I’m HIV positive, reveals gay author Binyavanga Wainaina
Gay Kenyan author Binyavanga Wainaina has dropped another bombshell: that he is HIV positive!
The prolific author, who is currently in Germany, used the occasion of the World Aids Day on Thursday to reveal his status, adding that he was happy.
The 45-year-old founder of Kwani? Trust, who came out on January 14, 2014, simply wrote: “i am HiV (sic) Positive, and happy.”
i am HiV Positive, and happy
— Binyavanga Wainaina (@BinyavangaW) December 1, 2016
The reaction was fast and furious.
Some agreed with his decision to reveal his status.
This writer, Binyavanga Wainaina, knows how to get you to sit down, shut up and think. One of the bravest most audacious people I know. https://t.co/WiMUhbMLtN
— Nnedi Okorafor, PhD (@Nnedi) December 1, 2016
@BinyavangaW proud of you hope the rest of the public can also come out spreading positive vibes like you do.
— LINDA ADONGO (@lindaadongo) December 1, 2016
@BinyavangaW way to go. Please scream it from the house tops. HIV is not a death sentence.
Unless of course you let it— Mama Yao (@LittlerachiK) December 1, 2016
@BinyavangaW @Cutepoison147 Not wearing a condom is a decision. The results are heartbreaking. Your purpose is encouraging condom use
— Rocky (@RockyTayeh) December 1, 2016
Others did not.
@BinyavangaW those encouraging you here r hypocrates, they, like me r wondering, WTF, will your dropping of bombs ever end?
— Paul Machira Kiruma (@PKiruma) December 1, 2016
While some thought he was being sarcastic.
@BinyavangaW there must be a reason you wrote a small ‘i’ instead of a capital ‘I’.SARCASM.
— petervic (@iampetervic) December 1, 2016
Lately, his life has been full of controversy.
SWEET
Mr Wainaina stunned the world when he revealed his sexuality in a creative blog published on africasacountry.com, where he said he had been a homosexual since when he was aged just five.
“I am five when I close my self into a vague happiness that asks for nothing much from anybody. Absent-minded. Sweet. I am grateful for all love. I give it more than I receive it, often. I can be selfish. I masturbate a lot, and never allow myself to crack and grow my heart. I touch no men. I read books. I love my dad so much, my heart is learning to stretch. I am a homosexual,” he wrote.
In November last year, he appealed for help after suffering a stroke. He was admitted in the Intensive Care Unit at Karen Hospital and got discharged three weeks later.
And in June this year, he claimed to have been viciously assaulted by a taxi driver in Berlin, Germany, as a crowd watched. He is currently in Berlin for a Daad Fellowship.
The author has in the past won the prestigious Caine Prize for African Writing and was in 2014 named by Time 100 as one of the “Most Influential People in the World”.