Laws create disincentive for testing
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"These laws harm public health — and they don't help anyone," argues Edwin Bernard, a writer and researcher who studies HIV criminalization laws around the world. "The subtle but very real impact of these legal cases is that people with HIV don't have the same sexual and reproductive rights as others."
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There is a common perception that people diagnosed with HIV represent a serious risk to others. But the far more grave threat lies elsewhere — with people who believe themselves to be HIV-negative and who, with little risk of legal prosecution, go around having unprotected sex with anyone they want, perhaps with little discussion of sexual risk and responsibility.
Want to know a great way to increase the spread of HIV? Criminalize it.
In Canada, a person with HIV can be put in jail if they have unprotected sex with someone who didn't ask about their HIV status. This means that HIV-negative people have the power to seek prosecution of HIV-positive people over sexual choices they made together, even if no HIV transmission occurs at all.
On first glance, this may sound fair. After all, isn't the person with HIV being dishonest, hiding information that any HIV-negative person deserves to know so they can avoid hopping in the sack with them in the first place? If you judge by media coverage, or common public sentiment, or even the views of many gay men, you might agree. But things aren't that simple.
Read the rest of this article, written by Shawn Syms, on extra.ca.
Right. Because nothing says fun like being in jail AND HIV+!
ReplyDeleteRidiculous, that making something a criminal act is going to increase the number of people doing it. For example, suppose you make beating up a child a capital offense. Can you just see the number of people who will go out and beat up a child so they can get executed. You go out and beat up a child because you can't wait to be executed. How many people are going to want to get a piece of that action?
ReplyDeletehow do you not see that creating a disincentive for people to get tested and know their status could be a problem in terms of stopping the epidemic? most ppl who pass on HIV don't know they have it, right? so by criminalizing an activity that takes two makes it easy for people to just not know. not knowing keeps them from doing time, right?
ReplyDeleteI found your wallet in your pocket and removed some money.
ReplyDeleteBut I didn't know it was your money, so I won't have to do any time for that, right?
you make no sense. stealing money is not like having consensual unsafe sex.
ReplyDeleteconsensual unsafe sex can result in murder. stealing money can result in OH MY GOD THAT IS MONEY!! who would put that up there with money? oh the humanity.
ReplyDeleteso, let me get this straight, you can actually kill someone by having consensual unsafe sex? so after the cum shot, the other guy falls out DEAD? wow.
ReplyDeletehow 'bout looking at what really happens in real life. two people have sex. one of them is infected. they infect the uninfected person. that person slowly acquires AIDS symptoms. then they die. kind of like uh feeding small amounts of arsenic to a longtime companion except with HIV you can always say I don't know if that one time sex partner was infected by me or somebody else in the past. therefore I had nothing to do with it. they just happen to die of AIDS. I don't know if it's my fault. I don't know whose fault it is. you don't know whose fault it is. they don't know whose fault it is. so nobody's complicit. they just happen to die from AIDS that they got from "somebody".
ReplyDeletetake a pill, sweetie. who would be the murderer if neither of them knew their status? who would be the murderer if they had consensual unprotected sex and never discussed sero-status? who would be the murderer if they did discuss their status, and one of them was mistaken? who would be the murderer if the guy who got infected asked about his partner's status, and was still willing to get fucked without a condom?
ReplyDeleteOne year at Mardi Gras in New Orleans a guy fired a 45 caliber pistol into the air. The bullet eventually came down. But ended up in the head of a random person--who just happened to die. The trigger puller was eventually convicted of murder.
ReplyDeletePeople are convicted for consequences--not intent.
There have been a number of heterosexual convictions in this area. Is it possible that anti-gay America will simply stand by while gay men continue to infect and "murder" each other?
Can you imagine that anti-gay America is perfectly happy with your attitude about gay men having consensual unprotected sex? Can you imagine that this fits with anti- gay America's attitude that death by gay sex fits with their agenda of punishment by death for immoral behavior?
If anyone is going to refer to any type of consensual sexual activity as one person murdering another, no rational discussion is possible.
ReplyDeleteCouldn't agree with you more anon. Our friend Zak is really off his meds... She aint right!
ReplyDelete> If anyone is going to refer to any type of
ReplyDelete> consensual sexual activity as one person
> murdering another, no rational discussion is
> possible.
Nobody here used the phrase "any type of consensual sexual activity". Today you would have to say that an infected person who has consensual sexual activity with a person they believe is uninfected--because that person told them they were uninfected. That is one kind of consensual sexual activity--but it is deceptive. Another kind is where someone suspects they may be infected but decides to remain willfully ignorant of their status. Then there are those of honest belief they are not infected.
If you drive while drunk and you have an accident, and a fellow passenger is killed, then you have one kind of situation. If you have an accident caused by someone else and a fellow passenger is killed, then you may be judged innocent of that murder.
You are attributing statements to me so you won't have to think about a world with nuance and degrees of guilt and innocence.
More information at
ReplyDeletehttp://criminalhivtransmission.blogspot.com/