How has Georgia’s HIV criminalization law changed in 2022?

 

As of July 1st, Georgia’s recently modernized HIV criminalization law implicates a drastically different proof for criminal charges that can be brought against a person with HIV in Georgia.

In the earlier days of the AIDS epidemic, states were encouraged to enact laws criminalizing people with HIV who “knowingly exposed” another person to HIV in exchange for federal funding to AIDS care. Since then, many states have repealed or modernized their HIV criminalization laws to reflect accurate science and stray away from the phobic sentiment with which these laws were written.

Georgia’s-now-former HIV criminal law continuously failed because: 1) Placed sole “fault” of HIV transmission on HIV+ people and entirely forewent any responsibility of the HIV- person in any interaction; 2) It was written in long-debased science falsely stating urine, feces, and spit were methods of HIV transmission; without account of preventive measures any party took to mitigate and/or null transmission;  3) Created an unintended effect, contrary to public health, where vulnerable populations, including sex workers, were disincentivized from getting tested or knowing their HIV status, as the knowledge of one’s positive status was the crucial factor dependent upon being criminalized; 4) In practice was mostly tacked on discriminatorially as an extra felony charge onto someone who was HIV+ who committed an unrelated crime.

Georgia’s revised HIV criminalization law, SB 164, accounts for both scientific accuracy of HIV transmission, and whether a person held the intention to transmit, neither of which were represented in the old law. What this means is the prosecution must prove the person with HIV had the INTENTION of transmitting the virus; formerly, the prosecution had to prove whether or not the person simply had HIV and had knowledge of their HIV. In the revised law, the felony charge decreases from 10 years to 5 years. The prosecutable felony becomes tied to a person’s intention to transmit in combination with whether transmission was even viable given the many factors at play, rather than being tied to if a person did not disclose their status before participating in a sexual act. The updated law entirely takes out the heightened reckless conduct charge against peace and correctional officers formerly present in the unrevised law. 

The new law protects victims of sexual assault; no longer can a person who commits sexual assault use the victim’s HIV+ status as a means of criminalizing the victim. The new law also omits hypodermic needles from the definition of “drug-related objects,” effectively decriminalizing syringes as an object – a major win in harm reduction in the state of Georgia. This modernized law is also reworded, using people-first language. 

If you’re interested in follow-up regarding the modernized HIV law, or your organization would like to receive a training on the updates made to Georgia’s HIV criminalization law, please contact Georgia Equality’s HIV Policy Organizer, Taylor Brown, at email hidden; JavaScript is required 

 

Taylor Brown

HIV Policy Organizer.,

Georgia Equality