New group seeks an end to HIV-specific criminal laws

NEW YORK CITY — Activists, civil rights attorneys and AIDS service organizations met for the first time last week in New York City to launch a project that seeks an end to HIV-specific criminal laws in the U.S. and around the world.

The project, called the Positive Justice Project (PJP), is a program of the Center for HIV Law and Policy in New York City.

“There seems to have been an explosion of new prosecutions in the last two or three years, and federal emphasis on HIV testing also puts into sharp relief the irony that those who respond to this call to test now risk arrest and imprisonment more than ever before,” said Catherine Hanssens, executive director of the HIV Law and Policy Center. “Also, frankly, the agency launching this effort, CHLP, is itself a new organization with a new focus — real collaboration, real sharing and respecting of the legal and policy work of other advocates who have worked in the trenches for years, and a mission that prioritizes the human and civil rights that many mainstream organizations have deprioritized over the last decade.”

Hanssens noted that for the first time since the epidemic began in the U.S. nearly 30 years ago, the federal government has taken exception to the HIV-specific criminal laws on the books. She points to President Barack Obama’s National HIV/AIDS Strategy, which for the first time calls for states to review their criminal laws related to HIV. The Justice Department is also tasked with gathering information and reporting about those laws and their impact.

Michigan and 32 other states have HIV-specific criminal laws. In Michigan, it is a felony to engage in sexual penetration “however slight” without first disclosing one’s HIV-positive status. It is not a crime in Michigan to share a needle without disclosing one’s HIV-positive status, and no other infection has a specific law criminalizing those who are infected. Advocates have said the Michigan law is overly broad and prone to abuse.

The formation of the group came as the results of a large study of men who have sex with men was released. The study found, to the surprise of activists, that 65% of gay men support HIV-specific criminal laws.
Advocates noted the study points to an uphill battle.

“[The study] is indicative of how poorly-informed our own community is about these statutes and how they affect the epidemic and people with HIV,” said Sean Strub, a senior advisor to the Center for HIV Law and Policy. He is also the founding published of the magazine POZ. “Most people have not spent much time thinking about these statutes and prosecutions; I suspect that once we start to get the message out, those numbers will change fairly quickly. But they are disturbing, for sure.”

In addition to HIV-specific criminal laws, the Center has noted an increase in the number of prosecutions of persons with HIV under other, non-HIV-specific criminal laws. One case in particular that raised concerns was the HIV-as-terrorism case in Macomb county.

In October of last year, the Macomb county prosecutor announced it was charging Clinton Township resident Daniel Allen under the state’s bio-terrorism law for allegedly biting a neighbor during a fight over a football landing in Allen’s yard. Judge Peter Maceroni dismissed that charge earlier this year.

Several studies have found that HIV-specific laws do not affect the spread of HIV-infection, nor do they change the behavior of those most at-risk for infection. To the contrary, activists say they hear from many at risk for HIV that they will not get tested for HIV because a positive result would make them eligible for criminal prosecution.

“We know that many people living with HIV and their advocates agree with the harm of HIV criminalization and will welcome the opportunity that the PJP provides to get actively involved, to channel their frustration about prosecutions of people with HIV and the way they are portrayed in the media, and to play leadership roles in ending this toxic form of discrimination and HIV ‘exceptionalism,’” says Hanssens.

Michigan advocates with the Michigan Positive Action Coalition praised the renewed focus on HIV criminalization laws.

“The Michigan Positive Action Coalition (MI-POZ) believes along with the Positive Justice project that criminalization of HIV legitimizes the ignorance, homophobia and racism that fuels inflated fears of HIV and those who have HIV,” said Mark Peterson, a spokesman for the group. “It undermines efforts to prevent new HIV infections and provide access to care. We applaud the efforts of the Positive Justice project in addressing the stigma of HIV which carried to its extreme by ignorance, leads to unjust laws and policies which essentially criminalize people for simply living with a chronic and terminal illness. Perhaps with increased efforts to root out stigmatizing laws and policies, Michigan’s laws regarding HIV will be based on the best science and compassion which public health can offer.”