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.
Keeping Confidence: HIV and the criminal law from service provider perspectives (HJN, 2013) (4 of 4)
The Keeping Confidence one day conference was a free event to discuss findings from a report that we produced in conjunction with Birkbeck College. For more detailed information on the project please follow this link to the project description page: sigmaresearch.org.uk/projects/policy/project55/
Feedback from afternoon workshops and closing whole group discussion
Prof Matthew weait, Birkbeck College
Dr Robert James, HIV Patient Representative, Lawson Unit, Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust
Dr Catherine Dodds, LSHTM
Video produced by georgetownmedia.de
Keeping Confidence: HIV and the criminal law from service provider perspectives (HJN, 2013) (3 of 4)
The Keeping Confidence one day conference was a free event to discuss findings from a report that we produced in conjunction with Birkbeck College. For more detailed information on the project please follow this link to the project description page: sigmaresearch.org.uk/projects/policy/project55/
Overview of updated 2013 BHIVA/BASHH position paper, ‘HIV transmission, the law and the work of the clinical team’
Dr Mary Poulton, Consultant and Clinical Head, Sexual Health and HIV, Kings College Hospital
Video produced by georgetownmedia.de
Keeping Confidence: HIV and the criminal law from service provider perspectives (HJN, 2013) (2 of 4)
The Keeping Confidence one day conference was a free event to discuss findings from a report that we produced in conjunction with Birkbeck College. For more detailed information on the project please follow this link to the project description page: sigmaresearch.org.uk/projects/policy/project55/
Response Panel
Chaired by Dr Adam Bourne, LSHTM
Ms Ceri Evans, Senior Health Adviser, West London Centre for Sexual Health, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital
Dr Robert James, HIV Patient Representative, Lawson Unit, Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust
Mrs Juliet Reid, Chief Executive, Centre for All Families Positive Health (CAFPH)
Video produced by georgetownmedia.de
Keeping Confidence: HIV and the criminal law from service provider perspectives (HJN, 2013) (1 of 4)
The Keeping Confidence one day conference was a free event to discuss findings from a report that we produced in conjunction with Birkbeck College. For more detailed information on the project please follow this link to the project description page: sigmaresearch.org.uk/projects/policy/project55/
Part 1: Overview of Keeping Confidence report and recommendations
Dr Catherine Dodds, LSHTM
Prof Matthew Weait, Birkbeck College
Introduction by Matt Williams, Monument Trust
Video produced by georgetownmedia.de
SERO speaks on injustice of HIV discrimination | The Johns Hopkins News-Letter
“Hi. I am Robert Suttle and I am not a criminal. I am not a sex offender.” Last Thursday, Suttle, alongside two colleagues, stood before a sea of Hopkins undergraduates and professed the reality of his situation. He was personable, grounded and boldly transparent. “Me. Living in the south. I’m black.
Canada: Expert witness for prosecution, Robert Remis, subject of protest
Saturday, April 13, 2013 – At the Canadian Association of HIV/AIDS Researchers conference in Vancouver AIDS ACTION NOW! led people living with HIV, researchers, and doctors to stand in solidarity and call for members of the Canadian HIV research community to stop acting as paid expert witnesses on the side of Crown prosecutors in HIV non-disclosure trials.
Canada: HIV law unjust, says lawyer
Barrie Advance A Toronto lawyer believes a new law for HIV patients isn’t fair for Canadians, and leads to more questions than answers. Ryan Peck, executive director of the HIV and AIDS Legal Clinic Ontario (HALCO), was in Barrie recently to discuss the law.
Canada: Male Call study finds more than half of gay men with HIV fear being prosecuted for not disclosing their HIV status
Two-thirds of men who have sex with men believe that people with HIV-AIDS should face criminal charges if they fail to disclose their status to a sexual partner. But that number varied a lot depending on circumstance, with 83 per cent saying non-disclosure before anal sex should be a crime, and 42 per cent saying failure to disclose HIV status before oral sex was a criminal act. Only 17 per cent said failing to disclose should never be criminalized. “The consensus is there should be legal measures in place related to disclosure,” Dan Allman, an assistant professor in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, said in an interview. “At the same time, there is a feeling that legal measures won’t have an impact. There’s an innate understanding that disclosing your HIV status is hard and criminal laws aren’t going to make it easier,” he said.
The survey, dubbed Male Call involved 1,235 detailed interviews with men who have sex with men. The research shows that 26.2 per cent of respondents did not know their HIV status because they had not been tested recently; that number jumped to 50.6 per cent among bisexual men. Overall, 67.2 per cent of the men surveyed were HIV-negative, and 6.6 per cent HIV-positive.
Most of those who had not been tested said they were confident they were HIV-negative because their sexual practices put them at low risk. But a significant minority, 17 per cent, said they did not want to know their status, either because they could not deal with being infected or out of fear it could cause legal problems.
The fear associated with being HIV-positive was pervasive. The poll showed that 83 per cent of men worry about being stigmatized because of HIV, while 68 per cent fear being rejected by other gay/bisexual men, and 51 per cent fear being prosecuted for not disclosing their HIV status. 17.8% agreed that in the current legal climate it was better not to know your HIV status.
Full report available here: http://www.malecall.ca/technical-report/