Entitled parent claws at my face for taking my life-saving medicine on the bus, because I am a,

quote, filthy junkie.

Just for reference, this just happened yesterday.

I was on the bus heading home from the pharmacy after re-upping my prescription.

A bit of backstory.

I'm unfortunate enough to be human immunodeficiency virus positive,

and because of this, I have to take antiretroviral medication every day, otherwise the virus

will damage my immune system further. Because of what's been recently going on in this country,

I've been mainly working from home. As a result, I've really fallen off when it comes to my appearance.

On this particular day, I just had on some really baggy sweatpants and a janky hoodie. So I guess

I could see how from a certain perspective I could look a little homeless. After a couple of minutes

on the bus, I noticed this little kid staring at me, and I guess my appearance might have

frightened him. But as a person of colour, I'm kind of used to getting a couple of odd glances,

so I just went back to minding my own business. At this point, I started to take my medication

while on the bus, mainly because I didn't want to forget later. While this was happening,

I got a sharp reminder that people were watching.

Q. The entitled parent of scared kid screaming at me,

How dare you? Have you people no shame?

I was so shocked that all I could say was, what?

She continued by yelling,

What do you mean what?

Who do you think you are? Stop popping pills

...