US: Louisiana’s HIV laws lag behind HIV science

Louisiana upholds its HIV exposure law as other states change or repeal theirs

When Robert Smith met his future girlfriend in 2010, he wanted to take things slowly. For Smith, no relationship had been easy in the years since he was diagnosed with the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV. People often became afraid when they learned his status, even running away when he coughed.

The couple waited months to have sex until Smith felt he could share his medical status. To prepare her, Smith said, he took his girlfriend to his job in HIV prevention at the Philadelphia Center, a northwestern Louisiana nonprofit that offers resources to people with HIV, which also provided him housing at the time.

Finally, he revealed the news: Smith was diagnosed with HIV in 1994 and started taking daily antiviral pills in 2006. The virus could no longer be detected in his blood, and he couldn’t transmit it to a sexual partner.

Smith said his girlfriend seemed comfortable knowing his status. When it came to sex, there was no hesitation, he said. But a couple of years later, when Smith wanted to break up, he said, her tone shifted.

“She was like, ‘If you try to leave me, I’m gonna put you in jail,’” recalled Smith, now 68. “At the time, I really didn’t know the sincerity of it.”

After they broke up, she reported him to the police, accusing him of violating a little-known law in Louisiana — a felony called “intentional exposure to HIV.” He disputed the allegations, but in 2013 accepted a plea deal to spend six months in prison on the charge. He had a few months left on parole from a past conviction on different charges, and Smith thought this option would let him move past the relationship faster. He didn’t realize the conviction would also land him on the state’s sex offender registry.

For nearly two decades, Smith had dealt with the stigma associated with having HIV; the registry added another layer of exclusion, severely restricting where he could live and work to avoid minors. Not many people want to hire a sex offender, he said. Smith has been told by the local sheriff’s office he’s not allowed to do simple things, like go to a public park or a high school football game, since the conviction.

“I’ve been undetectable for 15 years, but that law still punishes us,” Smith said.

Louisiana is one of 30 states with criminal penalties related to exposing or transmitting HIV. Most of the laws were passed in the 1980s during the emergence of the AIDS epidemic. Since then, several states have amended their laws to make them less punitive or repealed them outright, including Maryland and North Dakota this year.

But Louisiana’s law remains among the harshest. The state is one of five that may require people such as Smith to register as a sex offender if convicted, a label that can follow them for over a decade. And state lawmakers considered a bill to expand the law to apply to other sexually transmitted infections, then failed to pass it before the session ended.

Meanwhile, people with HIV also face the threat that federal funding cuts will affect their access to treatment, along with prevention efforts, supportive services, and outreach. Such strategies have proved to slow the HIV/AIDS epidemic, unlike the laws’ punitive approach.

The tax and domestic policy law previously known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill” will likely affect HIV-positive people enrolled in Medicaid by reducing federal support for Medicaid and restricting eligibility. About 40% of adults under 65 with HIV rely on Medicaid.

The Trump administration proposed in its fiscal 2026 budget request to eliminate HIV prevention programs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and to cancel a grant that helps fund housing for people with HIV. The Ryan White HIV/AIDS program, the largest federal fund dedicated to supporting HIV-positive people, also faces cuts. The program serves more than half of the people in the U.S. diagnosed with HIV, including in Louisiana, according to the health information nonprofit KFF.

Public health officials maintain that state laws criminalizing HIV exposure hurt efforts to end the HIV epidemic. Epidemiologists and other experts on AIDS agree that the enforcement of such laws is often shaped by fear, not science. For example, in many states that criminalize HIV exposure, people living with HIV can face heightened criminal penalties for actions that can’t transmit the virus, such as spitting on someone. The laws further stigmatize and deter people from getting tested and treatment, undermining response to the epidemic, experts say.

At least 4,400 people in 14 states have been arrested under these laws, though data is limited and the actual number is likely higher, and the arrests aren’t decreasing, according to analyses by UCLA’s Williams Institute.

“ Some people think it’s an issue that’s gone away, and that simply isn’t the case,” said Nathan Cisneros, a researcher at the Williams Institute.

In Louisiana, a 2022 Williams Institute analysis found at least 147 allegations reported to law enforcement under the state’s HIV law from 2011 to mid-2022. Black people made up nearly three-quarters of the people convicted and placed on the sex offender registry. Most were Black men, like Smith. At the time of the analysis, Black people made up about two-thirds of HIV diagnoses in the state.

“ We see over and over that Black people are disproportionately affected by the HIV epidemic and disproportionately affected by policing and incarceration in the United States,” Cisneros said.

Nationally, other marginalized groups such as women, sex workers, the queer community, or people who overlap across more than one group are also disproportionately arrested and prosecuted under similar criminalization laws, Cisneros said.

Ensnared in the system

Louisiana’s law hinges on the requirement that if a person knows they have HIV, they must disclose their HIV status and receive consent before exposing someone to the virus.

Louisiana District Attorneys Association Executive Director Zach Daniels said these cases don’t come up often and can be difficult to prosecute. Daniels said the intimate nature of the cases can lead to little evidence in support of either side, especially if the accuser doesn’t contract HIV.

When it comes to talking about one’s sex life, Daniels said, “there are often no other witnesses, besides the two participants.”

Louisiana’s law is written so that “intentional exposure” can occur through “any means or contact.” That includes sex and needle-sharing, practices known to transmit the virus. But the language of the law is so broad that actions known not to transmit the virus — like biting or scratching — could be included, said Dietz, the statewide coordinator for the Louisiana Coalition on Criminalization and Health, an advocacy network founded by people living with HIV that has opposed the law.

The broad nature of the law creates opportunities for abuse, as the threat of being reported under the law can be used as a coercive tool in relationships, said Dietz, who goes by one name and uses they/them pronouns. Such threats, Dietz said, have kept people in abusive relationships and loomed over child custody battles. Dietz said they’ve supported people accused of exposing their children to HIV in ways that are not medically possible.

“ ‘Any means or contact’ could be just merely being around your kids,” they said.

The prosecutors’ organization still supports the law as a recourse for emergency responders who, in rare instances, come into contact with blood or syringes containing the virus. In one recent high-profile case in New Orleans, the law was used against a local DJ accused of knowingly transmitting HIV to several women without informing them of his status or using a condom.

The person accused of violating the law, not the accuser, must prove their case — that they disclosed their HIV status beforehand. Without a signed affidavit or tape recording, courts can end up basing their decisions on conflicting testimonies with little supporting evidence.

That’s what Smith alleged happened to him.

After his relationship ended, he said, he remembered being called into a meeting with his parole officer where a detective waited for him, asking about his former relationship and whether his girlfriend had known about his HIV status.

Smith said yes. But that’s not what she had told police.

Verite News could not find a working phone number for Smith’s former girlfriend but corroborated the story with the incident’s police report. His attorney at the time, a public defender named Carlos Prudhomme, said he didn’t remember much about the case, and court documents are sealed because it was a sex offense.

In court, it was her word against his. So when he was offered six months in prison instead of the 10-year maximum, he switched his plea from not guilty to guilty. But he said he didn’t know his new conviction would require him to register as a sex offender once he got out — worsening the stigma.

“When people see ‘sex offender,’ the first thing that comes to their mind is rape, child molester, predator,” Smith said. “This law puts me in a category that I don’t care to be in.”

He has tried to make the most of it, despite the expense of paying fees each year to re-register. After being rejected from jobs, he started a catering business and built a loyal clientele. But he said he’s still stuck living in a poorly maintained apartment complex primarily inhabited by sex offenders.

“I understand their strategy for creating this law to prevent the spread, but it’s not helping. It’s hurting; it’s hindering. It’s destroying people’s lives instead of helping people’s lives, especially the HIV community,” he said. “They don’t care about us.”

The case for reform

Since 2014, there has been a nationwide effort to update or repeal state laws that criminalize HIV nondisclosure, exposure, or transmission. A dozen states have changed their laws to align more closely with modern science, and four have gotten rid of them completely in hopes of reducing stigma and improving public health outcomes, according to the Center for HIV Law and Policy.

Sean McCormick, an attorney with the center, said these changes are influenced partly by a growing body of evidence showing the laws’ negative consequences.

McCormick said the laws offer a “clear disincentive” for people to get tested for HIV. If they don’t know their status, there’s no criminal liability for transmission or exposure.

A 2024 survey by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and DLH Corp. researchers found that after California updated its HIV criminalization law in 2018, respondents were more likely to get tested. Meanwhile, survey respondents in Nevada, which still had a more punitive law on the books, were less likely to get tested.

There’s no one-size-fits-all solution, McCormick said. His center works with HIV-positive people across the country to determine what legislative changes would work best in their states.

Texas was the first to repeal its HIV law in 1994.

“As a person living with HIV in Texas, I’m deeply appreciative that we don’t have an HIV-specific statute that puts a target on my back,” said Michael Elizabeth, the public health policy director for the Equality Federation.

But Elizabeth points out that Texans living with HIV still face steeper penalties under general felony laws for charges such as aggravated assault or aggravated sexual assault after state courts in Texas equated the bodily fluids of a person with HIV with a “deadly weapon.”

Louisiana activists have pushed lawmakers in the state to amend the law in three ways: removing the sex offender registration requirement, requiring transmission to have occurred, and requiring clear intent to transmit the virus.

“Our strategy, as opposed to repeal, is to create a law that actually addresses the kind of boogeyman that they ostensibly created the law for: the person who successfully, maliciously, intentionally transmits HIV,” said Dietz with the Louisiana Coalition on Criminalization and Health.

In 2018, a bill to narrow the statute was amended in ways that expanded the law. For example, the updated law no longer had any definition of which actions “expose” someone to HIV.

In 2023, state lawmakers created a task force that recommended updating Louisiana’s law to align with the latest public health guidelines, limit the potential for unintended consequences, and give previously convicted people a way to clear their record.

Lawmakers in the state House pushed forward a bill this year to criminalize other sexually transmitted infections, including hepatitis B and the herpes simplex virus. That bill died in the Senate, but it spurred the creation of another legislative task force with a nearly identical mission to that of the first.

“ This state has no idea how closely we just dodged a bullet,” Dietz said.

In the meantime, the Louisiana coalition is helping Smith petition the state to take his name off the sex offender registry. Louisiana law allows people to petition to have their names removed from the registry after 10 years without any new sex crime convictions. Smith expects his case to be approved by the end of the year.

Despite the difficulty of the past 12 years, he said, he’s grateful for the chance to be free from the registry’s restrictions.

“It’s like a breath of fresh air,” Smith said. “I can do stuff that I wanted to do that I couldn’t. Like, go to a football game. Simple stuff like that, I’m going to be ready to do.”

This story was produced in collaboration with KFF Health News. 

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism.

New global data reveals rising HIV criminalisation amid stalling legal reforms

The HIV Justice Network published new data this week showing a troubling rise in the number of people criminalised for HIV non-disclosure, potential or perceived exposure, or unintentional transmission in 2024 and the first half of 2025. As legal reforms appear to be stalling, discriminatory prosecutions, harsh sentences, and misuse of outdated laws continue to impact people with HIV and the HIV response.

The figures, presented at the 13h IAS Conference on HIV Science (IAS 2025) in Kigali, Rwanda, are drawn from the Global HIV Criminalisation Database. The database documents criminal cases and legal developments involving HIV-specific or general criminal laws worldwide.

In 2024, at least 65 HIV criminalisation cases were reported across 22 countries – up from 57 in 2023 and 50 in 2022. Russia (25 cases) and the United States (11) led the global tally, followed by Uzbekistan, Spain, Argentina, Belarus, Senegal, and Singapore. For the first time, prosecutions were documented in Panama and Uruguay.

The upward trend continued into 2025, with 48 cases reported in just the first six months. Uzbekistan (28) and Russia (9) again accounted for the majority, alongside new cases in the U.S., Canada, and Argentina. However, the actual number of cases is likely much higher, particularly in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the United States, where civil society organisations report many cases go undocumented.

“These cases show that HIV criminalisation remains a global crisis,” said Edwin J. Bernard, Executive Director of the HIV Justice Network. “Far too often, people living with HIV are prosecuted not for causing harm, but simply for living with a health condition – often in ways that are unscientific, discriminatory, and deeply unjust.”

                 Download the poster by clicking on the image

The report highlights the intersection of HIV criminalisation with racism, homophobia, gender-based discrimination, and systemic inequality. In Senegal, for example, prosecutions have disproportionately targeted LGBTQ+ individuals. In the U.S., criminal laws continue to be weaponised against communities of colour, even in cases involving no risk of transmission – such as spitting, or sex with an undetectable viral load.

One of the most alarming cases occurred in South Africa, where a former soldier was sentenced to life plus ten years for rape and attempted murder after failing to disclose his HIV status to a consenting partner – despite no evidence of intent or actual transmission. Advocates warn that such cases equate HIV non-disclosure with sexual violence and undermine decades of public health and human rights gains.

Yet, amidst the setbacks, 2024/2025 also brought some signs of hope. Maryland and North Dakota fully repealed their HIV-specific laws, while Tennessee removed mandatory sex offender registration for HIV-related convictions. Mexico City and Colima repealed vague “danger of contagion” laws, and Ukraine’s parliament voted to remove HIV from its criminal code.

In Zimbabwe, community activism helped block a proposal to re-criminalise HIV transmission. However, a new law was introduced criminalising the deliberate transmission of STIs to children, including HIV – raising fears it could be used against mothers living with HIV, particularly in breastfeeding cases.

Despite these advances, HIV criminalisation remains widespread. A total of 83 countries still have HIV-specific laws, and 23 countries reported prosecutions in this period using either HIV-specific or general laws. The HIV Justice Network warns that without urgent action, the world is unlikely to meet UNAIDS’ target of reducing punitive laws to below 10% of countries by 2030.

“The path forward must be rooted in science, rights, and community leadership,” Bernard said. “We must end laws that punish people for their status, and instead build legal systems that support health, dignity, and justice.”


EPO622 Recent progress and setbacks in HIV criminalisation around the world by Edwin J Bernard, Sylvie Beaumont, and Elliot Hatt was presented at IAS 2025 by Paul Kidd at 13th IAS Conference on HIV Science in Kigali, Rwanda.

 

Criminalization and funding cuts threaten global progress against HIV/AIDS

High-risk HIV groups facing record levels of criminalisation as countries bring in draconian laws

Curbs on LGBTQ+ rights and a halt to US funding may reverse decades of progress in fight to end Aids epidemic, warns UNAids.

People at higher risk of HIV, such as gay men and people who inject drugs, are facing record levels of criminalisation worldwide, according to UNAids.

For the first time since the joint UN programme on HIV/Aids began reporting on punitive laws a decade ago, the number of countries criminalising same-sex sexual activity and gender expression has increased.

In the past year, Mali has made homosexuality a criminal offence, where the law previously only banned “public indecency”, and has also criminalised transgender people. Trinidad and Tobago’s court of appeal has overturned a landmark 2018 ruling that decriminalised consensual same-sex relations, reinstating the colonial-era ban. In Uganda, the 2023 Anti-Homosexuality Acthas “intensified the proscription of same-sex relations”, and Ghana has moved in a similar direction with the reintroduction of legislation that would increase sentences for gay sex.

The crackdown on gay rights comes as the fight against HIV/Aids has been hit by abrupt US funding cuts, which have combined with “unprecedented” humanitarian challenges and climate crisis shocks to jeopardise hopes of ending the global epidemic this decade, UNAids said.

Several groups of people, known as “key populations”, are more likely to be infected with HIV. They include sex workers, gay men and other men who have sex with men, people who inject drugs, transgender people, and those in prisons and other enclosed settings.

In 2025, only eight of 193 countries did not criminalise any of those groups or behaviours, or criminalise non-disclosure of HIV status, exposure or transmission, according to the report.

The number of people infected by HIV or dying from Aids-related causes in 2024 was the lowest for more than 30 years, according to the UNAids annual report, at 1.3 million and 630,000 respectively.

Progress was uneven – ranging from a 56% fall in infections since 2010 in sub-Saharan Africa to a 94% increase in the Middle East and North Africa. But coupled with scientific advances – such as twice-yearly drugs to prevent infection – the world had the “means and momentum” to end Aids as a public health threat by 2030, an internationally agreed goal, it said.

However, that has been “seriously jeopardised” in the early months of this year after sweeping US aid cuts that could undo decades of progress. In January, Donald Trump cut funding that had underpinned much of the global HIV response almost overnight.

The report highlights HIV-prevention services as an area of concern, with many particularly reliant on donor funding. The reported number of people receiving preventive drugs in Nigeria in November 2024 was approximately 43,000. By April 2025, that number had fallen to below 6,000.

Activists say access to prevention will be a particular issue for key populations, who may not be able to access mainstream healthcare due to factors such as stigma or fear of prosecution, but relied on donor-funded community clinics that have now closed.

Key populations were “always left behind”, said Dr Beatriz Grinsztejn, president of the International Aids Society (IAS).

The report is being released before an IAS conference next week in Kigali, Rwanda, where researchers will share data on the impact of cuts.

Modelling by Bristol University calculated that a one-year halt in US funding for preventive drugs in key populations in sub-Saharan Africa would mean roughly 700,000 people no longer used them, and lead to about 10,000 extra cases of HIV over the next five years.

UNAids modelling suggests that without any replacement for funding from US Pepfar (president’s emergency plan for Aids relief), an additional 4m deaths and 6m new infections could be expected globally by 2029.

However, Winnie Byanyima, executive director of UNAids, said 25 of the 60 low- and middle-income countries included in the report had found ways to increase HIV spending from domestic resources to 2026. “This is the future of the HIV response – nationally owned and led, sustainable, inclusive and multisectoral,” she said.

New Zealand: Survey launches to find out how HIV criminalisation laws impact lives

New Zealand’s Outdated HIV Criminalisation Laws Need To Change

New Zealand is falling behind the rest of the world in decriminalising HIV. In Aotearoa people living with HIV can still be criminalised for not disclosing their status, even when there is no risk of transmission, creating barriers to the global goal of ending HIV transmission.

A new nationwide survey launched today is inviting people living with HIV in Aotearoa to share how the country’s outdated criminalisation laws and policies have affected their lives, as calls grow for urgent policy reform. The survey will also be assessing knowledge of the laws and public health pathways for managing HIV transmission.

Burnett Foundation Aotearoa, in partnership with Body Positive, Positive Women Inc and Toitū Te Ao, has launched the anonymous survey to gather insights from people living with HIV about how implementation of the current criminal laws, stigma, and public attitudes related to the management of HIV transmission have impacted their lives, wellbeing, and relationships.

“It is time that our laws and policies get up to speed with science, fairness, and human rights,” says Burnett Foundation Aotearoa Chief Executive Liz Gibbs. “Historically, we have been world leaders in our HIV response, but we are falling behind when it comes to how the law treats people living with HIV.”

“Criminalising people living with HIV doesn’t reduce transmission. It increases fear and stigma, which discourages people from testing and accessing treatment.”

Under the Crimes Act, it is a serious offence to deliberately infect someone with a disease—punishable by up to 14 years in prison—and HIV is the only condition this law is applied to.

Using a condom removes the legal need to disclose, but the law hasn’t been tested for people with an undetectable viral load, where there is zero risk of passing on the virus. New Zealand’s outdated legal system doesn’t reflect this scientific reality.

New Zealand among top HIV criminalisation hotspots

According to international research by the HIV Justice Network, New Zealand ranks among the top 15 HIV criminalisation hotspots in the world. There have been 10 criminal cases per 10,000 diagnosed individuals living with HIV. This places Aotearoa alongside countries like Canada, Russia, and the United States, despite its comparatively low HIV prevalence and small population.

“This kind of data shows how out of proportion our current response is,” says Gibbs. “It’s not just outdated, it’s excessive. And it targets some of the most marginalised and vulnerable people in our communities.”

Globally, HIV criminalisation has been shown to disproportionately affect people who already face systemic inequality, including those impacted by drug use, sex work, migration status, poverty, gender identity, and sexuality. Many prosecutions proceed even when no HIV transmission has occurred, often based on outdated ideas of risk.

Criminalisation a major barrier to HIV elimination

To meet the goals in New Zealand’s National HIV Action Plan and eliminate new transmissions, Gibbs says we must remove legal barriers that punish rather than support people living with HIV.

“We know what actually prevents transmission: testing, treatment, and education, not laws that scare people out of disclosing their status,” she says.

“We have an opportunity to lead the world again, but only if we listen to those most affected by our current legal framework.”

Have your say

The survey is open to anyone living with HIV in Aotearoa and takes around 10 minutes to complete. All responses are anonymous. The results will help shape future advocacy, inform legal reform, and improve access to health services.

Survey link: www.surveymonkey.com/r/NZHIVCRIM
More info: burnettfoundation.org.nz/hiv-criminalisation-survey

Canada: Decades of advocacy ignored as Canada rejects HIV criminalisation law reform

Why is the federal government still refusing to decriminalize HIV?

Advocates have demanded change for decades. Canada’s government says there’s no path forward for legal reform.

Since 1989 in Canada, more than 200 people have faced charges related to HIV non-disclosure. Here, a person can be charged for not disclosing their positive HIV status to someone they’ve had sex with, even if they have no intention of harming the other person, and even if they don’t transmit the infection. While activists have been fighting for nearly a decade to have these laws repealed, the federal government announced last year they would not be moving forward with efforts to decriminalize HIV non-disclosure. Xtra has spoken with the people at the front of the fight for decriminalization—and the people that these antiquated laws affect.

These are their stories.

The phone call

On November 5, 2024, a phone call that didn’t even last five minutes ended almost a decade of work to decriminalize HIV non-disclosure in Canada. Despite previously indicating that the law might be changed, a representative from the Justice Department told advocates that there would be no path forward to reform a set of policies that criminalize HIV non-disclosure in the country.

Never mind that for the past eight years, various promises had been made. Since 2016, Ottawa has acknowledged the overcriminalization of HIV non-disclosure in Canada. This recognition prompted hearings, consultations and studies that advocates had hoped would lead to reforming the country’s criminal code.

Despite not having HIV-specific legislation, Canada has some of the highest numbers of reported cases of HIV criminalization in the world—a burden, advocates say, that is felt disproportionately by LGBTQ2S+, Black and Indigenous peoples.

According to a 2022 report by the HIV Legal Network, from the first prosecution in 1989 until the end of 2020 in Canada, 206 people faced charges related to HIV non-disclosure in 224 separate cases. Of those cases, only the outcomes of 187 cases were known: 70 percent ended in convictions, and 83 of those convictions resulted from a guilty plea, rather than a guilty verdict following trial.

Although HIV non-disclosure prosecutions affect people of all genders in Canada, 89 percent of people charged are men, and nine percent are women. Of all prosecutions, an estimated 22 percent were Black men and 33 percent were Indigenous women.

On the day of the government’s phone call in November, André Capretti picked up the call on behalf of the Canadian Coalition to Reform HIV Criminalization (CCRHC), an organization founded in 2016 that calls on the federal government to engage in legal reform and limit HIV criminalization.

“It was, of course, very frustrating to hear. It felt like we had been taken for a ride and our time was wasted,” he says.

Capretti, who’s also a policy analyst and a lawyer at the HIV Legal Network, says that, at the time, he hadn’t been feeling optimistic, given the delays he and his fellow advocates had experienced while awaiting the federal government’s answer. In a way, he says, the phone call was a form of closure. However, he also felt frustrated—as an advocate but also on behalf of the people who are in the crosshairs of the criminalization of HIV non-disclosure in Canada.

“This is their everyday lived realities, and these are the risks that they face when they are in intimate relationships or choose to engage in sexual encounters with people,” he says.

“If they’re frustrated, disappointed or feel let down, that’s all completely valid.”

The human cost of a cruel policy

Tammy Jones still remembers the afternoon in July 2007 when she was arrested. (Xtra has given her a pseudonym to protect her privacy.) She was doing her chores and affirmations at a recovery home in Abbotsford, B.C., when she heard a knock at the door.

“Tammy Jones?” a police officer asked.

“Yeah,” Jones answered.

“We have a warrant for your arrest.”

The police didn’t explain what crime she’d committed. Jones thought to herself: Was it drug-related? Prostitution? Before going to the recovery house, Jones had worked as a sex worker in Vancouver and had been battling drug addiction.

Months before her arrest, a man with whom she’d had a relationship was diagnosed as HIV-positive. He confronted her and blamed her for transmitting the virus to him. At the time this ex-partner was diagnosed, Jones had been living with HIV for six years. She was on medication to treat her HIV, and sexual contact with him had always involved the use of condoms—her partner, she said, was aware of her positive status. But then, one night, Jones alleges, her ex-partner assaulted her while she was sleeping. He didn’t use a condom.

On the day of her arrest, Jones was driven about an hour away to Vancouver. When she arrived at the police station, she heard the cops saying: “She’s a sex offender.” She was confused by this remark initially, but she soon learned she was being charged with aggravated sexual assault for HIV non-disclosure.

Jones eventually met with a lawyer, who encouraged her to take a plea deal to shorten her sentence from eight years to three. She accepted the deal and was given a statutory release after serving two and a half years. But her guilty plea also meant that her name would be added to the national sex offender registry.

Jones and I first met in Vancouver last spring. While the sun was out, a slight breeze made us shiver. Jones cried as she remembered what had happened during her arrest and eventual release. She told me the lawyer who represented her didn’t put up a fight. She said she didn’t understand the implications of accepting the guilty plea—and didn’t grasp that she’d be registered as a sex offender—until after she got out of prison.

As we sat on a bench in the Olympic Village neighbourhood, Jones spoke so softly that the wind sometimes overpowered her voice. Recalling that day in 2007 and its implications to her life almost two decades later, she said: “They make me out to be this scary person, and I’m not that person. I’m not who they think I am.”

Jones said she feels there’s an irony—and an injustice—to being labelled as a sex offender when, she said, she was sexually assaulted by a family member as a kid, as well as by the man who laid the charges that led to her arrest. She turned to alcohol and drugs to cope with the trauma of both these abuses.

For people like Jones, who’s been on the sex offenders list for almost 20 years now, the brunt of the label reverberates in various aspects of her life, limiting her employment opportunities and holding her from achieving the future she dreams for herself.

Tricky legal ground 

Despite the severity of punishment HIV-positive Canadians can face for non-disclosure, there is no specific law that explicitly prohibits the non-disclosure of HIV status in Canada. Instead, legal precedents have developed through court decisions. Courts have relied on existing criminal offences, such as criminal negligence causing bodily harm and aggravated sexual assault, to convict people who are HIV-positive and who have failed to inform their sexual partner of their status.

While arrests related to non-disclosure date back to 1989, it wasn’t until 1998 when the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that people must disclose their HIV status before engaging in any type of sex with a new partner. Failing to do so, the court ruled, could be interpreted as a form of fraud that invalidates consent. In the court’s eyes, if a person has sex without disclosing their status, that sex is seen as non-consensual, similar to coercion in sexual assault cases.

Capretti, the lawyer at the HIV Legal Network, says that before a case is seen as an act of fraud, it needs to have two elements: proof that a person lies or hides their status, and an element of harm. “There’s physical harm from contracting HIV,” Capretti says. “But the law also considers the risk of exposing someone to HIV, even if they don’t get it, as harm.”

According to him, the legal framework in Canada still relies on outdated understandings of how HIV is transmitted, which can lead to unjust criminalization. He says people with a suppressed viral load pose virtually no risk of transmitting the virus, yet the law still requires disclosure in situations where the actual risk is minimal. This disconnect, he says, leads to unjust charges and perpetuates stigma against those living with HIV.

In more recent history, the 2012 Supreme Court ruling, R. v. Mabior,has shaped how cases of alleged HIV non-disclosure are treated in the country. In this case, a man was charged with nine counts of aggravated sexual assault based on his failure to disclose his HIV‑positive status to nine complainants, although none of them contracted HIV. The Supreme Court ruled in that case that people living with HIV have a legal responsibility to disclose their status if they have a “realistic possibility” of transmitting the virus. (According to the ruling, an HIV-positive person is not required to disclose their status if they use a condom and have a viral load below 1,500 copies/ml.)

This precedent has since been interpreted differently in various parts of the country, Capretti says. For example, in 2018, a directive was issued to limit charges for HIV non-disclosure in the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Yukon, ending the use of sexual assault laws in these cases; instead, they could be prosecuted on simple assault or other charges like criminal negligence. It also specified that individuals with a suppressed viral load (under 200 copies/ml) should not be prosecuted for HIV exposure, as they are unlikely to transmit the virus. Cappreti says using simple assault and other charges, as opposed to a sexual assault charge, is important to continue to fight stigma related to HIV.

 “The whole country’s legal landscape has failed to evolve alongside the scientific advances in HIV research.”

In Ontario, B.C., Alberta and Quebec, prosecutors have been instructed not to charge individuals with a suppressed viral load, whether or not they used a condom. Policies differ on how long a person’s viral load must be suppressed—Ontario requires at least six months, while B.C., Quebec, and Alberta allow four to six months. There is no minimum time limit in the three territories, and information from other provinces is limited.

“The state of the law in Canada is inconsistent,” Capretti says. “It means that someone in Ontario would have different legal obligations than someone in Manitoba, someone in New Brunswick, or someone in British Columbia.” If a person travels outside their home province, they would be subject to the rules of the province in which sexual contact occurs.

On top of this, he says the type of sex a person has is significant because of the different levels of risk associated with HIV transmission. A partner who is receptive during anal sex, for example, has a higher risk of contracting HIV than someone who engages in oral sex.

“That’s relevant because certain provinces have prosecutorial directives,” Cappretti says. He gives B.C. and the Territories as an example. There, someone who has oral sex without disclosing their status would not be prosecuted.

These policy differences mean that while the whole country’s legal landscape has failed to evolve alongside the scientific advances in HIV research, some regions lag further behind than others.

A changing scientific landscape

While HIV prevention and treatment have greatly improved in the past decade, non-disclosure laws have not moved at the same pace. Daily antiretroviral medications now allow those who take them to lessen the amount of HIV in the blood to the point that the virus is undetectable through testing—and therefore untransmittable to anyone else. When taken correctly, HIV drugs that prevent infection, such as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP), can also help those who are exposed to HIV avoid contracting the virus. In May last year, Health Canada approved APRETUDE, the first long-acting injectable for HIV prevention. Earlier this year, Quebec became the first province to offer injectable PrEP for free.

These massive scientific advancements have saved lives and transformed what it means to be diagnosed with HIV today. Still, Canada’s judicial system largely fails to take the usage of these drugs into account.

Capretti says this ultimately undermines public health by discouraging testing and treatment. In the recent national HIV estimates, 65,270 Canadians are living with HIV. Of this number, it’s estimated that around 10 percent don’t know their status.

HIV activist Muluba Habanyama says criminalizing HIV non-disclosure impacts treatment in Canada. She warns that fear of criminal charges may lead people to avoid testing. “If you don’t want to risk criminalization, you might not want to know your status.”

Habanyama was born with HIV and has long fought against HIV stigma. She recalls being eight when her mother told her: “You’re Black, you’re female and you’re living with HIV. You have to work three times [harder] to get half of what others have.”

The criminalization of HIV non-disclosure, according to Habanyama, creates a dilemma where people may avoid testing to escape legal risks, which in turn harms public health efforts. “It’s sad that people feel they have to pick one or the other,” she says. “I don’t think we should be a country that promotes that.”

Removing this barrier to testing is particularly urgent, as HIV is on the rise in Canada. According to the most recent data, 1,848 new infections occurred in Canada in 2022, a 15 percent increase from 2020. That means five people were infected with HIV in the country each day.

“On the one hand, the public health response is encouraging people to get tested, and then on the other hand, it’s putting them in jail.”

Canada has failed to meet its testing, treatment, and prevention targets. The country initially pledged to achieve a 90-90-90 target by 2020, meaning 90 percent of people living with HIV know their status, 90 percent of HIV-positive people have access to treatment and 90 percent of people receiving treatment are undetectable. However, by 2022, Canada had still not met those goals. The new target is to reach 95-95-95 by 2025.

Brook Biggin, director of Education, Knowledge Mobilization, and Policy at the Community-Based Research Centre (CBRC), an organization that promotes the health of people of diverse sexualities and genders, says the government’s investment in reaching undiagnosed individuals is a major focus of the public health response in Canada.

“On the one hand, the public health response is encouraging people to get tested, and then on the other hand, it’s putting them in jail. And so it’s contradictory,” he says. “Until that’s resolved, I think Canada’s HIV response will continue to be hobbled.”

How criminalization affects LGBTQ2S+ people 

Biggin got involved in HIV awareness advocacy shortly after being diagnosed with HIV in 2011. Eight years later, he spoke in front of the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights during one of its meetings to study the criminalization of HIV non-disclosure.

“I do not believe that we would have the rights that we have today as queer and trans people if it weren’t for people living with HIV,” he says. “I think it’s incumbent on us as queer people who gain so much from people living with HIV over the years to return the favour.”

In the 2022 report from the HIV Legal Network examining key trends and patterns of HIV criminalization in Canada, 27 percent of all the HIV non-disclosure cases from 1989 to 2020 involve gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (GBMSM). GBMSM are still the demographic that makes up the highest proportion of new HIV cases in the country, and according to the report, they also represent the highest risk of prosecution.

“I see criminalization as unhelpful and counterproductive to all the advances that have been made in science,” says Sean Hosein, science and medicine editor at CATIE, a national organization that aims to strengthen Canada’s response to HIV, hepatitis C and drug use.

Hosein was working in Toronto as a community educator when the AIDS crisis erupted. He turned his attention to HIV education and advocacy in 1986, motivated by the impact of HIV on his friends and community. Hosein watched some fall ill to the virus, and others die. “I have lost people, and it still hurts,” he says. “I want to try and make sure that doesn’t happen to other people.”

Biggin would like to see more people respond this way. “It’s a shame that so many years have passed and that we, as a community, have, in some ways, been relatively silent about this injustice that’s facing people living with HIV,” he says.

“Leaders in the early days of the AIDS crisis demonstrated that when something’s not right, when marginalized people within our communities are struggling, we have to respond.”

A string of broken promises 

On June 3, 2011, Chad Edward Clarke’s family picked him up as he was released from prison in Ontario. He walked right past his teenage son. He didn’t recognize him; he had grown taller since the last time he saw him almost four years prior.

“Dad!” his son called. “What are you doing?”

Clarke had been incarcerated for more than three years after a former partner said she contracted HIV from him. He was charged with aggravated sexual assault and was put on the national sex offender registry for life.

His uncle and son had come to pick him up, and the trio drove away from the prison along the highway. As he looked around the areas they passed by, Clarke started to cry—it was the first time in more than three years that he saw the wide roads from a vast window and not through the peephole of the van they used to transport him on the way to court or the hospital.

Clarke’s uncle took him and his son to some of their favourite spots in Toronto, including a sandwich place he had missed and a harbour by Lake Ontario. As they stood by the water, Clarke and his son hugged. They skipped rocks. Clarke accidentally threw his ring, a Celtic knot, a homage to his Irish heritage, right into the lake.

“I guess it’s time for new beginnings, Dad,” his son said.

He was right; it was a new beginning in Clarke’s life. That year, he promised to fight so that other people would not experience what he and his family had been through.

Thirteen years later, in April 2024, Clarke spoke to me from his home in Chatham, Ontario. He told me about his family and how his home keeps him grounded. He then showed me a new tattoo he said he had just gotten the day before: a red ribbon that passes through another tattoo of a jail cell.

“It’s the cell I was in,” he said. “The red ribbon is the blood that runs through my body, which caused me to experience injustice in Canada.”

Since 2011, Clarke has become an advocate, sharing his story throughout his journey. Nine years ago, he even testified in front of the justice committee about the effects of the criminalization of HIV non-disclosure on him. He said he’s seen multiple cabinet shuffles and different ministers of justice come and go, yet there’s not much political will to change.

In a run-in with former minister of justice David Lametti in Ottawa, Clarke said he told the minister: “I’m tired of the lip service, ‘When are you going to fix this and give me my life back?’”

Clarke said the minister acknowledged his remark and said only: “Those are strong words, Chad.” That acknowledgment did not translate into meaningful action, Clarke said, which fuelled his determination to continue fighting for justice and reform in the system.

Being on the national sex offender registry has limited Clarke’s ability to find full-time employment and move through life. It’s also affected his family, as well as his children’s mental health. He knows sharing his story is essential, but he admits reliving it puts his mental health in a regressive state too.

“How many more times do I have to pull this scab off?” he asks.

In 2019, after meeting with scientists, researchers, and legal and public health experts, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights released a report that recommended the federal government limit the use of criminal law in dealing with HIV non-disclosure. It suggested that HIV non-disclosure should not be an offence punishable by sexual assault charges. The committee also recommended that the government limit the prosecution to extreme cases where it can be shown that a person intentionally transmits HIV with malicious intent.

In October 2022, the Department of Justice launched a consultation website to solicit input on possible criminal law reforms related to HIV non-disclosure—part of the federal government’s first 2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan, launched in August of that year.

The following June, the department released the result of the consultation in a report titled What We Heard. In an online survey responded to by 980 people, 85 percent agreed that the Criminal Code should be amended to ensure that sexual assault offences cannot be used where the only issue in the case is HIV non-disclosure, demonstrating the public’s will to reform the law.

Capretti says that after the release of What We Heard, the coalition had direct conversations with then justice minister Lametti and his policy advisors to discuss the decriminalization of HIV non-disclosure cases in Canada. He says it felt like the process was moving forward at the time. But things stalled after a 2023 cabinet shuffle, which saw Lametti removed from the Justice file and replaced by Arif Virani.

According to Cappretti, after Virani stepped in at the end of July 2023, the federal government scheduled—then postponed—multiple meetings with the CCRHC.

In May 2024, Virani finally met with the CCRHC for the first and only time. Advocates say it seemed like the meeting was an “appearance for the sake of an appearance” and still didn’t have any commitment to the promise of law reform.

Almost six months later, in November, Cappreti, on behalf of the coalition, received the call from the Justice Department saying there was no path forward in decriminalizing HIV non-disclosure in Canada.

“After years of promises and commitments, we have been told by the Canadian government that there is no longer a path forward on law reform as the federal election looms. Instead of demonstrating bravery and finally ending criminalization, our political leaders have shut down progressive reforms,” Alexander McClelland, chair of the CCRHC, said in a press conference weeks after the CCRHC received the phone call.

“They have told us they are not moving forward on evidence-based approaches, that they are not moving forward on findings from their consultations, and that they are not going to change this context, which puts the over 65,000 people living with HIV in this country at risk, who are currently made to live their lives in a context of fear and uncertainty and violence.”

Shortly after the press conference, Xtra contacted then minister of justice Virani to ask what he would say to the advocates who felt the federal government had abandoned years of discussion and collaboration. Virani’s spokesperson, Chantalle Aubertin, said via email at the time: “Minister Virani remains committed to listening and working toward evidence-based changes within the Canadian criminal justice system. This is a sensitive and deeply important matter that has required thoughtful input from all affected groups.

“Regrettably, Conservative obstructing and filibustering through privilege motions this fall has disrupted much of our Government’s ability to move forward on important priorities. This has forced us to make difficult decisions about what can be advanced in this session. We deeply appreciate the patience and resilience of advocates and want them to know that their efforts continue to inspire the work ahead.”

Various emails between the coalition and the federal government, however, show multiple attempts to meet the then minister before the fall of 2024 and before the federal NDP withdrew its support for then prime minister Justin Trudeau’s minority government in September of last year.

Since the Liberals won a minority government under Prime Minister Mark Carney, no further movement appears to have been made this spring.

When asked whether Sean Fraser, Canada’s new minister of justice, will pick up this file and continue looking into the issue that was dropped in the last Parliament, Aubertin, who still works as a spokesperson with the Justice Department, says Fraser has not yet been “fully briefed” on the file. She said that the department will “follow up as soon as [they’re] in a position to offer more detail.” They declined to provide any more information.

Capretti points out that the new Liberal justice minister already has access to the same resources his predecessors have. “We’ve come up with different proposals, we’ve come up with ideas. So he’s coming to the position with much of the work already done,” Capretti says.

“We’ve done a lot of groundwork. He’s not starting from zero, and we shouldn’t act like we’re starting from zero.”

A lasting legacy

For as long as the government fails to take action, Canadians will continue to suffer.

Back in Vancouver on that day in April 2024, Tammy Jones gave a small smile when asked how she’d been doing these days.

She said she’d been focused on improving her life for years, going to therapy and building bridges to rekindle relationships with her children. An Indigenous woman, she said she also tried traditional medicines and sweat lodges. But, amidst all the progress, one thing still haunts her: being listed on the sex offenders’ registry. Most devastating is the way it prevents her from strengthening her bond with her family. The “sex offender” label, she said, feels like a firm grip that keeps holding her to a past she doesn’t want to define her future.

“I’m supposed to meet my niece this weekend, and she has a daughter,” she said. “I’m kind of nervous because of my [sex offender] label.”

In the long term, Jones said she hopes to take her case to the Supreme Court to try to clear her name. She said it would be an uphill battle, but she told me she believed it was worth the fight for her freedom.

She said she’s not losing hope that one day she’ll just be able to be herself: a proud Indigenous woman, a mother and someone not defined by a harmful label.

In that future, she’s just Tammy, and Tammy is enough.

Mexico: HIV criminalisation in Tamaulipas fuels fear and discrimination

Activists in Tamaulipas denounce that criminalisation of HIV is an obstacle to health and human rights

Translated with Deepl. For original article in Spanish, please scroll down.

Cd. Victoria, Tamaulipas.- People living with HIV in the state of Tamaulipas face not only the challenge of their health condition, but also the threat of criminalisation. Furthermore, Article 203 of the state penal code allows anyone to report another person for ‘risk of contagion’, which generates fear, discrimination and hinders prevention and early detection efforts.
Celso Pérez Ruiz, president of the civil association ‘Tendremos Alas’ (We Will Have Wings), denounced that this legislation discourages citizens from getting tested for HIV, as the fear of being singled out and prosecuted outweighs the need to know their health status.
‘In Tamaulipas, people living with HIV continue to be criminalised, and the current policy of prevention and early detection cannot move forward precisely because there is a law that criminalises them; so who is going to want to get tested for HIV under the fear of being reported if they test positive?’
He recalled that despite the fact that the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation and the National Human Rights Commission have declared the law unconstitutional, the state has refused to repeal it.
In the last legislative session, Morena deputy Magaly de Andar presented an initiative to eliminate this article, but in her current term she has not followed up on it, leaving thousands of Tamaulipas residents in a situation of legal vulnerability.
This is not just a legal issue, it is a human rights issue. The criminalisation of HIV perpetuates stigma, alienates those living with HIV from health services and prevents them from exercising their right to a dignified life free from discrimination. It is time for Tamaulipas to move towards fairer and more humane legislation.
‘Article 203 of the Tamaulipas state criminal code criminalises people living with HIV, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity. All Tamaulipas residents living with the virus are under the premise that they can be reported by anyone for the risk of contagion,’ said Celso Pérez Ruiz.


Cd. Victoria, Tamaulipas.- En el estado de Tamaulipas viven con VIH enfrentan no solo el desafío de su condición de salud, sino también la amenaza de criminalización; además, el artículo 203 del código penal estatal permite que cualquier persona denuncie a otra por «peligro de contagio», lo que genera miedo, discriminación y obstaculiza los esfuerzos de prevención y detección oportuna.
Celso Pérez Ruiz, presidente de la asociación civil “Tendremos Alas”, denunció que esta legislación disuade a los ciudadanos de hacerse pruebas de VIH, pues el temor a ser señalados y perseguidos legalmente pesa más que la necesidad de conocer su estado de salud.
“En Tamaulipas se sigue criminalizando a las personas que viven con VIH, y la actual política de prevención y detección oportuna no puede avanzar precisamente porque hay una ley que criminaliza; entonces qué persona va a querer hacerse una prueba de VIH bajo el temor de que sea boletinada en caso de dar positivo”.
Recordó que a pesar de que la Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación y la Comisión Nacional de los Derechos Humanos han declarado la norma como inconstitucional, el estado se ha resistido a derogarla.
En la pasada legislatura, la diputada de Morena Magaly de Andar presentó una iniciativa para eliminar este artículo, pero en su actual gestión no le ha dado seguimiento, dejando a miles de tamaulipecos en una situación de vulnerabilidad legal.
Este no es solo un tema legal, es una cuestión de derechos humanos. La criminalización del VIH perpetúa el estigma, aleja a quienes lo viven de los servicios de salud y les impide ejercer su derecho a una vida digna y libre de discriminación. Es hora de que Tamaulipas avance hacia una legislación más justa y humana.
“El artículo 203 del código penal del estado de Tamaulipas criminaliza a las personas que viven con VIH, más allá de su orientación sexual o de identidad de género. Todos los tamaulipecos que vivan con el virus están bajo la premisa de que pueden ser denunciados por peligro de contagio por cualquier persona”, refirió Celso Pérez Ruiz.

[Update] US: Felony charges for intentional STD transmission one step closer in Louisiana

House committee votes in favor of STD criminalization bill with changes

A bill that would make it a felony to “knowingly and intentionally infect” someone with an incurable sexually transmitted disease, or STD, is one step closer to passage after a tight committee vote on Wednesday (May 28).

The bill — House Bill 76 — was first heard by the House Administration of Criminal Justice committee on May 7. Rep. Pat Moore, D-Monroe, who authored the bill, voluntarily deferred the legislation after significant pushback from public and sexual health advocates, as well as people living with sexually transmitted diseases and criminal defense lawyers.

The committee reheard an amended version of the bill on Wednesday , which raises the threshold for conviction to actual transmission of an STD, rather than simply exposure. Committee members voted 7-5 to advance the bill to the full House.

“If this is passed, it’s not going to please everyone,” Moore, who introduced a similar bill in 2021, said during the hearing. “But when you think about those victims who are asking for justice and say, ‘Do something about this,’ that’s in my heart and that’s in my mind. So, I think this can help.”

During the May 7 committee meeting, Moore brought along two women who claimed to have been unknowingly exposed and infected with incurable sexually transmitted infections, or STIs, including one who said she was infected by a DJ in New Orleans. The DJ was arrested earlier this year under Louisiana’s existing law that makes it a felony to intentionally expose someone to HIV without disclosure and consent.

The bill comes as other states have looked to reform or repeal similar laws, particularly those targeting people with HIV, over the past decade. Since 2014, 18 states have either loosened or repealed laws against exposure to HIV and other STDs, according to the Center for HIV Law and Policy. Studies have shown that criminalizing STDs does little to lower the number of cases and increase stigma toward people with STIs.

During testimony, public health advocates said Louisiana should invest more heavily in resources for testing and treatment, as well as sexual health education. They said these types of bills can reduce the incentive for people to get tested, since people can’t be prosecuted if they don’t know their status.

If the bill passes both legislative chambers and becomes law, a person found guilty of intentionally infecting someone else with an incurable STD without disclosing their own status could be fined up to $5,000 and be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison. The penalties would be worse if the victim is a minor, older than 65 or has an intellectual disability.

The four most common incurable sexually transmitted infections are hepatitis B, herpes simplex virus (HSV), human papillomavirus (HPV) and HIV. While no treatments exist to eliminate these viruses, all are treatable and manageable with medication, and HPV can sometimes clear up on its own.

Even with Louisiana’s current law against intentional HIV exposure, the state had the third-highest rate of new HIV diagnoses in the country in 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

Mexico: LGBTI groups ask for the repeal of HIV criminalisation law

LGBT+ groups demand legislation to punish discrimination against people with HIV

Translated with Deepl. Scroll down for the original article in Spanish.

They demanded to eliminate article 302 of the Tlaxcala Criminal Code, which criminalizes people living with HIV under the figure of “danger of contagion”, considering it obsolete and stigmatizing.

LGBTTTI+ collectives showed that in the state of Tlaxcala there are still areas with high levels of discrimination against people of diverse sexual orientation or with sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV.

In the framework of the International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, the collectives demanded a halt to legislative omissions that result in criminalisation and hate speech that violate justice, equality and dignity of people of sexual diversity.

They denounced that, according to the National LGBTQ+ Youth Mental Health Survey 2024, more than 50% of the LGBT+ community in Tlaxcala have been victims of discrimination, mainly by public institutions and in legal spaces.
“There is a systematic resistance of the local Congress to legislate in favour of equality. This phenomenon translates into omissions, freezing of initiatives and evasive speeches in the face of the urgency of guaranteeing human rights”, they affirmed.

Among their demands, they demanded the elimination of article 302 of the Penal Code of Tlaxcala, which criminalises people living with HIV under the figure of ‘danger of contagion’, considering it obsolete and stigmatising.

They also requested to sanction and eliminate hate speech on digital platforms and to establish protocols for institutional response to digital violence against LGBTTTI+ people.

It is worth noting that Congresswoman Mí Pérez Carrillo presented an initiative to reform the local Penal Code to criminalise hate speech against the LGBTIQ+ community, which is expected to be taken up in the coming days.


Exigen colectivos LGBT+ legislar para castigar discriminación a personas portadoras de VIH

Exigieron eliminar el artículo 302 del Código Penal de Tlaxcala, que criminaliza a las personas que viven con VIH bajo la figura de “peligro de contagio”, por considerarlo obsoleto y estigmatizante.

Colectivos LGBTTTI+ evidenciaron que en el estado de Tlaxcala persisten zonas con altos niveles de discriminación hacia personas con orientación sexual diversa o con enfermedades de transmisión sexual como el VIH.

En el marco del Día Internacional contra la Homofobia, la Transfobia y la Bifobia, los colectivos exigieron un alto a las omisiones legislativas que derivan en la criminalización y en discursos de odio que vulneran la justicia, igualdad y dignidad de las personas de la diversidad sexual.

Denunciaron que, de acuerdo con la Encuesta Nacional de Salud Mental de Juventudes LGBTQ+ 2024, más del 50% de la comunidad LGBT+ en Tlaxcala ha sido víctima de discriminación, principalmente por parte de instituciones públicas y en espacios legales.

Existe una resistencia sistemática del Congreso local a legislar en favor de la igualdad. Este fenómeno se traduce en omisiones, congelamiento de iniciativas y discursos evasivos ante la urgencia de garantizar derechos humanos”, afirmaron.

Entre sus demandas, exigieron eliminar el artículo 302 del Código Penal de Tlaxcala, que criminaliza a las personas que viven con VIH bajo la figura de “peligro de contagio”, por considerarlo obsoleto y estigmatizante.

Asimismo, solicitaron sancionar y eliminar discursos de odio en plataformas digitales y establecer protocolos de respuesta institucional ante la violencia digital contra personas LGBTTTI+.

Es de destacar que la diputada Madaí Pérez Carrillo presentó una iniciativa de reforma al Código Penal local para tipificar los discursos de odio contra la comunidad LGBTIQ+, por lo que se espera que sea retomada en los próximos días.

[Update]US: STD criminalisation bill withdrawn as advocates call for education and resources

Louisiana lawmakers shelve bill criminalizing ‘intentional exposure’ to STDs

A Louisiana House committee shelved a bill Wednesday that would have made it illegal for someone to “intentionally” expose another person to an “incurable” sexually transmitted disease after steep concerns that criminalization could worsen the state’s proliferating STD rates.

This was the second time Rep. Patricia Moore, D-Monroe, had introduced such a bill in five years, despite opposition from public and sexual health advocates as well as people living with STDs. Moore said at a House Administration of Criminal Justice committee meeting that she wants to create a law that offers people recourse for when someone “knowingly and intentionally” doesn’t disclose their STD status.

The bill would have created a new felony, carrying up to 10 years in prison and $5,000 in fines, for someone who knows they have an “incurable” STD and exposes someone else without their knowledge and consent. Those penalties would have increased if the person exposed to the STD is a minor, over 65 years old or has an intellectual disability. The exposure under either charge would have needed to come through sexual contact, donating bodily fluids such as blood or sharing needles.

After pushback during public testimony, Moore voluntarily deferred House Bill 76.

In 2023, Louisiana had the highest rate of chlamydia cases in the country and ranked in the top 10 for syphilis, HIV and gonorrhea, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The legislation comes as other states have repealed or modernized their own laws criminalizing STDs, especially HIV, over the past decade to align with the current medical landscape. An attempt to update Louisiana’s own law criminalizing HIV failed last year.

Before the bill was deferred, Moore amended it to just focus on “incurable” STDs, removing a proposal to create a new misdemeanor charge for exposing someone to a curable STD. The four most common incurable sexually transmitted infections are hepatitis B, herpes simplex virus (HSV), human papillomavirus (HPV) and HIV. While no treatments exist to eliminate these viruses, all are treatable and manageable with medication, and HPV can sometimes clear up on its own.

But the groups who opposed the bill, including several members of the Louisiana Coalition Against Criminalization and Health, said the bill would have the same problems as another state law on the books that criminalizes “intentional exposure” to HIV.

Data on how many people have been charged under the law is challenging to compile, but UCLA’s Williams Institute identified 147 allegations of HIV-related crimes between 2011 and 2022 in Louisiana, though researchers said that number could be higher.

Dietz, the coalition’s state coordinator, told the committee that said both the current law and bill contain “legal loopholes” that allow the law to be used against people living with HIV in their personal relationships, in part because it’s on the person living with the STD to prove they received the accuser’s consent.

In 2024, Dietz and other members of a state task force charged with researching the criminalization of HIV found that Louisiana’s current legal approach “can actually interfere with work to end the HIV epidemic,” according to its report.

“We’ve already made recommendations for the way the existing law allows for environments of coercion because again … proving that you disclosed your status is challenging,” Dietz said. “Even if you were to have proof in your hand, even if someone were to write it down, what if someone ripped it up? Or you lost it?”

St. Tammany Parish resident Katie Darling, who also serves as the vice chair of the Louisiana Democratic Party, shared the testimony of one of her residents who said she had been living with HIV for 25 years. Darling said the resident had her first husband sign an affidavit acknowledging that he knew she had HIV and consented, even though she was taking medication that prevented transmission. When the marriage turned physically abusive, the resident testified that her former husband threatened to take her to court over her HIV status.

“Thankfully, I had the document he signed on file at my doctor’s office. But what if I hadn’t?” Darling read from the testimony. The St. Tammany resident has now had her second husband sign a similar affidavit.

Those who opposed the bill also acknowledged that there is a need for people to have justice when they are unknowingly given an STD, whether that’s under new legislation or current laws around sexual assault.

Jennifer Tokarski, who is living with HPV, testified in support of the bill. She shared the story of her former husband who had sex outside of their marriage, refused to admit it and ultimately transmitted the virus to her.

“After five years in what I believed was a faithful relationship and Catholic marriage, I became severely ill,” Tokarski testified. “My husband attended appointments, rejected STD testing, reassuring doctors we were monogamous.”

When she learned of his infidelity, she said he battered her and filed for divorce.

“Only then did I learn he had infected me with a lifelong and incurable STD,” Tokarski said. “This is not just a private betrayal, this is a public health failure.”

Moore and Tokarski said they believed such a law would help promote honest conversations about sexual health that would lower the spread and give survivors a voice.

Studies have shown that criminalizing STDs do little to lower the number of cases and increase stigma. During testimony, public health advocates said Louisiana should invest more heavily in resources for testing and treatment as well as sexual health education, which isn’t required in schools.

At Wednesday’s meeting, Moore said she planned to work with the bill’s opponents to improve the language and possibly return the legislation to the committee if there’s time before the session. Otherwise, Moore said she will bring a form of the legislation back next year.

USA: Louisiana lawmaker renews push to criminalise STI exposure

Bill revives effort to criminalize non-consensual STD exposure in Louisiana

A Louisiana lawmaker has introduced a bill that would create new crimes for knowingly and intentionally exposing someone to a sexually transmitted disease without their informed consent.

House Bill 76, sponsored by state Rep. Patricia Moore (D-Monroe), would establish two separate offenses: felony intentional exposure for incurable STDs and misdemeanor intentional exposure for curable ones.

Felony Exposure (incurable STD)

Under the bill, a person could face felony charges if they knowingly have an incurable STD and intentionally expose someone without that person’s knowledge or informed consent through:

  • Sexual intercourse or sodomy.
  • Selling/donating blood, semen, organs, etc.
  • Sharing needles.

The proposed bill said the standard penalty includes up to 10 years in prison and/or up to a $5,000 fine.

There would be harsher penalties if:

  • The victim is under 13 and the offender is 17 or older: 25–99 years in prison, with at least 25 years served without parole.
  • The victim is under 18 with an age gap of over two years: 10–25 years, with at least 10 served without parole.
  • The victim is 65 or older: Up to 25 years
  • The offender has an intellectual disability: Up to 15 years’ sentence and up to a $10,000 fine

Anyone convicted would also be placed on lifetime electronic monitoring. Offenders must cover the cost of their monitoring unless deemed unable to pay, in which case the state may cover the expense. The Department of Public Safety and Corrections would be tasked with setting the payment rules.

The bill includes affirmative defenses:

  • If the exposed person knew the offender’s status, knew the risks, and gave informed consent.
  • If the offender disclosed their status and took preventative measures advised by a healthcare provider.

Misdemeanor Exposure (curable STD):

The bill also creates a misdemeanor offense for knowingly exposing someone to a curable STD without informed consent through the same methods listed above.

The penalty would be up to six months in jail and/or up to a $1,000 fine.

The bill’s current status is pending before the House Administration of Criminal Justice Committee.

Bill has faced past criticism

Rep. Moore filed similar legislation in 2021 (House Bill 238), which expanded an existing criminal statute that previously applied only to HIV exposure. The earlier bill drew criticism from some public health experts and LGBTQ advocates, according to a report from the Louisiana Illuminator. Opponents argued that the bill could discourage people from getting tested for STDs, since the enforcement hinges on the offender knowing their status. Groups like the HIV Medicine Association and the CDC have warned that criminalization laws can increase stigma, reduce screening, and undermine public health efforts.

Moore said at the time that her goal was to address high rates of infection in Louisiana and that she was open to amendments and input from healthcare professionals.