Lee Thompson, best known as Uncle Poodle from Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, is HIV-positive. The uncle of TLC reality star Alana Thompson is now sharing his story in hopes others will take safe-sex practices to heart.
"I was adamant about getting my HIV status checked on a regular basis," Uncle Poodle, who is openly gay, recently told Fenuxe magazine.
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Sharing how he discovered his diagnosis, he explained:
"On March 16, 2012, I tested negative. Then, in May of 2012 my test results came back positive. I knew it had been my boyfriend who infected me. I later learned he had been HIV positive and was not taking medication and had not bothered to tell me about it."
"I was advised that I should press charges and, hesitantly, I did," Uncle Poodle shared, adding, "It was the right thing to do."
That ex-boyfriend is now behind bars for not having disclosed his own HIV-positive status.
"He is serving a 5-year sentence," Lee Thompson confirmed. "I would have been cool with his HIV status if he had been honest. I don’t have an issue with the disease. I would have known how to protect myself."
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As for those who are having unprotected sex now, Honey Boo Boo's uncle said, "They are damn fools! They are playing Russian Roulette; they are playing with their lives and that of their sexual partners."
The future for Uncle Poodle includes working with groups such as GLAAD to promote awareness, as well as more reality television!
"I want to have my own television show and highlight what it is like being gay in the south," the Here Comes Honey Boo Boo regular said. "I think I have a good story to tell."