HIV disclosure laws fail
Filed by: Guest Blogger
September 15, 2008 10:00 AM
http://www.bilerico.com/2008/09/hiv_disclosure_laws_are_a_failure_not_on.phpEditors' note: Todd Heywood is a freelance journalist from Michigan.
Over the last week or so, there has been an overwhelming amount of discussion about HIV disclosure laws and the criminalization of HIV-positive statuses in the United States. The discussions came about in part because of a story in Q-Notes of North Carolina about a D.J. in local club who had plead guilty to exposing partners to HIV. It was a misdemeanor crime in North Carolina.
In a less public story, an HIV positive man here in Michigan has been charged with violating our HIV disclosure law, a felony, and exposing two women to HIV.
But to a lesser extent, this discussion has been boiling under the surface of HIV prevention and activist activities for some time. Reading the responses around the North Carolina case both on Bilerico and on several listserves I am a member of was, quite frankly disgusting.
