments of his video, including Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle who revealed his own diagnosis in the House of Commons.
Prince Harry praised Thomas, calling him an “absolute legend”.
“In sharing your story of being HIV+, you are saving lives and shattering stigma, by showing you can be strong and resilient while living with HIV,” he wrote on the official Instagram page for The Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
He added: “We should all be appalled by the way you were forced to speak your truth, it is yours and yours alone to share on your terms and I and millions stand with you.”
It was later announced that Prince Harry will join forces with Thomas to continue the groundbreaking work started by his mother Princess Diana over three decades ago, by ending HIV stigma.
Thomas told The Mirror: “Like me, Prince Harry wants to break the stigma around HIV and he has already done a lot of great work. We are planning to work together now. To do something with him will be really powerful.”
Back in 2016, Prince Harry broadcast a live HIV test online in an effort to “destigmatise” the process.
Last year, he called on everyone to put an end to the “deadly stigma” that surrounds HIV.
Related: Openly gay rugby star Gareth Thomas says he spoke to ‘The Gay Footballer’.
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