Birmingham native Carlton V. Bell II is an artist who believes telling the stories of the most marginalized can heal society’s wounds of apathy.

As a Black queer creative who lives with HIV, Bell has been concerned about how individuals who are also HIV-positive are being abandoned on both a governmental and communal level. On Dec.1, President Donald Trump decided the United States would not commemorate World AIDS Day for the first time in over 30 years after cutting funding for HIV prevention care. A 2024 study by researchers from the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health is ringing the alarm about how anti-LGBTQ+ laws can trigger ripple effects of harm in healthcare by increasing HIV stigma and decreasing medical care access.

According to Bell, stigmatizing rhetoric permeates LGBTQ+ dating culture, further alienating those with HIV, despite the fact that individuals with undetectable levels of the virus have zero risk of transmitting it further.

Bell is now deconstructing the narrative of stigmatization for a new plot – one that got them second place in a national TV pilot pitching competition that was held in front of the Oscar-nominated director, producer and screenwriter Lee Daniels.

Bell’s series “un-United” is set in a dystopian world ravaged by a virus that endangers everyone except people who have HIV. Those who were once ignored and exiled are then hoarded and captured by the government due to their immunity. “Un-United” follows a Black woman geneticist who saves a young girl who is HIV-positive. A Black and queer led resistance group called the Undetectables also serve as main characters in a storyline that interrogates the social and systemic issues manufacturing HIV stigma today.

“Television, in my opinion, can be and should be designed to drive home messages that move our collective consciousness,” Bell said. “By utilizing camera angles, music, and characters, we allow our audience to see themselves and also the capacity to root for a hero they may not have known exists. What I am most interested in ‘un-United’ is that people living within the margins get to be the heroes. They called them a curse. Now, they are the cure.”

The pitching contest, which was organized by the LGBTQ+ advocacy organization GLAAD and done in partnership with Starz network, took place during GLAAD’s Black Queer Creative Summit in mid-September. Along with a $3,500 cash prize, Bell is one of three winners who are currently being advised by industry experts from Sony, Netflix, Starz and other entertainment studios during GLAAD’s eight-week mentorship lab. From October until the end of December, Bell and their colleagues have been incorporating experts’ feedback into their script development, world-building and show packaging. The lab doesn’t guarantee production, but Bell sees the mentorship lab as an opportunity to solidify success.

Bell was in awe when they won second place. Theatre has been a passion they’ve pursued since grade school and continued throughout their high school career. Beyond that, Bell calls themself a student of experience – someone who doesn’t have a degree, but they have a determination to pick up and strengthen their skills of producing, writing and directing as they go.

The result of that journey has helped them raise over $2.5 million dollars for art organizations led by marginalized artists and led to the creation of multiple community-centered creative spaces. Bell cofounded the Birmingham Black Repertory Theatre Collective, a youth-led nonprofit that’s building power and capacity for queer creatives.

Their work in theatre and activism has earned them several awards and honors, including AL.com’s Entertainer of the Year and Sidewalk Film Festival’s Black Lens Filmmaker Award.

Now Bell has another accolade to add to their resume, and it’s one that will help them amplify the voices of those who were once forgotten.

“I was thanking my ancestors heavy,” Bell said of their pitching competition win. “I naturally felt very out of place because of my background, of just not having academic experience, and not having very much professional experience. So this is a huge moment of gratitude and reflection.”

‘HIV unites us all’

The concept for “un-United” came together at a time when COVID-19 halted the world to a standstill. The nature of the pandemic, Bell’s love for dystopian dramas such as “The Last Of Us” and “The Handmaid’s Tale,” and their own HIV experience influenced parts of the storyline that was originally written as a play. One mundane moment led to a creative spark. Bell remembers taking their HIV medication and thinking, What if I was immune to COVID because I am HIV-positive?

While collaborating with other creatives in their circle, another instance of inspiration came to Bell: What if all people with HIV were immune to COVID and the government was farming us?

Soon enough, Bell was typing out a play about a queer community learning to liberate themselves.

“It really evolved and expanded to being a story about how HIV impacts and affects us all in a more global sense,” Bell said. “This always happens in my career: I have a random thought that leads me to what feels like a huge place of responsibility because I’m realizing from this one small idea of me just wanting to write a kooky story, I have the opportunity to shift narrative about people living with HIV and the systems in which those people are being impacted by. If I can do that in a way that gives us proximity to empathy even one percent more, that’s what I want to do.”

GLAAD’s 2024 “State of Stigma” study reports that HIV representation in TV and film increases viewers’ comfort level when it comes to interacting with people living with HIV by 15 percent. This is especially important for Gen Z viewers who have been reported by the organization as being the least knowledgeable about HIV.

Bell grew up during a time when misinformation perpetuated a myth that HIV was a curse of moral failing. According to biopharmaceutical company Gilead, public health messages during the 90s placed the blame of the HIV epidemic on personal behaviors, such as men who have sex with men and people who have used drugs intravenously. The messaging further marginalized both the LGBTQ+ community and those who are dealing with drug addiction. It also shaped the rules of Bell’s world.

“Growing up in the 90’s the stigma was – using the language dictated to me – that ‘people with AIDS’ were intentionally leaving needles in public places in the hopes to infect people,” Bell said. “Sounds wild, but things like seat cushions at theaters or the inside of a coin machine or even the inside of the handle of a gas pump all became things I was programmed and taught to inspect first.”

Narrowing the focus on gay men and drug abuse ignored an important truth about the virus, Bell said: HIV doesn’t care about one’s race, sexuality, gender identity or class. As an artist and activist, Bell has worked with people from multiple backgrounds who have been diagnosed with the virus.

“HIV unites us all just by the nature of what the virus is. It does not discriminate.” Bell said. “There is an illusion that it only affects one kind of person. So I get really excited when we start having conversations about class, race and identity in a space where it’s all people who are HIV positive because we’re approaching it from a shared vantage point that I think is often missing from the conversation. It’s a big one because it has so much to do with root cause issues.”

Undoing the stigma with stories of joy and resilience

Medical professionals have identified unequal access to adequate healthcare, poverty and stigma all play roles in increasing the risk of someone being diagnosed with HIV. Decades of systemic inequality have created an environment for these factors to exist in the South, which has been identified as the epicenter of HIV in the country. In 2023, 51 percent of new HIV diagnoses despite only accounting for 38 percent of the population. The numbers worsen for minority communities. Black southerners made up 19 percent of the population in the region, but nearly half of new diagnoses.

Bell weaves these realities into “Un-united’s” storyline. A pair of Black queer twins who are leaders in the resistance against the government become instrumental to the main character’s personal development by reminding her about why she is helping those who have HIV in the first place. Bell hopes to conjure that same feeling of responsibility in the viewers of their show.

“We all live with stigma,” Bell said. “So maybe you don’t have someone in your family who is living with HIV or you don’t know anyone personally. But how do you hold HIV in your head? What do you know about it? How do you understand it, and how are the people around you speaking about healthcare.”

Hopelessness is another theme Bell has detected in earlier media. For much of their youth, the HIV experience was portrayed through plays like”Angels in America” and “Rent.” While Bell adores “Rent,” they said the musical shows people of color dying instead of thriving.

Antiretroviral therapy, which prevents HIV reproduction, PrEP, a prescription that reduces a person’s risk of contracting HIV and other medical advances have turned HIV into a manageable chronic condition. GLAAD’s “Where We Are On TV” analysis illustrates the need for more positive stories in this regard. Between June 2024 and May 2025, only one new character with HIV appeared in a primetime broadcast, cable, or scripted streaming original series.

“As this study has repeatedly noted, many depictions of HIV and AIDS remain confined to historical or tragic narratives,” GLAAD officials stated in its report. “It is imperative that television reflect the present reality of people living with HIV today – stories of resilience, joy, and everyday life that are critical to dismantling stigma.

The responsibility of TV

GLAAD has been tracking the number and quality of queer representation in TV and film for 20 years. The organization counted 489 recurring characters during the 2024-2025 season. While this is a four percent increase from last year’s report, the number is expected to drop next year. Researchers of the study said 201 of the 489 characters will not be returning due to series cancellations and endings or the character has died.

Queer representation in the media isn’t the only factor to take into account when it comes to queer representation on TV. According to GLAAD, it’s also who is telling the stories. The organization’s annual Black Queer Creative Summit strengthens the pipeline of LGBTQ+ storytellers by offering them the resources, networking opportunities and expertise needed to bring their authentic lives to the screen. Bell described the event as one that combined education with community. Entertainment experts shared their experience and wisdom during workshops, panels and gatherings that were tailored to the five industry tracts offered during the summit.

Queer creatives who are forging their careers in content creation, music production, acting and other areas of media found themselves in the same rooms as producer Lena Waithe and voice actress Cree Summer.

“It really felt like an initiation into proximity to the commercial industry,” Bell said “Anybody that you wanted to meet was just like accessible and was around solely to be in community with us.”

Fate took an interesting turn during the competition portion of the summit. Pitching “un-United” wasn’t Bell’s first choice. They were originally going to present a TV series about a Black trans woman attending an HBCU.

Bell said organizers randomly chose 20 participants to present during the contest. All the narratives were entertaining, until someone presented a show that was similar to Bell’s. Flustered, Bell opened their Google Drive to search through their log of ideas.

I’m not going to make something up on the spot, Bell thought to themselves. What do you have in here that you know? What is something in here that you have started or finished that you can now translate into a series.

That something was “un-United.” A play Bell hadn’t touched since COVID times but it was a storyline that they not only knew mentally, but could touch on personally. So when Bell’s name was called, they went with what their ancestors and intuition was guiding them to do.

“I can remember getting up there and spirit literally said in my ear, ‘Make sure you talk about what you know about being a person living with HIV,’” Bell said. “I thought, ‘I’m just gonna have to be very honest right here, right now if I want to move this room in the way in which it gets me at least a shot at winning this competition.’”

The honesty worked. The room was moved and a wave of support welcomed Bell once they finished their pitch. As soon as they sat down, Daniels’ assistant came up to Bell before the competition was over to ask for their number. When their name was called for second place, multiple people hugged and told Bell that their idea was a crowd favorite.

“I was just so gagged,” Bell said. “I’m still gagged by it, and grateful because, again, there were 20 pitches, and everybody’s pitch was tea.”

That supportive presence didn’t let up during the fast-paced mentorship lab. Between the ripping and running from meeting to meeting on studio lots, Bell said the two other competition winners, who have more professional experience, have freely given up their knowledge to help perfect Bell’s work. Bell’s one-on-one meeting with Daniels was informative and encouraging. Bell said Daniels gave them compliments and feedback on the concept for “un-United.”

The words were comforting to hear. Creating a TV series would require Bell to step into the unfamiliar terrain screenwriting. But they persevered by listening to the audiobook “Save the Cat,” a guide that has become a staple for beginner screenwriters. Within a couple days, Bell was typing up their script treatment, which is a narrative summary detailing the plot, characters and themes of the show. Bell has sent that treatment to Daniels to look over. While they don’t have a full script written yet, Bell believes they are still ahead of the game.

“I’m in a unique position to where I have a really strong concept, but I don’t have the pilot written yet. So I’m really able to write the world that is going to make the most sense or be our best shot at what the network would want to pick.”

Bell is hoping to end the year with a script that is ready to be pitched to studios. That goal would require them to tap into a network of connections currently being forged during the lab. Bell is taking all critiques into consideration to create something that’s more than entertainment. They see “un-United” as an opportunity to use language and visuals as tools of education and empathy building.

“I’m really trying to venture into a scope that centers Black queer people as heroes in a story about a very global issue,“ Bell said. “I think until there is storytelling and media that people consume that force conversations about this, we will never have them.“

Read more about how being an Alabamian propelled Bell’s career in arts and activism by signing up for Friday’s Black Joy newsletter.