My name is Jaci. When I was first diagnosed, that was when everybody was uncertain. Everybody was dying. When I got diagnosed with AIDS, it was no shock to me because the life I already lived put me in that high-risk bracket.
To live with AIDS, and to be an African-American, trans woman in 2008 is a struggle. I'm sitting here talking to you, 50 years old, after being on the streets since 9 years old. Living with AIDS, coming from a CD4 count of 8. There's no way I should be sitting here...yet here I sit. So it made me look at life differently.
It's positive to know. Because that way you can be true to yourself, you can be true to your bed mates, you can be true to your society, you can be true to your children, you can be true to your loved ones. And again, ultimately, it comes back to you. You can be true to thyself.
For someone that's newly diagnosed... scared, confused, mixed up, suicidal... don't know what to do; don't know who to trust; don't know who to tell... what I tell people is: don't let that embarrassment stop you from getting into care. Embarrassment will make you feel so ashamed. Even the richest person that's diagnosed, the first thing that will hit you is embarrassment. Embarrassment will block every other blessing that is coming your way. You have to deal with the embarrassment.