Charlie Sheen’s made a lot of mistakes in life — remember, this is the guy who’s still in a senseless feud with Rihanna for essentially no reason.
We can see why people would look at his antics and steer clear of him.
But the one reason why people shouldn’t avoid him is his HIV status.
According to a TMZ report, Charlie Sheen’s new girlfriend Julia Stambler isn’t afraid of catching HIV from him.
Like, she’s not an AIDS-denier or from one of those religion offshoots that believes that their faith makes them immune to disease or whatever.
It’s just that she knows about countermeasures like PrEP and condoms and, like, common sense.
According to the report, multiple people warned Julia against dating Charlie because they were afraid that she would catch the virus.
That’s a super ignorant thing to say, and Julia agrees.
It looks like she hopes that being upfront about her lack of worries will help reduce stigma for others with HIV.
The actual weirdest part of this relationship is that Julia is friends with Charlie’s ex, Brooke Mueller, and that Brooke is reportedly rooting for the two.
Because sure, why not?
Don’t get us wrong — there are probably a lot of good reasons to not date Charlie Sheen.
Even if you ignore his, um, history of behavior — which includes some very recent allegations — you’re looking at a young, beautiful woman who’s dating a much older man.
Though … he is estimated to be worth, like, $ 150 million.
As hard as it is to believe, since we don’t know literally anyone who’s ever watched the show, Charlie Sheen made over a million dollars per episode of Two and a Half Men.
Because we live in an unjust universe.
So we can see how this happened.
Also, he’s probably, like, charming or something in person.
But what’s wonderful here is how much how people view HIV has changed.
It’s no longer the automatic death sentence that it once was.
There is still a lot of stigma, but not nearly as much as there was during the height of the AIDS crisis.
People are even somewhat less ignorant.
Just as significantly, there have been multiple medical breakthroughs.
We’re not to the point where everyone’s HIV can just be “deleted” … yet … but between condoms and PrEP, people can almost completely inoculate themselves against becoming infected.
Though it’s important to note that there’s been at least one case of someone on PrEP contracting HIV, so PrEP isn’t an ironclad defense for random hookups.
But it sounds like it should be pretty safe for people who know exactly what strain their partners have.
Julia Stambler’s attitude, though, is a huge step forward from how people used to regard people who are HIV-positive.
Like, we’ve all heard of cultures that have “outcasts” who are literally untouchable, in that touching them is taboo.
That’s exactly how people with HIV and AIDS were treated in the ’80s and early ’90s.
There were people who didn’t want to risk kissing or even hugging someone with the virus for fear of catching it themselves.
And yes, there were people like that in the years after people discovered that HIV was transmitted through specific bodily fluids.
The AIDS crisis essentially killed off an entire generation of gay men.
It was a time when audience members on The Oprah Winfrey Show felt comfortable standing up and suggesting that anyone with AIDS be placed in internment camps until doctors were sure how it was spread.
So Julia Stambler shows how far the world has come.
All things considered, it’s great that so many medicines exist that can improve life expectancy and quality of life for those with HIV.
And the world needs more people who look at things like Julia Stambler does.
Well … more people who view HIV status like she does.
We really, really don’t need more people who look at Charlie Sheen and go “sure, yeah, I’d date that.”
But if the two of them dating helps fight the stigma, we guess that it’s worth her putting up with his unbearable nonsense.