HIV-Positive Candidate Thinks Positive : Massachusetts: Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, a hemophiliac, contracted virus through a contaminated transfusion, but has not developed AIDS. His goal is to live life to the fullest.

As a child, bleeding in his joints caused by hemophilia tortured his limbs. As a young man, a contaminated transfusion left him with the virus that causes AIDS.

Now Bob Massie is the Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, perhaps the first HIV-positive candidate for statewide office.

“I’m very, very aware that you only have a certain time on this Earth and some people have more and some have less,” he said, “and the goal is to live life to the fullest within that span.

“Let’s do the stuff that’s important to do in the time that we have,” he said of his first bid for public office.

Massie, running with gubernatorial candidate Mark Roosevelt in what is clearly a long-shot candidacy, said he wants to help boost small business and work on heath care reform. But he emphasizes that he hasn’t made his HIV status the centerpiece of the campaign.

“It’s not a qualification for government. It’s part of who I am,” he said. “It says something about my determination and about my candor.”

Massie, diagnosed with HIV in 1984, said he hasn’t developed any illnesses associated with HIV or AIDS. His opponents have not made his health an issue.

Massie and Roosevelt face popular incumbent Republicans, Gov. William Weld and Lt. Gov. Paul Cellucci, in the November election.

Massie is believed to be the first HIV-positive candidate to run for statewide office, according to Kathleen DeBold, deputy director of the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund in Washington.

“There’s often a shame and silence that surrounds HIV and there’s really no reason for that,” she said. Massie’s candidacy “sends a message that the lives of people with HIV are full and active.”

His hemophilia--a hereditary blood-clotting disorder--was a spark for his father, Robert K. Massie, to write “Nicholas and Alexandra,” a best-selling novel about the last Russian czar through the eyes of the czar’s son, Alexis, a hemophiliac.

The Massie family’s ties to the literary world have turned into contributions from writers Erica Jong, Peter Maas and David McCullough, and from singer Barbra Streisand. Peter, Paul and Mary gave him a benefit concert.

Massie, 38, says he is prepared for the job of lieutenant governor. He’s helped the poor and sick as an Episcopal minister, fathered two children, written a book about his life called “Journey,” and picked up three Ivy League degrees, including a business degree from Harvard and a divinity degree from Yale.

And growing up with hemophilia also taught him a few lessons. He said he was often bedridden with internal bleeding and excruciating joint pain and continues to have painful arthritis in his knees and ankles.

“It’s very hard to for me to dismiss the suffering of others, to just go by it, because I know what it’s like,” he said.