Abstract:

HIV stigma remains a barrier to testing, disclosure, prevention, treatment engagement, and open conversation, especially among people who do not see themselves reflected in traditional HIV messaging. Assumptions about who is “at risk” can leave HIV hidden in plain sight and reinforce fear, shame, and delayed care.

This presentation introduces “Take the Sting Out of Stigma,” a lived-experience, community-centered approach that makes HIV visible, relatable, and human. Through Bee HIV+ Foundation, the model combines authentic storytelling, public education, patient voice, community engagement, and direct conversations that challenge stereotypes while reinforcing prevention, testing, treatment, and the reality that people living with HIV can thrive.

The approach intentionally reaches beyond traditional HIV spaces to engage healthcare professionals, women, heterosexual communities, faith communities, and people who may not recognize themselves in conventional risk messaging. Rather than relying on fear, it uses visibility, empathy, practical education, and lived experience to create safer conversations. A guiding message is: “You can’t prevent something you don’t believe can happen to you.”

Taking the sting out of stigma requires more than awareness. People living with HIV must be meaningfully included in education, policy, research, and healthcare conversations. When lived experience is recognized as expertise, HIV education becomes more credible, misconceptions can be challenged in real time, and communities are better positioned to recognize risk, seek testing, engage in care, and support one another without shame.

Biography:

Marie Niles is the Founder and Executive Director of Bee HIV+ Foundation, a U.S. nonprofit focused on HIV education, prevention, stigma reduction, and access to care. A woman living with HIV, advocate, speaker, author, Gold Star Mom, and Surgical First Assistant with more than two decades of healthcare experience, Marie uses lived experience to challenge misconceptions and increase visibility for women and heterosexual communities often overlooked in the HIV conversation. Her work centers on compassionate education, patient voice, self-advocacy, health equity, and helping people affected by HIV feel seen, supported, and able to thrive.