And a misdemeanor to knowingly give HIV blood? What is Gov Brown thinking?

What purpose would someone who knows they are HIV positive have to donate blood, other than to infect people? How is that a misdemeanor?

It's treatable now, but you still have to take expensive meds for the rest of you life, it's not like its curable. Meds that have side effects.

Just get a better job or something. It's stigmas that are fatal.

You heard it here first.

Or murder several people. How much do you want to fucking bet that if that was done to one of those fucks that lowered the penalty they would still be jailing that person for those eight years or longer? This is just another fight against LGBQT. They are stupid to think HIV is just an LGBQT problem. Our government should just get it over with and make murder legal all the way around because it seems like that is where all of this is going.

I'm surprised.

this is beyond fucked up. Knowingly?

and totally illogical.

Don't understand the 'logic' allowing someone to knowingly risk giving someone HIV without warning the other person, with the penalty for this just being a 'slap' on the wrist.

LA Times: http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-updates-lawmakers-support-reducing-penalty-for-1505179836-htmlstory.html

it is obvious how "HIV" has a stigma not associated with any other diseases easily transmitted from one person to another that carry no legal consequences.

They are the basis of fixing the HIV felony status.

....is different.

No one is arguing that having a disease, in and of itself should be a crime. You're getting hysterical.

it is failing to inform your sexual partners

and by the way, misdemeanors are STILL crimes

Thanks for letting us all know.

If you "knowingly exposed or infected" someone with HIV -- which was in fact a death sentence for many years and for many people -- you should be charged with a crime, and I'm perfectly ok with it being a felony.

If you read the article - and there are many, many other articles and sources including on the origins of this corrected legislation and the fearful discriminatory basis of it - you will understand the issue much better.

"You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink."

I just disagree that someone with a potentially fatal disease who knowingly passes that disease on to someone else should only be subjected to a misdemeanor charge. This has nothing to do with "fear-based authoritarianism," but rather the appropriate penalty for assault, arguably assault with intent to kill. How does a felony charge for knowingly giving someone a potentially fatal disease stigmatize the entire HIV-positive population of California?

This will definitely increase the stigma of having HIV.

and you'll understand how this reduces the stigma and prejudice that is left over from the original deep fear we held - which treated HIV "differently.".

HIV is stigmatized because it causes AIDS. AIDS is a horrible disease to have.

The gay community has been pushing for this for a while.


Edit to add:

https://www.lambdalegal.org/blog/ca_20171006_governor-signs-bill-modernizing-hiv-laws

Governor Jerry Brown today signed into law landmark legislation to reform outdated laws that unfairly criminalized and stigmatized people living with HIV. Senate Bill (SB) 239 was authored by Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) and Asm. Todd Gloria (D-San Diego) and cosponsored by Lambda Legal, Equality California, the ACLU of California, APLA Health, Black AIDS Institute, and Positive Women’s Network – USA.

These organizations are part of Californians for HIV Criminalization Reform (CHCR), a broad coalition of people living with HIV, HIV and health service providers, civil rights organizations and public health professionals dedicated to ending the criminalization of people living with HIV in California.

“Today California took a major step toward treating HIV as a public health issue, instead of treating people living with HIV as criminals,” said Senator Wiener. “HIV should be treated like all other serious infectious diseases, and that’s what SB 239 does. We are going to end new HIV infections, and we will do so not by threatening people with state prison time, but rather by getting people to test and providing them access to care. I want to thank Governor Brown for his support in helping to put California at the forefront of a national movement to reform these discriminatory laws."

“State law will no longer discourage Californians from getting tested for HIV,” said Asm. Gloria. “With the Governor’s signature today, we are helping to reduce the stigma that keeps some from learning their HIV status and getting into treatment to improve their health, extend their lives, and prevent additional infections. I want to thank Governor Brown for signing SB 239. This action keeps California at the forefront in the fight to stop the spread of HIV.”