Why Sheryl Lee Ralph’s HIV Film ‘Unexpected’ Focuses on Black Women: No Longer a ‘Gay White Man’s Disease’ (Exclusive)

The Emmy winner has produced a short documentary, 'Unexpected,' which premieres on Hulu today, World AIDS Day, and examines the new HIV epidemic among straight Black women

In 2008, Cici Covin was a 20-year-old student at the University of Georgia. And she needed birth control. Like many of her classmates, she turned to student health services. There, she got what she needed — as well as an HIV test. The result: positive.

“I was shocked," recalls Covin, now 35. "My world shattered. My first question to the nurse was, ‘Will I be able to have children one day?’ I did not get a hopeful answer.”

Covin went home and, like so many people when they receive an unexpected diagnosis, turned to Google. “I looked up ‘life expectancy,'" she says. "It was so bleak. I thought my life was over.”

In her search results, Covin did not see anyone who looked like her: a young, Black, heterosexual woman. “The ignorance and the stereotypes, nothing looked like me. I did not look like someone with HIV. I did not even look like someone who was at risk.”

She had a very clear image in her mind of the types of people who get HIV. “In my ignorant mind, you were gay. Maybe you were engaged in sex work or other behaviors. My biggest reference was the movie Philadelphia.”

Today, the mother of two continues to shatter stereotypes about what it looks like to be living with HIV. As a program manager for the Well Project, a non-profit organization for women living with or vulnerable to HIV, she provides information, support, and tools so women can advocate for their health and well-being, and live free from stigma.

She’s also the subject of a new short documentary, Unexpected, premiering on Dec. 1, World AIDS Day. The film tells the story of Covin and another activist and hero, Masonia Traylor, as they create an underground network of women helping women cope with and survive HIV diagnoses in the rural South.

Unexpected explores the critical issue of women facing HIV and looks into why Black women are disproportionally affected by the disease. According to the CDC, the HIV infection rate among Black women was the highest compared to women of all other races and ethnicities: 11 times that of White women and four times that of Latina women.

“But HIV is talked about like it’s something from the ‘90s,” Covin says.

That’s why the film was made, says director Zeberiah Newman, who worked as a producer on The Late Late Show with James Corden for eight years.

“I was shocked and alarmed to see that HIV is a very real and active crisis in the South, specifically with Black women,” Newman, 42, says, whose first short documentary, Right to Try, examined the business of HIV.

“I started asking questions. In my humble opinion we need to collectively help these women combat the stigma and health disparities around HIV.” As a gay man, Newman says he feels almost a sense of duty to help during what he calls a new wave of the epidemic. “We must continue the fight and help our sisters through this crisis.”

He rallied strong talent for the film project, which is now Oscar-qualified in the Documentary Short category. His producer is Sheryl Lee Ralph. In 1990, Ralph, known for her role in Dreamgirls on Broadway and her Emmy-winning role on Abbot Elementary, created the Diva Foundation, which has since raised over $3.5M from corporations and individuals to deliver community-based programs targeting the most at-risk for poor health outcomes, including people living with HIV/AIDS and those left even more vulnerable by comorbidities.

Related: Sheryl Lee Ralph on the Inspiration Behind Her AIDS Activism: 'Somebody's Got to do Something'

“So many people around the world have moved away from the conversation around HIV and AIDS,” Ralph says. “In 40 years, I have seen this narrative around this disease go from that they wanted to call a ‘gay white man’s disease’ to a ‘Black woman’s disease,’ especially the Black woman in the south of the United States. It has become the burden of this group of women to continue to do the work of raising awareness, and that’s exactly what this film does.”

Ralph, who founded her Diva organization as a memorial and lifelong pledge to friends she’s lost to HIV and AIDS, has learned so much from her four decades of HIV advocacy. “Life is such a temporary thing. Health is very often an unappreciated gift, and people more times than not don’t realize just how valuable they are, no matter what anybody else says about them or thinks about them.”

And that's why it was so important to her to highlight the stories of women like Covin.

Today, Covin is living with HIV — “I’d say thriving,” she corrects — and is "undetectable," which means the amount of HIV present in a person's blood, or "HIV viral load", is too low measure on a lab test.

And, she says, she's almost as surprised by having a role in the documentary as she was when she first received her diagnosis. “Oh my god, I’m in shock and awe. Sheryl Lee Ralph produced a documentary that I am in. I’m so grateful. We felt so seen by her. And then to learn about the advocacy she’s been doing for so long.”

Covin hopes “Black women who are pregnant and newly diagnosed see the film. I hope people who are not positive see it and think of ways to be not positive. I want people with money to see it to help young moms. And I hope doctors and providers see it, because they impact us.”

But she still can’t believe she got to meet Ralph. “It felt spiritual. Like we had been here before. And we kind of had. She was in Dreamgirls! She was Moesha’s momma! And now, well she has been an absolute auntie to me.”

Related: Elton John Says He's 'Deeply Moved' by Madonna's 'Heartfelt Tribute' to Lives Lost to AIDS in Celebration Tour

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