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Going public with his HIV diagnosis has been freeing for Billy Porter.
On Thursday, the “Pose” star appeared on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” and talked about his decision to reveal his HIV-positive status.
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“I lived with the shame of it for a really long time and last week, I released that shame,” Porter said. “I released that trauma and I am a free man, honey.”
The actor was first diagnosed with the virus in 2007 but had kept it largely a secret in the years since.
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“I’ve never felt joy like this before,” Porter said of going public. “And you know, we talk about it in the Black church, this joy that I have — the world didn’t give it and the world can’t take it away. I got it, I got some joy now.”