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“I’m just like you”: Aussie praised for brave HIV post

Australian-born entertainment reporter Karl Schmid opens up on living with HIV.

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Australian-born entertainment reporter Karl Schmid, who reports for America’s ABC network is being praised after revealing in a Facebook post he has been HIV positive for 10 years.

Schmid, who got his start on TVNZ’s children’s TV show What Now and moved to the US in 2008, made a deeply personal statement on Friday.

“I work in television. And on the side of the camera where for better or worse it’s considered ‘taboo’ for people ‘like me’ to be ‘like me.’ For 10 years I’ve struggled with ‘do I or don’t I?’ For ten years the stigma and industry professionals have said, ‘don’t! It’ll ruin you,’” he wrote.

“But here’s the thing. I’m me. I’m just like you. I have a big heart and I want to be loved and accepted. I may be on TV from time to time, but at the end of the day I’m just an average guy who wants want we all want. To be accepted and loved by our friends and family and to be encouraged by our peers.”

As of yesterday his post had attracted over 3.2m Likes and 1.3m comments.

AFAO.org.au

6 Responses

  1. Thanks for sharing David! Thanks for sharing Benji77 and Gaz. There needs to be more tolerance in society and I am glad the article increases awareness and hopefully assists peoples acceptance.
    I suppose for me like all things ‘it’ (in this case your HIV+ status) is a part of you and not all of you, so it doens’t need to define who you are.

  2. Such a brave young man. I’ve been HIV positive for 26 years and still struggle with telling people. I hope his career doesn’t suffer because of this.

  3. I’ve been HIV + for almost 9 years, it heartens me to read this. While the stigma is still there, stories like this will help reduce it and educate.

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