Submission 379

t r/CuratedTumblr • 2y ago DreadDiana Where were you when hivliving happened? hivliving important confession i lied about my HIV status and all aspects of my identity (marital status, trafficking past, family, etc.) on this blog and i truly apologize. sydneykrukowski a) why is this tagged hamilton b) what the f--- is going on ghostclvb Follow there's no place on the internet like tumblr

beachdeath Apr 12, 2017 haha jesus. okay, sure. i'll bite. i know what novaya gazeta is. i know who anna politkovskaya is. i know what an anonymous source is, and i know why russian journalists need to use them to report on lgbt issues. i know more than you. I learned about politics by paying my own way through a four-year double major in foreign policy and lgbt studies, not by publishing 75 pieces of hamilton rpf on ao3. truly impressive collection of fic about daveed diggs and jonathan groff a--- fingering you've got there! the one about alexander hamilton face-f------ george washington at a roller derby looks intriguing, too. oh, and the one where lin-manuel miranda travels through time to get a h------ from alexander hamilton - very innovative! is that fulfilling for you? writing all that? and OH, wow, this chestnut that you've tagged with "paul ryan," "tim kaine," "m-----------," "religious guilt," and "rosary c--- bondage." scintillating.

digoxin-purpurea Really cool that you're calling Novaya Gazeta a tabloid. Super f------ helpful. Not like its journalists have been killed in the line of duty by government forces, or anything. Do you know who Anna Politkovskaya is? Do you know what "anonymous source" means? Amnesty International has confirmed independent reports. Did you know that? You know what Human Rights Watch wrote the other day? The information published by Novaya Gazeta is consistent with the reports Human Rights Watch recently received from numerous trusted sources, including sources on the ground. The number of sources and the consistency of the stories leaves us with no doubt that these devastating developments have indeed occurred. LGBT Network in Russia opened a special hotline to provide emergency_ support to those who find themselves in immediate danger.

pure replied: Currently... • Hivliving was exposed for lying about their entire identity. Race, hiv status, the whole nine yards. The person who ran hivliving went by the url allolesbean • Digoxin-purpurea has the whole expose. They diligently poked holes in their identity. When asked for accountability, Allolesbean had to fess up that they are a liar. Allolesbean eventually confesses. • It is revealed by digoxin that allolesbean lied about their identity in order to give legitimacy to a fanfiction they wanted to write, a high school hamilton au that had a narrative theme of hiv. • However, multiple people in my earshot have repeated that the digoxin person is also a freak in their own right, but just less of a freak than allolesbean. They're just as much of a hamilton thot. • In the past, Allolesbean's friends reportedly got into it with Digoxin and co. about a "cannibal hamilton fanfiction" they wrote and Digoxin was accused of racial insensitivity. However, there was no hard evidence anywhere I could see at the present time, just people recalling what occurred in the past. • This is where I leap into action...for my own sense of curiosity. • I use my handy dandy google-fu to connect the dots because I wanted to find and read and consume this legendary fanfiction. ⚫ I do find a cannibal mermaid hamilton fanfiction and attribute it to Digoxin, but it turns out it wasn't actually written by Digoxin. ⚫ Thanks to someone who actually read their fanfiction in question, I learn that I was mistaken about the identity of the author. • This person (who i recently interacted with lel) said that Digoxin did write a cannibal mermaid hamiltion fanfiction, but they deleted it. The fanfiction was actually about a real life person: Lin Manuel Miranda, the author of the hamilton musical. ⚫ I then connect the dots... • Digoxin's expose of Allolesbean is an extension of them getting back at Allolesbean and her friends for turbo cyberbullying them into deleting that cannibal mermaid hamilton fanfiction about Lin Manuel Miranda. • While justice was served, the motives were spicy. It is hamilton "fandom" theatrics that ballooned into a harrowing tale of false identity. • Digoxin wrote, again I state, fanfiction of slaveowner Thomas Jefferson giving the sloppy toppy. Just like to note that we were bestowed with such beauty. ⚫ And now we await any more developments or corrections. we're entering a new era of investigative journalism

HIVLIVING important confession i lied about my HIV status and all aspects of my identity (marital status, trafficking past, family, etc.) on this blog and i truly apologize. posted 17 hours ago on 26th october tags: hamilton. 1,866 notes

WHY WAS THIS TAGGED HAMILTON? Because she created this persona to excuse an HIV-themed Hamilton fic she wrote. She gained her credibility as a person living with HIV/AIDS via Hamilton fandom. She started her deceptions in Hamilton fandom. And because she maintained this persona to attack writers in Hamilton fandom for ostensibly justice-related but completely spurious reasons. And when I say attack, she and her friends harassed other people, made them recount their sexual abuse in public, threatened them with doxxing, etc. For what it's worth, I believe another person in that crew knew about this deception. She tagged the post Hamilton so many people would see it. She wanted to sign it as Naj, which is incredible.

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HIVliving / Hamilton AIDS Fanfiction Controversy

Updated Sep 08, 2026 at 04:37PM EDT by Zach.

Added Sep 07, 2026 at 05:06PM EDT by K.J. Genualdo.

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About

HIVliving, more commonly referred to as the Hamilton AIDS Fanfiction Controversy, refers to a controversial Hamilton fandom account on Tumblr that operated between 2016 and 2017. The account presented itself as being jointly run by two HIV-positive individuals, "Israa," described as a nonbinary Chinese-Pakistani trafficking survivor, and "Naj," described as a U.S.-born lesbian woman of color, both purportedly living in India.

In October 2017, it was discovered that donation links associated with Hivliving were registered to a U.S.-based account, contradicting the identities' claimed residence in India. Further investigation reportedly revealed that Hivliving was operated by a single white American college student who had fabricated the two identities and used them to promote their fanfiction and solicit donations.

Origin

In 2016, one or more Hamilton fans began the Hivliving Tumblr blog to raise awareness about issues surrounding living with HIV-positive status. The blog initially gained attention for its posts about HIV activism, resources and personal experiences, as well as for the popular Hamilton high school AU fanfiction To Scale the Blue Sky.^[1]

It was thought to be run by two people: "Israa," a nonbinary Chinese-Pakistani human trafficking survivor living in India, and "Naj," a U.S.-born lesbian of color also living in India. Both fans stated that they were HIV positive.^[1]^[2]

On September 26th, 2016, Naj, posting from the Tumblr^[2] account @allolesbean, described their supposed experience living with HIV, which received 2,472 notes at the time of capture on Internet Archive.

for me being hiv+ has resulted in friendships with a lot of older lgbt folks. the ones who survived the epidemic but lost partners, family, friends. the ones who experienced abusive shock and aversive therapy. the ones who have folders upon folders of funeral pamphlets and obituaries, often where the gender and/or sexuality of the deceased was rewritten and buried in words written by their unsupportive family, the ones who can name people memorialized on the aids quilt. i've learned a lot from them about what it means to be lgbt from them and i wanted to share an experience with the q slur. my school's gay-straight alliance started meetings with joking about the "queer agenda". i had "queer and proud" in my then tumblr bio. the word felt radical and i would have shouted it from the rooftops, although i wasn't necessarily certain of its meaning. but when i reclaimed a slur, not only applying it to myself but also for my friends, they recoiled. a few of them did their best to reassure me but i could tell that referring to them as "queer" had hurt, that in that moment i had replicated the exact language of slur-hurling americans who told them they deserved to die - on the senate floor and in the streets. they survived a state-sponsored plague, not to mention complicated intersections of transmisogyny and racism within lgbt communities meant to assist them, often failing to do so. i'm very small, soft-spoken, and at the time only 17 years old. but when i applied that word to the group of them in a coffee shop parking lot they looked scared. it is my word to reclaim as a nonbinary lesbian if i choose to but i urge you to think long and hard before making generalizations about "the queer community", before encouraging cis hets to use it as if it's their word, as if it's their history, as if it's their pain to understand and shoulder. it can obviously be joyously or tentatively reclaimed by members of the lgbt community, at each individual's discretion, but first and foremost, at face value, queer is a slur. 26 SEPTEMBER TAGGED AS: #LGBT #LGBT HISTORY #CONVERSION THERAPY - #QSLUR - #ABUSE MENTION - #LONG POST - #TEXT HEAVY - #HIVAIDS #HIV #OP 2,472 NOTES

The blog became popular and was recommended by many users across social media platforms as a good source of information on HIV+ issues, as evidenced by archived asks^[3] on the blog and older tweets^[4] recommending it as a resource.

HIVLIVING ANONYMOUS ASKED: I just wanted to say thank you for running his blog and posting the things that you do. Im hiv- so i was ignorant on a lot of serophobia. Butyour blog is by far the best resource for understanding the issue and how people can help and it sucks you are labelled an "aphobe" when you are one of the best lgbt resources i have ever seen. You are always insightful and amazing and courageous, you are helping so many people and have taught me so much already and its honestly invaluable Anonymous said to hivliving: the fact that this blog exists is really important to me and i just wanna say thank u for making it w all ur super good informative posts and stuff! Anonymous said to hivliving:i just wanted to let you know that i appreciate all you do here this blog is incredible and i do so deeply appreciate it Anonymous said to hivliving:I only found you out today due to unfortunate events. It's the one good thing that came out of that block list. I hope there are more cases like mine so its less horrible. U rock. Stay safe. Awesome blog! Anonymous said to hivliving: Thank you so much for running this blog. You provide education, resources, and support to so many. I wish you and your wife joy, peace, and strength! thank you so much everyone!! i love u all so much 21 NOTES

The blog was also notable for taking many extreme stances on HIV-related issues, such as doubling down on not disclosing positive status to potential partners and disagreeing with laws that would punish such behavior, as shown in a response to an anonymous question regarding the topic.^[5]

HIVLIVING ANONYMOUS ASKED: I know that having HIV isn't a crime, but isn't having unprotected sex with someone when you know you have it against the law? They always have to be aware of the risks, right? yes, unfortunately many areas have laws of that nature. the statutes exist to criminalise the existence of people living with hiv. these laws do make hiv a crime, i do not support them on any level.

The blog also adopted an authoritative tone regarding who "could or could not" participate in conversations about HIV issues, a detail that would be particularly of note following later backlash.^[5]

HIVLIVING ANONYMOUS ASKED: "dont be mad at ppl who give you a life threatening expensive illness that will change the way you do anything for the rest of your life! Remember do onto others uwu" honestly unless you are living with hiv or aids you can f--- right off my blog! i have played the hiv blame game before and it's just not productive for anyone. 5 NOTES 17

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"Naj" and "Israa" continued to run the HIVliving account for over a year until Naj linked to her Cash.me fundraiser asking for help with medical expenses. Tumblr user digoxin-purpurea^[6], another Hamilton fan, began investigating HIVliving after realizing the owner of the Cash.me account Naj linked was most likely based in the United States.^[1]

Digoxin-purpurea confronted Naj about the discrepancy, leading to a lengthy back-and-forth between the two. The user then compiled their findings in a post titled "WHAT HAPPENED WITH HIVLIVING," which was posted October 27th, 2017.^[6] Excerpts pulled from the archive can be read below:

WHAT HAPPENED WITH HIVLIVING Naj allolesbean does not exist. Israa blueskysapphic does not exist. They are sockpuppets of the same person. "Israa," in the guise of the tumblr user blueskysapphic and ao3 user iluzjonista, spent most of late 2015 and 2016 collecting fans for their HIV-centric Hamilton high school AU. They claimed to be an HIV-positive Chinese-Pakistani trafficking survivor, living in India with their Catholic Somali-American wife. They claimed to be nonbinary. They claimed at one point that they had been pregnant, and then that they miscarried. I knew Israa was lying about their location several months ago, when secondhand gossip got to me that she was an American student. However, the person who originated that gossip was a younger person and former target of Israa's wrath. They were very, very afraid of being attacked by Israa again and told me they did not want to talk about it in public. I respected that, even though I was totally, totally disgusted by this. If she lied about living in India, then obviously she had lied about her status, and used those lies about her status to give advice she shouldn't have been giving and to ask for donations. But there wasn't any evidence, I didn't think, without this person, who was so terrified. Fast forward a few months. I clicked through a couple of blogs that had been talking with the blueskysapphic. I found an instagram attached to a particular university. I found the cash.me link. I checked some timestamps and figured out that cash.me cashtag wouldn't have been functional. She couldn't have lived in India, therefore - I messaged hivliving with my concerns.

Message text: Hi Naj. I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt with regard to your existence and say that I hope you pass this message on to Israa. Israa, you have claimed consistently to be based in India - and yet you've several times asked for donations via a cash.me cashtag. Cash.me cashtags may receive money from international cards, but they must be registered with United States accounts. Cash.me payments cannot be processed when the holder of the app is outside of the United States - it can't even be used in Puerto Rico or the US Virgin Islands. Square business accounts, which you do not have, can only be used in the US, Australia, Canada, and Japan. You did say once that a friend set this account up for you. However, it is prohibitively difficult and expensive to transfer money from US accounts to overseas accounts, such that small donations would be lost in the fees. I am personally aware of this, given that I do not live in the US anymore. There are microtransaction apps available in India, which makes your use of squarecash doubly odd. Either you were collecting money that you couldn't use for your medical bills, or you don't live in India, even though you told people for years that you were living in India. This calls into question a lot of your other claims about your life and situation. I shouldn't need to list those. I am going to swallow my disgust about the appropriateness of those claims in general and this blog in particular for the moment. I am truly not interested in making a public spectacle of this. I get the feeling that you are very young. I understand young people make some very stupid mistakes. I just want you to refund any money people donated to you - to THEM, not to a charity - and I'd like you to prove it. If that's not possible right now, I want you to promise them you will do so in the future - and prove that you've promised them as well. I'd also like you to delete your presence from the hivliving blog. You seem to be working on this already. Please let me know within the next 3 days (it's currently 8:34 PM October 24th in UTC/my time zone, fwiw) that you've received this message. I have no interest in doxxing you or finding out your "real" details or your "real" name. Absolutely none. My only interest is that you apologize to those you took advantage of. Please, please, please, don't do this again. If you are struggling with money or mental health, there are places that can help you out, and I can help you out with money in a pinch, but neither your financial issues nor your mental health struggles make what you have done in any way appropriate.

Eventually, Naj confessed that she was actually a white U.S. college student who had lied about her identity and HIV status. It was revealed that neither "Naj" nor "Israa" existed, that the account's owner was not HIV-positive, and that she did not live in India.^[6]

They messaged back, still pretending to be Naj. We started a conversation. I had their university from the instagram link. I looked at my statcounter (cardiotoxin, my main, force redirects to this blog) and saw that a person from that particular university had arrived at this blog within minutes of her messaging me back. It took a pretty long time to get her to admit that she lied, but she did. Sort of. Confession #1: the truth is: i'm not naj. naj isn't real, but alix is a real person, who i do actually live with. israa is a real person too (although her name is spelled differently). i met alix in our freshman year of high school in field hockey and now we are suitemates (we share a bathroom but not a room) in college. alix confided in me so much, and we spent multiple summers working together at a sleepaway camp. she shared a lot about her life, especially about this girl israa who is one of her best friends, and now lives in india. i just got so fascinated by all of it the more i found out. they are both HIV+ in real life and they really do skype once a week. they really did meet at an international CTY program. i made blogs and other accounts imitating them based on their real social media and what i learned from their skype calls/what alix told me about. I've had to embellish some details but for the most part, things i've posted is stuff that i've heard directly from them or stuff that i've taken from their facebooks. the donation was real too - alix mentioned that israa had really bad medical debt bc of HIV meds and i asked if she would take donations. the money went to the israa who was struggling, not my fake version of her. i'm guessing the real alix and the real israa have no idea what i'm doing w/ their names, faces, identities, etc. Screencaps here. All of this is a lie, of course. She deleted several of the blogs attached to this persona before I could stop her. She deleted her archiveofourown.

On posted a confession on the HIVliving Tumblr^[7] blog, tagging the post "Hamilton." She also promised to repay people she had defrauded through her Cash.me account. However, no proof has been provided to date that she reimbursed anyone.^[1]

Digoxin-purpurea used this confession to claim that HIVliving was created to justify the creation of alternate-universe Hamilton fanfiction in which some of the characters are HIV positive.^[6]

The revelation sparked widespread controversy within the Hamilton fandom and Tumblr community, with criticism focusing on the fabrication of marginalized identities, alleged misuse of HIV-related activism and the solicitation of donations under false pretenses.

Aftermath

Later, some fans claimed digoxin-purpurea had been forced to delete their Hamilton RPF Cannibal Mermaid fanfiction from AO3 by Hivliving and her followers, possibly motivating the investigation.^[1] In a now-deleted post by Tumblr^[8] user @pure detailed the allegations, which can be read below:

On April 10th, 2017, Tumblr^[9] user @beachdeath posted about reports of concentration camps in Chechnya, stating that their existence had not been confirmed by any reputable news outlets, which resulted in an argument between the user and digoxin-purpurea. During the exchange, beachdeath exposed the user's fanfiction output.

Legacy

The HIVliving controversy became a well-recognized part of Tumblr lore due to the nefarious and extremely bizarre nature of the situation.

On June 20th, 2023, YouTuber^[10] STRANGEONS posted a breakdown relaying the events from start to finish, which received over 1.7 million views in just over three years.

The incident has continued to resurface over the years as users revisit notable controversies from Tumblr's history.

On October 13th, 2024, Redditor^[11] DreadDiana asked, "Where were you when hivliving happened?" indicating its importance to the website's culture.

Search Interest

External References

^[1] Fanlore – What happened with hivliving

^[2] Tumblr -allolesbean

^[3] Tumblr – hivliving

^[4] X – sleepy_virgo

^[5] Tumblr – hivliving

^[6] Tumblr – hivliving

^[7] Tumblr – Important confession

^[8] Tumblr – benepla

^[9] Tumblr – Digoxin Purpurea / beachdeath

^[10] YouTube – The Insane Tumblr Scandal of Hivliving

^[11] Reddit – CuratedTumblr

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