Virginia Proves HIV Criminalization Laws Are Harder to Repeal Than They Should Be
April 21, 2021
Deirdre Johnson was among advocates living with HIV in Virginia who just got the state’s criminalization law softened.
Courtesy of Tyler Studio/Atlanta
Advocates who’ve long fought to repeal outdated laws in more than 30 states that criminalize people for having sex without disclosing their HIV status experienced mixed emotions when Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam on April 1 signed a bill into law that replaces the state’s old one.
On the happy side, the new law requires that accusers prove their sex partner’s intent to transmit HIV as well as their own actual transmission and diagnosis. Those changes set a new legal bar for accusers that’s nearly impossible to scale. The previous law only required proof of intent, putting the burden of proof on the partner living with HIV. Yet, on the bad side, the new law still classifies intent to transmit plus actual transmission as a felony, which can come with long jail time and permanent loss of rights such as voting. Advocates had strongly wanted the new law to downgrade the charge to a misdemeanor.