December 30, 2011 | Porn Stars

Mason Wyler on life with HIV

Finding out that you're HIV+ is never easy. But having the news shared with strangers around the world must feel like a punch in the gut.

Mason Wyler would know. The porn star once had his own website, but found out that he was no longer a hot commodity in the gay porn world once his HIV status was revealed.

"I wasn’t ready for people to know," he said in a recent interview with Different Scene. "I was pretty angry at the time but it forced me to go public and open up about it. In the long run, it was a blessing in disguise. Why? Because I didn’t have to tell anyone I hooked up with of my status because they already knew. And people told me they were proud I had opened up about it, which was great."

The interview is a revealing one. The former star said his bareback scenes, which he shot after revealing his HIV status, account for less than 1% of his overall work. However, he says that in his personal life he barebacked almost all the time.

"I don’t like condoms so I don’t use them," he explained. "I understood the risk of not using them but I probably didn’t take it as seriously as I should have. But I didn’t prepare to have sex with the people I hooked up with. I’d never go out with condoms ‘just in case’ I got laid. I’d get caught up in the moment – I’d meet a guy, have an attraction and then have sex."

Maybe inventors should create a condom small enough to fit in your pocket. Oh, wait ...

You can read the full interview here.