'Queer Eye' host Jai Rodriguez joins HIV awareness campaign
Tue. August 22, 2017 8:02 AM by OnTopMag.com
Out actor-television personality Jai Rodriguez has joined an HIV campaign that reaches out to black and Latino gay and bisexual men.
The 38-year-old Rodriguez is best known as the culture guide on Bravo's Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, which ran for five seasons from 2003 to 2007.
Rodriguez told People Chica about the Positively Fearless campaign.
"Positively Fearless is a great new movement that is really celebrating the bravery of black and Hispanic homosexual and bisexual men who are embracing their HIV status by getting themselves checked, getting themselves treated and committing to staying on that treatment," Rodriguez told People Chica. "In the past ten years, HIV infection rates have gone down in the United States, except for in the Latinx community of men who identify as gay or bisexual."
Rodriguez said that he was influenced by the deaths of an aunt and cousin from HIV complications.
"I could've been a statistic and granted that when I was coming up," he said. "I sadly got the firsthand experience of people passing, so it was a different experience for me."
Since Queer Eye, Rodriguez has appeared on the ABC sitcom Malibu Country, USA Network's Sharknado 5, and CBS' Wisdom of the Crowd.
The 38-year-old Rodriguez is best known as the culture guide on Bravo's Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, which ran for five seasons from 2003 to 2007.
Rodriguez told People Chica about the Positively Fearless campaign.
"Positively Fearless is a great new movement that is really celebrating the bravery of black and Hispanic homosexual and bisexual men who are embracing their HIV status by getting themselves checked, getting themselves treated and committing to staying on that treatment," Rodriguez told People Chica. "In the past ten years, HIV infection rates have gone down in the United States, except for in the Latinx community of men who identify as gay or bisexual."
Rodriguez said that he was influenced by the deaths of an aunt and cousin from HIV complications.
"I could've been a statistic and granted that when I was coming up," he said. "I sadly got the firsthand experience of people passing, so it was a different experience for me."
Since Queer Eye, Rodriguez has appeared on the ABC sitcom Malibu Country, USA Network's Sharknado 5, and CBS' Wisdom of the Crowd.
Article provided in partnership with On Top Magazine