the LGBTQIA+1

something i haven't heard much talked about is:

does being HIV+, or ("Positive"), make me just a "plus one"?

i am not a "plus one", never was.

i am Positive, of "that" community.

call me as i am-

another person, another man.

being Positive doesn't have to be a negative.

don't tell me, "no stigma"!

when it deserves to be said OUT loud.

i've always had a place up there- until i got HIV

now i am just a "plus one"

just a nameless nobody.

its not contagious to say "HIV Positive" with your OUTside voice.

you won't get it from the letter "P' in your acronym.

is it 2023 or is this 1986?

if i am a part of "us"

why don't we say "LGBTQIAP+" and not "us-plus one"?

it can affect all of "us", and if i misread context,

and that didn't mean "Positive",

it's time that too is talked about.

HIV can be non-transmittable, undetectable, nonlethal-

but diminishing other people, however subtle, never can.

if you won't say it, i say that's stigma.

so put my name in your mOUTh-

and be "Positive" abOUT it.