Outdated laws around HIV disproportionately affect Black men by criminalizing activities that are not even capable of transmitting the virus.

Outdated laws around HIV disproportionately affect Black men by criminalizing activities that are not even capable of transmitting the virus.

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Activists in Ohio are using new data to push for the repeal of outdated laws that criminalize people with HIV across the United States. Two recent reports, one from Equality Ohio and the Ohio Health Modernization Movement, and another from The Williams Institute at UCLA, examine the criminalization of HIV within the state. These reports reveal that more than half of prosecutions under “HIV crimes” were for actions that have a low likelihood of transmitting the virus. Ohio currently has six laws that either criminalize specific behaviors of people living with HIV or result in harsher sentences for those who carry the virus. These laws include having consensual sex with other adults regardless of the HIV-positive person’s treatment or level of virus in their body, as well as “harassment” through bodily fluids. Most of these laws were enacted during the height of AIDS panic in the 1980s and early 1990s, before advancements in HIV research and treatment made living with the virus more manageable. However, despite progress in understanding HIV, similar laws remain in place in 34 other states. The reports also highlight the disproportionate impact of these laws on Black individuals in Ohio.

“Kate Mozynski, an attorney with Equality Ohio and co-author of the report, stated that Ohio is one of the few states actively prosecuting and enforcing these outdated laws against the everyday citizens living with HIV,” she told the Buckeye Flame.

As of 2022, around 25,000 individuals in Ohio were living with HIV, and there has been a decrease in new diagnoses from 985 in 2018 to 866. However, new diagnoses among Black individuals still remain significantly higher compared to the white population. Additionally, the majority of new diagnoses are among young adults aged 20-34 and are transmitted primarily through sexual contact between men.

Ohio is one of six states that require people convicted of “HIV crimes” to register as sex offenders, along with Louisiana, South Dakota, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Washington State. The Williams Institute studied arrests and felony prosecutions under Ohio’s laws for two decades, as well as recent statistics from Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. They found that almost half of the cases involved HIV-positive individuals engaging in consensual sex without disclosing their status, regardless of their viral load and whether or not the other person contracted the virus.

As activists continue their efforts to repeal these laws at the state level, the Biden administration is taking steps to address discriminatory HIV laws. In December, the Department of Justice notified Tennessee that it was violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by enforcing a state law that increases penalties for people convicted of prostitution if they are also HIV-positive. This led to federal charges being filed against the state in February.

HIV criminalization