Rebekka Armstrong

Biography

Armstrong went public with her HIV-positive status in The Advocate's September 1994 issue. She had been aware of her infection since 1989, but spent the next two years escaping into substance abuse. By the time that article appeared, she had come out as a lesbian and dedicated herself to educating others about HIV/AIDS, focusing especially on lesbian and bisexual women. She was uncertain about when she contracted the virus, but thought it might have happened as early as age 16.

She suspects the infection could have come from a blood transfusion after emergency surgery for complications from an abortion, or from a heterosexual encounter with a man who later told her he was HIV-positive due to his bisexual experiences. In a 1999 interview for AIDS Project Los Angeles, she identified as bisexual and said she had been infected at 16 "to the best of my knowledge." A 2004 University of Toledo events notice stated that Hugh Hefner and the Playboy Foundation provided financial help for her AIDS-awareness campaign, the College Campus Safer Sex education program.

During a 2013 speech to community college students in Spokane, Washington, she shared details about the early days of her illness, the aggressive AZT treatment she endured, the good and bad times of that five-year period, and her suicide attempt followed by a coma and a lengthy hospital stay. Alongside her former modeling career and current activism, she has also competed as a bodybuilder.