Florida court holds HIV disclosure law only impacts heterosexuals

An appellate court in Florida has ruled that the state’s HIV disclosure law can only be used to charge heterosexuals, saying that the law does not apply in the case of a woman accused of having sex with another woman but failing to disclose her HIV-positive status.

The judges found that because the law referenced ‘sexual intercourse’ that it could only be applied to heterosexual activity since intercourse is only defined as “the penetration of the female sex organ by the male sex organ.” They overturned the woman’s conviction.

The ruling has already had an impact on a case in Treasure Island, where the Pinellas-Pasco State Attorneys office threw out a case against a gay man charged with failing to disclose his HIV-positive status to his partner of four years.

But his former lover says that doesn’t change the fact that the man had failed to disclose his HIV status, reports 13 News.

“I found out after we broke apart that he was, in fact, HIV positive for 20 years,” the alleged victim said. “It’s harmful to somebody’s health and you’re putting other people’s life at risk. And you can’t play God.”

Now that the charges have been dropped, the partner is speaking out, the Times reported.

“It was upsetting,” said the 27-year-old man who said he never knew his former partner had HIV. “The law isn’t updated, and that is the problem. Especially for a community that faces such a high risk.”

The defense attorney said the law was unfair and out of date.

The man who was accused was named in early reports about his arrest, but the Times did not name him in the story about the charges being dropped. The boyfriend has not been publicly identified by name, with news outlets claiming he was the victim of a sex crime.

The court ruling and subsequent dropping of charges in Florida are certain to add more fuel to the growing anti-criminalization movement. That movement has also found support on Capitol Hill, where California Democrat Barbara Lee is floating draft legislation to repeal the laws passed in the late 80s and early 90s.