Titan Capri Marks 20 Years of Advocacy After AIDS Diagnosis

Titan Capri, an advocate, community leader, and veteran, received an AIDS diagnosis 20 years ago when the doctor walked in and informed him and his mother that he only had four T-cells—and then walked out of the room. Sitting on a hospital bed, he thought he would be another casualty of a pandemic that was still killing his community in the early 2000s. Attempting to understand the situation that had hooked him up to all these machines, he decided to succumb and quietly go away. Or so he thought.

“I prayed for death, honestly,” Titan says.

With a 7-year-old daughter and having left the Army just four years before his diagnosis, he never imagined he would have contracted HIV. To get an AIDS diagnosis in 2005 was heartbreaking. “I was safe, I thought,” Titan admits.

Giving up wasn’t an option for this fighter, though. “Spirit told me it wasn’t my time yet,” he continues. “There was so much more work for me to do.”

Titan had always believed in people having the resources and advocacy they needed. Long before his diagnosis, he would drive down from Killeen to perform at Incognito in Houston, a Black gay club at the corner of McKinney and Live Oak. He found a community and chosen family there, as he was not out in the Army. “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was the standard at the time. But both in the armed forces and the community, he would serve as a connector.

During this time, Titan deepened his exploration of his sexuality and eventually met the man from whom he contracted HIV. “He didn’t get tested because, in his words, he was fine and looked healthy. Something we could have worked through if given the opportunity ended up changing my life forever,” he says. 

About a year after his diagnosis, Titan was sitting in a support group at a drop-in center created before its time, the Donald R. Watkins Memorial Foundation, and heard similar stories. Surrounded by other Black gay men, he realized that the devastation of receiving an AIDS diagnosis with no empathy was the norm among those who identified as Black and queer. Many people were afraid of getting into care because of the stigma associated with HIV, as there were still funerals for those dying from its complications every week. These stories of having been told life-changing information without compassion sparked something in Titan and took him on a journey of change, using his voice and personal story.

He began to connect with organizations and advocates in the community centered around HIV to find out as much information as he possibly could before he began his public activism. Then, in 2019, after a conversation with Jordan J. Edwards, an advocate living with HIV, he felt empowered to begin his work in public health.

Beginning as a peer navigator with newly diagnosed persons living with HIV, he brought it all to the community. Now, he consults with many groups, including as the project manager for Transforming Together Through Informed Care (TTT), a new program of the Elton John AIDS Foundation and the University of Houston Graduate School of Social Work. In addition, for the past six years, he has been running an online show, Titan in the Morning, which centers around the visibility of advocates and other people living in their purpose against seemingly insurmountable odds. The show brings interviews, advice, and breathwork to listeners’ morning commute time. This advocacy work that he has curated over the last decade is a beacon of visibility and resilience for a community of often-overlooked people.

For Titan, it is not just about supporting people with HIV diagnoses, but also about advocating for the power of prevention and testing. He laughs, “I don’t think that there’s anything sexier than knowing your status. For everything you are—your life, your love, your well-being—knowing your status is that.”

With that same energy, Titan is both a powerful asset in destigmatizing HIV testing, and an essential example of the promise of living a meaningful life after diagnosis. June 27 is National HIV Testing Day, and it is a great reminder to update your status, find prevention resources, or get treated. First observed in 1995, it has served as a yearly reminder that HIV is still here and can happen to anyone, but with proper medication and advocates like Titan Capri, it doesn’t have to be something to be ashamed of.

“I am committed to expressing to the community and advocating to expand the resources provided to us, and showing people that I am the ‘H’ in HIV; I am Human. Everyone has a status, and as a community, everyone should feel comfortable in knowing theirs.”

For Pride Month, Titan in the Morning will relaunch its broadcast on Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok Live on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, starting at 8 a.m. on June 3 with a special show to celebrate National HIV Testing Day on the 27th.

“I didn’t know what I needed to do until I started getting into the work,” he says, “People come and thank me for being so visible. This is not just for them; it’s also for that person lying in the hospital bed 20 years ago who needed someone like me. I had nobody like me, and now I am glad we all do.”

Keep up with Titan Capri on Instagram @titancapri.