My name is Harmony Rey Zorio (formerly Connie Rose) and I was living in Indiana during the time I found out I was positive - in a small farming community snug in the hip of the bible belt. I was only 21 years old with a 10-month old baby girl that I had unknowingly breastfed while being HIV-positive. She is, by the grace of god, HIV-negative because my viral load was not high enough to transmit the virus to her. I lived the first 17 years of my "HIV life" alone, with only the people around me being encouraged to talk about me and my story of HIV. I was treated very poorly and that is why when I moved away to a place where no one could physically, mentally, or emotionally ever touch me or hurt me again with their ignorance, I began my own journey of telling MY story of life after HIV. Because there is life after HIV. It is not the end of the world, it is only the beginning of a new lifestyle.
Why Harmony wants to be part of A Girl Like Me: I want to blog for A Girl Like Me because it is the most encouraging combined force of powerful women, people and allies, speaking out and showing solidarity. Reading the stories from The Well Project over the last couple of years has empowered me privately in my own life and advocacy and I want to do that for others. Thank you to all who came before me for the work you have started, finished, or still have going in support of this community.
In Solidarity,
Harmony Rey
