Welcome to Just Break Up, the podcast about love, heartbreak, and all the relationship

advice you don't want to hear.

My name is Sierra de Mulder.

And I'm Sam Blackwell.

And today we're going to be answering a letter from somebody who is struggling

with internalized stigma about HIV.

But before we begin, we just want to give you our Surgeon General's

warning, which is that Sierra and I are not licensed mental health

practitioners. No, we are not professionals, we are not trained or accredited in any of

us. These are just literally our feelings, so please keep that in mind. we are only here to offer our humble musings

to hopefully shed some understanding and maybe some laughs on the incredibly

rewarding but mostly confusing experience that is love.

All right, today's letter is from P-O-S,

who is pronouns are He-Him,

who is writing to us from The Void.

Dear Sam and Sierra, I've never felt the need to write in because so many of the letters

directly or indirectly reflect my own life, but I've finally come to a situation that I can't recall you discussing and I need some love,

tough or otherwise.

I'm a 34-year-old male who recently met a wonderful guy, 37, on a vacation in Mexico City. We spent four out of my six nights together and really clicked. He's a total cutie and the sex was great. We continued to text regularly once I returned home.

About two months later, we made plans for him to come visit me in my city here in the States.

Before he booked his flight, he sent me a message that said there was something

he had to tell me about before he made the trip. He is HIV positive. He went on to explain that

...