While science has vastly advanced since the early days of the HIV/AIDS epidemic more than 30 years ago, the ways in which many criminal laws treat people living with HIV look like throwbacks to the dark days of the past when fear and misinformation about HIV and how it is transmitted wer…
US: Advocate editorial supports REPEAL HIV Discrimination Act
This past week, U.S. representative Barbara Lee reintroduced a bill to repeal HIV criminalization laws across the nation, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. Earlier this year, LGBT people went on red alert when a public health bill in Kansas proposed that people living with HIV could be quarantined.
Lambda Legal Urges Congress to Pass the REPEAL HIV Discrimination Act
Lambda Legal is voicing its support the REPEAL HIV Discrimination Act, which would encourage states to reconsider laws and practices that unfairly target people with HIV for consensual sex and conduct that poses no real risk of HIV transmission. Scott Schoettes, Lambda Legal’s HIV Project Director, says: “The more messages we can send to states to modernize or eliminate HIV criminalization laws the better—and that is exactly what this bill does. It is high time the nation’s HIV criminalization laws reflect the current reality of living with HIV, both from medical and social perspectives. Except for perhaps the most extreme cases, the criminal law is far too blunt an instrument to address the subtle dynamics of HIV disclosure.”
US: Excellent article by Ari Ezra Waldman explaining why US HIV criminalisation laws are unjust and how to move forward
In Georgia, a woman was sentenced to eight years in jail for failing to disclose her HIV status to a male partner, despite witnesses’ statements that he already knew she was HIV positive. There’s a man in Ohio who is serving 40 years for failing to tell his ex-girlfriend that he was HIV positive, even though the case was motivated by an ex-lover’s jealous rage.
Advocates Urge Repeal of U.S. Laws Criminalizing HIV
Advocates Urge Repeal of U.S. Laws Criminalizing HIV The producer of a new documentary about criminalizing those with HIV summed up such laws’ effects at a public showing of the film. “These horrendous punishments are vastly disproportionate to the crime,” said the film’s producer, Sero Project founder Sean Strub.
US: Todd Heywood's analytical history of how the US developed HIV-specific criminal statutes and why there's now a movement to modernise or repeal these laws
In the late fall of 1988, state lawmakers and representatives from major insurance and pharmaceutical companies were hard at work addressing the looming AIDS crisis for the American Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative-leaning think tank that produces state-based business-friendly model legislation.
Four Stories: The Effects of HIV Criminalization on Sex and Intimacy
“As a trans woman living with HIV, I’m always worried that if I don’t disclose to my partner before we even approach the bedroom that they’ll turn around and charge me with a crime. When you have to tell a potential partner that you’re trans and poz, there’s always a fear that they will use that information to make your life hell.
4 States With Scientifically Unsound Laws Criminalizing HIV
1. Missouri: It is unlawful for any individual knowingly infected with HIV to bite another person. The law also specifically prohibits the use of a condom as a defense in a nondisclosure case. 2. Michigan: It is a felony, with a four-year jail sentence, for those who know they are HIV-positive to engage in “sexual penetration, however slight” without first disclosing that status to a partner.
Uganda: As second reading of controversial national HIV law awaits, activists hope regional HIV law – with no HIV criminal statute – will take precedence
Activists in Uganda are seeing an opportunity to shoot down the country’s controversial HIV Bill that criminalises transmission of the Aids virus and enforces mandatory testing, after President Yoweri Museveni signed a more liberal one proposed by the East African Community. They want Uganda’s parliament to incorporate into law the EAC HIV and Aids Prevention Bill (EAC HIV Bill) that President Museveni signed last week. More than 30 NGOs in Uganda find the national law that is awaiting a second reading in parliament offensive, saying that it could exacerbate the spread of HIV. Laws passed by the East African Legislative Assembly take precedence over national laws. President Museveni can also prevail upon the Ugandan parliament to drop the bill.
US: Activists highlight problematic HIV criminalisation statutes in Georgia, Louisiana and beyond
Robert Suttle met the man through mutual friends. There was no romantic interest at first, but on a New Year’s Eve after a night of partying in Louisiana, the two decided to spend the night together. One thing led to another. Suttle told the man he was HIV positive.