Tuesday, December 06, 2016

Spitting landed an HIV-positive man in prison for 35 years. Spitting doesn’t transmit HIV.

German Lopez · Thursday, December 01, 2016, 12:00 pm

This World AIDS Day, 38 states still have HIV criminalization laws.

In 2008, a Texas man was sentenced to 35 years in prison for spitting on a police officer — because his saliva was deemed a deadly weapon due to his HIV-positive status, even though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says spit can’t transmit HIV.

Yet Texas is not the only state to criminalize HIV in this manner. It doesn’t even have the most restrictive criminal laws surrounding HIV.

According to a new report by the LGBTQ advocacy group Movement Advancement Project (MAP), 38 states still have explicit HIV criminalization laws, while six, including Texas, do not have an explicit law but have prosecuted people for exposure to or transmission of HIV. Just six states and Washington, DC, don’t have such laws or prosecutions.

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