Photo used with permission of Jack Mackenroth

Jack Mackenroth, 41, originally from Seattle, has three All-American titles, and a national record in the breaststroke leg of the 4 x 50 relay at the Gay Games in 2006. When he went to UC Berkeley, he took a break from swimming, but returned to the sport when he moved to New York City in 1991 to attend Parsons at the New School of Design. He joined US Masters, a national adult swim league, where he has been swimming ever since. Mackenroth also appeared as a contestant on season four of Project Runway.

“I found out that I was HIV positive when I was a freshman at Parsons,” Mackenroth said. “I wasn’t worried about it because I’ve never had unprotected sex, as far as I knew, but then the test came back positive.”

He was 20.

Mackenroth remembers having few options and little information at the time. Even the doctors didn’t have answers.

“I didn’t think I was going to live until I was 30– that was the best case scenario,” Mackenroth said. “I went out all the time, and experimented with a lot of things…everything to me was like a party.”