Honey Boo Boo's "Uncle Poodle" has revealed he's been diagnosed with HIV.
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Lee "Uncle Poodle" Thompson, the openly gay uncle of Here Comes Honey Boo Boo star Alana Thompson, has opened up about HIV -- including how he contracted it, when he first found out he had the disease and what he plans to do about it.
"I was adamant about getting my HIV status checked on a regular basis. On March 16, 2012, I tested negative. Then, in May of 2012 my test results came back positive," Lee Thompson told Fenuxe Magazine, a gay magazine, in a recent interview.
"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. It was the right thing to do."
Thompson said his ex-boyfriend suffered the consequences of his choices.
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"He is serving a five-year sentence. 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," he explained.
Thompson's experience has apparently made him want to actively campaign for safe sex and anti-bullying to help prevent future cases like his own.
"Definitely! I know what it is like to be bullied. I know what it is like to live with HIV. I can help and I want to," the reality TV star told Fenuxe, adding that he doesn't think highly of people who have unprotected sex.
"They are damn fools! They are playing Russian roulette; they are playing with their lives and that of their sexual partners."
Thompson explained he knew he was gay at age 16 and told his mother first, who was supportive. He then came out publicly "around 11th or 12th grade" in school, according to the magazine, and was subsequently bullied both physically and mentally.
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Thompson -- who got his "Uncle Poodle" nickname from Alana because she apparently calls all gay men "her poodles" -- also reportedly doesn't want his television career to stop with the Here Comes Honey Boo Boo reality series.
"I want to have my own television show and highlight what it is like being gay in the south. I think I have a good story to tell," he said.
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski