ratspotting-deactivated20180430:

Hivliving was a semi-popular tumblr blog that talked about serophobia (discrimination against people with HIV), gave resources on HIV, and discoursed. There were two mods, Israa and Naj.

Israa (supposedly) was a married, nonbinary and bisexual Chinese-Pakistani human trafficking survivor living in India with HIV. Naj (supposedly) was a lesbian of color from the United States with congenital HIV whose main was @allolesbean. They presented themselves as experts on HIV and have asked for donations before to help them survive.

None of these things are true. One person ran Hivliving, a white American college student that did not have HIV. They pervasively lied about their entire identity for years, betrayed many people’s trust, and made money off of it. Hivliving has since confessed to their actions on both that blog and their main.

Why did they fabricate an entire identity? Because they wanted to justify themselves writing an HIV-centric modern high school AU Hamilton fanfiction. They then posited themselves as an expert on HIV for discourse credentials.

Their actions are deeply immoral and crude: the blatant lying about sensitive topics and identities for years, the financial gain, the abuse of followers’ trusts.  I’m having trouble expressing how tactless, upsetting, and wrong their actions are, but that’s the gist of it. All over some fanfic.