Jonathan Van Ness Reveals He’s HIV Positive and Opens up About Past Sexual Abuse
In a new interview with the New York Times about his upcoming memoir, Over The Top, Jonathan Van Ness revealed that he is H.I.V. positive and his past history with drug addiction and sexual abuse
"I’ve had nightmares every night for the past three months because I’m scared to be this vulnerable with people," he shared to the outlet about the revelations in his upcoming book.
"It’s hard for me to be as open as I want to be when there are certain things I haven’t shared publicly,” he shared. “These are issues that need to be talked about.”
One of those issues he wanted to talk about was to touch on his previous sexual assault trauma. "For a lot of people who are survivors of sexual assault at a young age, we have a lot of compounded trauma," he said.
Van Ness' new book also goes into his addiction to sex and drugs. He recalled that a couple he met on Grindr introduced him to smoking methamphetamine, something he went to rehab twice for and relapsed both instances.
When Van Ness was 25-years-old, he was working in a hair salon when he fainted. He then went to Planned Parenthood the next day to get a check-up where he tested positive for H.I.V. "That day was just as devastating as you would think it would be," he wrote in his book.
He re-stated his feeling of need to talk about these life moments and issues. "When Queer Eye came out, it was really difficult because I was like, ‘Do I want to talk about my status?,'" he questioned. "And then I was like, ‘The Trump administration has done everything they can do to have the stigmatization of the LGBTQ community thrive around me,'"
Now, Van Ness is practicing a healthier lifestyle, he claimed that he still drinks and smokes marijuana on occasion, but has not done hard drugs in quite some time.
Over The Top is set to release on September 24.