It seems there has to be something done here with all these states and countries taking action against what they perceive as people having unprotected sex or having sex at all. Some of these laws come down to hate and discrimination against gays or those with HIV. It should be pretty plain and simple if you have sex with someone and you do not use protection then its your fault as well. You can’t go blaming someone for not knowing their status or what STD they might have.

If you have had multiple sex partners then how can you go around blaming all of them or even blaming one person. We always want to blame someone for things we have done but this is something that is preventable if you take the proper steps. The choice to bareback comes with consequences for some and others just get lucky but when two people are having consensual sex then the questions or tests should be done before the sex not after.

States having HIV lists which I am sure are online somewhere or they probably will have iPhone apps with these telling you when someone with HIV walks in the door. We have gone so big brother these days even with things like HIV. It is offensive that there is an HIV list. Just because someone has HIV they do not deserve to be on some list with a scarlet letter on them. They have not committed a crime for having a virus and the person who gave it to them unless they did not consent did not either.

Of course this is a very touchy subject if someone gets an STD they are quick to blame someone. I cant imagine anyone who would want to purposely give someone an STD or HIV. It is crazy to me to think someone should be put on some public list like some type of criminal. The laws in this country and even the ones where the Wiki Founder was arrested are out of control aimed at HIV and Sex. Sex has always been such a subject the media likes to blow out of proportion as you see here this article at the Body tells it best. HIV is being turned into a crime. Not the rapist or the pedophile or the real criminal but it is the HIV which with laws like we are seeing are turning carrying HIV into a crime. With HIV being a crime this could hurt prevention and testing efforts as you can see here:

Most of the cases prosecuted around the world have not actually focused on criminal HIV transmission, but rather on exposure to the risk of transmission. These cases often hinged on whether or not someone with HIV had informed their sexual partner — sometimes a one-night stand, sometimes a long-term partner or spouse — that they were HIV-positive before having sex that may — but may not — have risked HIV transmission.

Very few cases have involved people who truly intended to harm anyone. That’s the ‘line in the sand’ that most experts, including UNAIDS, have agreed fulfill the criteria of when it is justified to prosecute allegations of criminal HIV transmission. Rather, what most of these cases boil down to is perceived responsibility for HIV prevention. Research suggests that most HIV transmission takes place during sex between two consenting adults, neither of whom is aware that one them is living with HIV.

Have such laws and prosecutions reduced the number of new infections? There is absolutely no evidence that they have. Have they made more people with HIV disclose? There’s no evidence there, either. However, there is some evidence that HIV-specific criminal laws and prosecutions for non-disclosure have made people who are at risk of HIV, and who expect to be told if their sexual partner is HIV-positive, feel more secure, even though this is a false sense of security. And there’s little doubt that these laws and prosecutions have further increased the stigma associated with HIV, sometimes making people living with HIV feel even more insecure about disclosing — the very thing expected of us.

–The Body’s Edwin Bernard