Jermaine Wright, 23
Batman fan battles HIV stigma.

Jermaine Wright, 23
Halsted and Roscoe Streets
So, dude, uh…Batman. I know! I was like, Ooooh, I’m gonna be in Boystown, I must dress! Batman is my favorite superhero. I also have entire outfits based on Ninja Turtles and Superman, too. I don’t do the cape and the mask, so this is my way of paying tribute.
Are you out saving the world? I’m actually in town from Kalamazoo, Michigan, to fight the stigma of HIV one conversation at a time. I’m here with Mr Friendly, an organization of HIV-positive and HIV-negative people, for an event called United In HIV at Sidetrack.
What’s your status? I’m HIV positive. I do YouTube videos under the moniker PozLyfe09 about what HIV-positive people deal with on a daily basis.
What are your daily battles? Dating! A lot of HIV-positive people think that the dating scene is closed off to them because of the possibility of infection. I actually infected someone during my window period, the time when you’re positive but don’t come up positive on tests, and I dealt with a lot of guilt. So I made videos about that. I’ve made videos about bug chasers. Are you familiar with that term?
I’m assuming you’re not talking about bedbugs. It’s people who purposely want to be infected. They have parties where they invite a lot of pos people and try to get infected for benefits like medical and housing.
That’s sick. Yeah. I got a video response yesterday from a guy in Baltimore who’s offering $1,000 to become infected.
Let’s end on a lighter note: gayest superhero? Spider-Man! He can do the splits. [Laughs]

