Dwayne Carl has a message for the world, and churches in particular: “I’m HIV-positive; GET OVA IT!” Dwayne’s been active in the church community his entire life and HIV-positive for 10 years. He has seen first-hand how stigma in the church community unintentionally helps spread the deadly disease:
Gay men who are in the church who want a position of leadership, in order to get that they will marry a woman and unfortunately then have relations with men outside of that relationship and sometimes they slip up and have unprotected sex, causing them to have HIV, they’re not gonna go back to their wife and use a condom. Okay, now she’s HIV…believe me, I go in some of these churches and speak and I have so many of these stories from black women.
Dwayne left one church after not being allowed to apply for choir director simply for being gay. He had some resistance from his next church about his HIV status but Dwayne pushed back this time. Continue Reading to watch Dwayne’s story.
Dwayne wrote a book titled, “Out of My Second Closet: I Have AIDS, Get OVA It.” You can read more about it and purchase it on his website.
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