Mykki Blanco Premieres 'Hideaway' Clip For National Youth HIV/AIDS Awareness Day

In recognition of National Youth HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, gender-fluid rapper Mykki Blanco has released a music video for “Hideaway,” a track from 'Mykki,' her 2016 debut studio album.

“When we chose to stigmatize those living with HIV, we do a disservice to our own humanity,” Blanco says. “As someone who has lived healthily with the disease for five years now, I know all too well the fear of persecution and shame – and what that can do to one’s character and their life. Love and happiness, compassion: they’re birthrights of the human condition. Thirty-seven million people living with HIV deserve that, just like anyone else.”

“Hideaway” is about a 'serodiscordant' couple — where one HIV-positive, one HIV-negative — living in denial, circling around a romance. “That feeling of shame, of hiding, of having love only exist in a bedroom,” Blanco replied, “I know what that feels like.”

As Billboard reports, Blanco became HIV-positive in 2011 but covered her status until 2015. “I thought if I came out, I was immediately going to get shunned, that all my opportunities were just going to whittle away,” she explained to W magazine. She recognized herself wrong, as she career has only blossomed after opening up about being HIV-positive.

The video was directed by Daisy Zhou and is a collaboration with W Magazine and amfAR (The Foundation for AIDS Research). Check out the clip by following the link https://youtu.be/RM7C_NRDx74