Castro resident graces AIDS campaign

For weeks this spring Jason Villalobos was greeted by a very personal, oversized billboard when he left his Castro apartment.

The 31-year-old is one of the faces of a new AIDS campaign launched this year dubbed Greater Than AIDS. It is aimed at breaking down stigma associated with the disease and to encourage people living with HIV and AIDS to seek treatment.

Alongside his photo in the ads, Villalobos is quoted saying "Asking for help when I needed it" under the headline "Deciding Moment."

In an online component to the campaign, Villalobos talks about being diagnosed with full-blown AIDS at the age of 25 in a video posted to the campaign's website.

"It felt like I was in quicksand. My life had stopped," he says, adding that as hard as it was for him to seek help, it changed his life. "As an HIV-positive person it is important to seek treatment."

While he is one of several local HIV-positive gay men to take part in the campaign, others include photographer Duane Cramer and a man identified only as Jon who overcame a crystal meth addiction, it is Villalobos's image that was the first to appear on bus shelters and advertising kiosks throughout San Francisco. Since then advertisements with Jon have gone up in the Castro and the campaign is expected to further expand in June.

Villalobos agreed to put his life story out for public consumption so he could relay a positive message to those people newly diagnosed with HIV or AIDS who may be struggling with their sero-status.

"I want them to know they can still have a healthy, sexy, fabulous life," said Villalobos. "People will still touch you and love you."

His willingness to be so open is also fueled by his desire to help LGBT youth so they do not make the same mistakes he made. He believes he became positive due to not using condoms during sex, likely while he was a student at San Francisco State University.

"My motivation is to prevent what happened to me to happen to other kids," said Villalobos, a retail manager of a store in Union Square. "HIV and AIDS is still something you don't want to get. You need to pay attention to your health, to your partner's health, and need to get treated."

A number of agencies have teamed up to promote the campaign, including the Kaiser Family Foundation, to address HIV in both the African American community and among gay and bisexual men. It is part of a greater nationwide effort the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has launched called Act Against AIDS to address the country's AIDS epidemic, now in its fourth decade.

A friend who works for the Kaiser foundation inquired if Villalobos would be interested in being part of the Greater Than AIDS campaign. Having already been a spokesman for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and speaking to television reporters about his HIV status, Villalobos didn't hesitate to volunteer.

"I really experienced it, that is why I think my story resonates with people," he said.

A self-described "small town boy," Villalobos grew up in Lompoc along the Central Coast. He moved to San Francisco at age 20 for college, and five years later he returned home to tell his family of his AIDS diagnosis. His news was met with mostly silence, especially from his father, a local police officer, and his grandfather, a sheriff's deputy.

"I remember no one saying anything. No one hugged me and told me I would be okay," he recalled. "My grandfather stood up and said I had betrayed the family."

Villalobos left and drove back home to San Francisco. He was severely sick for a time but eventually recovered and his T-cell count progressed to the point where he is no longer classified as a person living with AIDS. His viral load is undetectable, he said.

"I am the healthiest a positive person can be. I am taking my meds every day and I stay on top of my diet," he said. "I workout, I bike, and I run. There is a lot of maintenance that comes with it."

He also has reconciled with his Mexican American family. Last June they threw him a party when the annual AIDS LifeCycle, in which he participated, rode into his hometown for a scheduled overnight stop.

"It was a really nice effort. It was a journey for all of us," he said.

Last November Villalobos was invited on The Oprah Winfrey Show's episode where the host lavished guests with her favorite things. The audience members were all people who volunteered for different causes.

He left Chicago with $25,000 worth of tax-free gifts, including a 2012 Volkswagen bug he expects will arrive this September.

Villalobos landed an invite after writing a letter to Winfrey explaining how at the age of 25, fighting full-blown AIDS, he arranged his weekdays around watching her show at 4 p.m. each afternoon.

He told the famous media mogul that she "inspired me and other people to come back from incredible hardships in their lives ... and I wanted to say thank you."

Now, through his involvement with the AIDS campaign, Villalobos hopes to inspire the same hope for the future in others.

For more about the gay portion of the campaign, visit http://greaterthan.gay.com.