Remember when the Free Speech Coalition‘s Eric Paul Leue backed efforts to make intentionally infecting someone with HIV a misdemeanor instead of a felony?
I said it then and I’ll say it again: moves such as these represent examples of public health interests being forced to take a backseat to political activism (in this case, LGBTQ activism).
Check out this disturbing video of a soulless Georgia woman:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_gpLIX410s&feature=youtu.be
This is how England handles cases of intentional infection with HIV.
The best argument that U.S. activists had for turning the intentional HIV infection of a person into a misdemeanor was that it keeping it as a felony discourages HIV testing among groups such as intravenous drug users and sex workers. This is because if they went and got tested, and knew their HIV+ status prior to having sex (or sharing a syringe) with a person, it could establish intent.
The problem with arguing this is, desperate addicts don’t think that way; they don’t think in terms of consequences. The word “consequences” has no meaning to them. Felony or misdemeanor, it’s all the same.
We must acknowledge the reality that marginalized people are not getting tested. But when the health of people who are not voluntarily engaging in behavior such as using IV drugs is impacted, perhaps we should be concentrating more on finding carrots for marginalized people and less on using smaller sticks? Clearly, some people deserve the full-sized stick.
One Response
Someone needs to transcribe that video into English.