Karl Schmid reveals Tinder date asked to see his latest STI results after disclosing HIV status
The ABC News reporter revealed he was HIV-positive last year
By Steve Brown
Karl Schmid was asked to show his last ‘lab results’ from a Tinder date after revealing he was HIV-positive.
The news reporter made headlines last year when he revealed he is HIV-positive in an emotional Facebook post in March where shared an image of him wearing a T-shirt promoting the AIDS memorial Instagram page, which is dedicated to the people lost to the virus.
And during an interview with news.com.au, the ABC presenter revealed someone he was speaking to on Tinder demanded to see his latest STI results despite being undetectable.
He said: “We’d had a month’s worth of messaging and speaking on the phone and I told him I was HIV-positive but undetectable.
“He said, ‘Thanks for disclosing, now I just want to see a copy of your last lab results.’
“He said to me that while I said I was undetectable, I could be lying. I went very quiet and told him I was going to head off now and he should think about what he’d just asked me.
“I said, ‘I haven’t asked you to present your last STI result. I think the fact I’ve been honest about my status should tell you what kind of person I am.’”
Despite the stigma around the virus is still rife in the LGBT+ community, Schmid wants people to start talking about HIV and hopes it will be treated no differently to the likes of diabetes.
He continued: “It’s like coming out (as gay) — you have to do it when you’re ready.
“But I would find it very difficult to think that now there isn’t a single person working in, say, entertainment or sport in Australia who isn’t HIV-positive.
“Visibility matters so the more we can normalise this and have a conversation about it without freaking out, the better.
“It would be nice if we get to the place one day when the three letters ‘H-I-V’ don’t put the fear of god into people.
“It should be handled no differently to diabetes or other illnesses and the only difference is because of those three other letters, S-E-X.”