A resurfaced clip of Heated Rivalry creator Jacob Tierney is drawing praise online for his candid discussion about living with HIV and the stigma that still surrounds it.
For many viewers, Heated Rivalry has already become a talking point for the way it approaches gay sex with unusual honesty. It sparked plenty of conversation about queer intimacy on screen — including apparently teaching some straight audiences what frotting is and just how common rimming can be. But Tierney’s openness around queer experience clearly did not begin with the show.
The clip now circulating comes from a 2022 appearance on the Good Morning Sodomites! podcast, where Tierney spoke frankly with host Zach Noe Towers about being “HIV positive undetectable” and about the severe illness he experienced before beginning treatment.
“I acquired HIV when I was 34, and it was really, really bad,” he said. “I got very, very, very sick, lost a lot of weight, had a lot of bad medical complications that a lot of people don’t.”
Describing himself as a “full disclosure person”, Tierney said the person who transmitted HIV to him was “off their meds” and had a “high viral” load, prompting him to encourage others to remain on treatment.
He also reflected on how close he came to a very different outcome, saying that “a year later I would have been on PrEP”, with pre-exposure prophylaxis becoming available not long after he contracted HIV.
Tierney revealed that about a year after his diagnosis, he became seriously ill again and was eventually diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. He said it was his HIV doctor who ultimately worked out what had been going wrong.
“There was like a year and a half where I just was basically dying all the time,” he said.
The resurfaced interview has resonated not only because of Tierney’s openness about his health, but because it connects so clearly to the care and intentionality many fans see in his work.
Tierney has also spoken publicly about wanting to show gay sex on screen in a way that feels honest, pleasurable and free from shame.
“It’s this very limiting, puritanical way of looking at sex scenes of, you either pan away and ‘I don’t wanna watch this,’ or you omit people’s sex lives entirely as though that’s not a part of who they are,” he told Entertainment Weekly.
“We were very aware we’re making a horny show. Let it be horny. Enjoy! That’s part of the fun of this, right? That’s also part of the reaction we’re seeing here, is that this show is different because of that. Sex is not supposed to be trauma here, and that was something I really wanted to avoid. I want it to be beautiful.”
As the podcast clip spreads across social media, it is prompting wider conversations about the ongoing legacy of the AIDS crisis, the stigma that still shapes public understanding of HIV, and the importance of hearing queer creators speak openly about survival, pleasure and joy.
One person who shared the clip on X reflected on the lasting impact of the epidemic in New York, writing: “Here in NYC the scars left by the worst era of HIV/AIDS are still fresh and likely permanent. My own dentist lost over 15 friends in the 80s to it. If anyone still doubts on Jacob’s intentions behind queer joy storytelling, I don’t know what more to say, really.”
For many fans, the moment feels powerful not simply because Tierney is being vulnerable, but because his honesty helps place queer joy in its full context — one shaped by loss, stigma, survival and the determination to still make beauty anyway.
