Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill Friday that lowers from a felony to a misdemeanor the crime of knowingly exposing a sexual partner to HIV without disclosing the infection.
(Note: Rather than facing two to six years in jail for the offense, those found guilty under the proposed bill would face up to six months in jail, which is the same penalty for knowingly exposing people to other communicable diseases (which includes STDs))
The reason? It's discriminatory (or so says the bill's author, Scott Wiener), probably because HIV/AIDS is more prevalent in black and gay communities? Also:
“HIV-related stigma is one of our main obstacles to reducing and ultimately eliminating infections,” Wiener said. “When you criminalize HIV or stigmatize people who have HIV it encourages people not to get tested, to stay in the shadows, not to be open about their status, not to seek treatment."
Spoiler: show
Sure yeah okay, that makes logical sense, yeah - one would think that the looming threat of years behind bars would make you more willing to disclose that info, but sure let's go with the spooky option.
And don't bother with the fact that you're on a medication regimen that costs thousands of dollars a month for the rest of your life or knowing that a simple cold could kill you since your immune system is worthless for the rest of your life all because a HIV Harry/Heather is running around deliberately infecting others with the disease: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-sussex-41516164
Daryll Rowe, 26, is accused of telling his partners he did not have the virus and insisting they had unprotected sex or then tampering with condoms.
Lewes Crown Court heard he sent one partner a message saying: "I have HIV LOL. Oops!"
Mr Rowe, from Brighton, denies infecting four men with the virus.
He also denies attempting to infect a further six men in the Brighton area between October 2015 and December 2016.
I'm sorry you got AIDS, but being a shitty person and having unprotected sex with someone who doesn't know makes you low-key a biological terrorist (and still a shitty person).
More examples of deliberate infection: https://thoughtcatalog.com/jim-goad/2015/11/hiv-terrorism-13-cases-where-people-deliberately-infected-others/