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Kennedi Lowman was 29 and thriving in her career as a medical lab scientist at a hospital in Atlanta when her life took an unexpected turn. The call came after she donated blood—a voicemail from the American Red Cross urging her to return the message right away. “In my mind, I’m like, what is wrong with me?” she remembered. As someone who worked in healthcare, she knew exactly what that kind of urgency meant. What she didn’t expect was that the call would reveal she was HIV-positive.
Looking back, there had been signs, though easy to miss. “I had a respiratory and sinus infection, plus a norovirus infection,” Kennedi recalled. “HIV symptoms can mimic the flu, which is why it’s so important to get tested if you’re sexually active.” After piecing together her medical history, she believes she likely contracted HIV sometime in 2015.
Still, Kennedi doesn’t view that diagnosis as the end of her story; she sees it as the beginning. “HIV saved my life,” she says now, without hesitation.
In the beginning, the fear and stigma consumed her. “I thought no one would want to date me, that I couldn’t have kids, that I was damaged,” she shared. That internalized shame led her into a two-year depression, during which she kept her diagnosis to herself, telling only her sisters. It wasn’t until she made the conscious decision to take control of her story—and her health—that her purpose began to unfold.
What started as a deeply personal struggle turned into a powerful platform for service and sisterhood. On December 1, 2018—World AIDS Day—Kennedi went public with her story. “I didn’t see other young Black women in Atlanta living with HIV talking about it,” she said. “So I became that person.”
Out of her pain came purpose. Kennedi co-founded LOTUS—Loving Ourselves Through Unity and Strength—an Atlanta-based national support network for cisgender women living with HIV. The organization was born out of a glaring gap: “It’s like the world looks at everyone else living with HIV except for cisgender women,” she explained. LOTUS provides emotional support, education, and empowerment to women who are often left out of the HIV conversation.
Through LOTUS, Kennedi has cultivated a space where women feel seen, heard, and uplifted. Whether it’s a two-hour support group meeting for a sister who just needs to cry, or texting a college student newly diagnosed with HIV to check on her semester, Kennedi shows up. “Support is everything,” she emphasized. “It can change someone’s life.”
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