Troye Sivan wants to tackle HIV ignorance in gay coming-of-age film Three Months

Words: Alastair James; pictures: MTV Entertainment Studios

Troye Sivan is hoping that his first major movie role in the film Three Months will help educate people about HIV and help remove some of the stigma around it. 

The film, which was released on Wednesday (23 February) on the Paramount+ streaming platform, is set in Florida in 2011 and sees 17-year-old Caleb (Sivan) come into contact with HIV as he prepares to graduate high school. 

“This is not a death sentence at all anymore”

Speaking to the Thomson Reuters Foundation Troye says: “I think there’s a lot of, not necessarily misinformation, but a lot of kind of ignorance (around HIV).

“I would love it if this movie plays a part in getting rid of the stigma around HIV and educates people on the fact that with access to healthcare, this is not a death sentence at all anymore.”

 

 

 

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The title of Three Months refers to the length people used to have to wait between getting tested for HIV after close contact and getting a result back.

‘Bloom’ singer Troye also reveals that he didn’t get any education on LGBTQ issues or HIV and Aids when he was at school and also saw very little queer representation in film and TV. 

“I was never ever, ever taught about HIV specifically… gay sex was never, never spoken about,” he tells Reuters, adding that the few occasions he did see openly queer characters in the media was “a very, very, very formative experience.”

“Those were kind of like, these rare, rare moments that I remember felt so private to me, that I was like ‘Oh, my God, I need to watch this in the middle of the night’,” he adds.

Three Months marks Troye’s first big-screen outing since 2018’s Boy Erased, in which he co-starred as a gay youth undergoing gay ‘conversion’ therapy in the US.

Watch the trailer for Three Months below:

Attitude’s new-look March/April issue is out now.