"Here Comes Honey Boo Boo" co-star Lee Thompson -- aka "Uncle Poodle" -- revealed that he is HIV positive in a recent interview with Atlanta-based gay magazine Fenuxe.
Thompson -- uncle to Alana Thompson (aka "Honey Boo Boo") and brother of her dad, Mike (aka "Sugar Bear") -- told Fenuxe that he took a test in March that came back negative, but two months later, his test was positive.
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"I knew it had been my boyfriend who infected me," he said. "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."
His ex is now serving a five-year sentence, said Thompson, who married boyfriend Joshua Yarbroughe in August.
"I would have been cool with his HIV status if he had been honest," he added. "I don’t have an issue with the disease. I would have known how to protect myself."
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Thompson's revelation is part of an effort to promote safe sex. He called people who are having unprotected sex "damn fools."
"They are playing Russian roulette; they are playing with their lives and that of their sexual partners," he added.
Thompson also is working to combat bullying in schools, saying he was bullied after coming out while in high school.
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Next up, he's hoping to get his own TV show and "highlight what it is like being gay in the South. I think I have a good story to tell."
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