[News] Drag Race UK series 3 star, Charity Kase reveals positive HIV status

RuPaul’s Drag Race UK series 3 star, Charity Kase has revealed that she is HIV positive.

 

In the latest episode of the BBC Three programme which aired on Thursday night, October 7, the drag queen revealed she contracted the disease at 18, after a man took advantage of her.

 

Discussing her motivation for getting into drag, Charity said;

 

 ‘It was sort of like my way of expressing my emotions and my therapy for a while because I went through a really dark time.

‘I moved to London when I was 17. When I was 18, I was having a good time and I was on the scene. Then I ended up contracting HIV.’

 

She also revealed that she is living with the after effects of just one night a man took advantage of her.

 

Charity added;

 

‘It was really hard for me to process that at 18. I was still a child. From that one night, I contracted HIV and I contracted lots of other STIs. And that’s really difficult.

‘Six years on, I am still living with the after-effects of this one night where this guy took advantage of me.’

 

 

Discussing the effect on her love life, she said;

 

 ‘I would love a relationship. I would love to feel close with somebody, but I just don’t feel capable of putting myself in that place where I’m so vulnerable.

‘I take three tablets a day, and I live a normal life expectancy and I am undetectable – that means that the virus cannot be passed on from me. The drag was a massive, massive help for me coping with these emotions that I didn’t know how to deal with.

‘I’m really proud of who I am today. I am comfortable with what I do and who I am. And that is why I’m so passionate about my drag and why I put my all into it and why I spend every moment of every day creating something to distract myself from the dark places that I’ve been to and the dark places that I can still go to.’