Friday, February 3, 2012

HIV and Sex Crimes?


It's been over twelve years since I first set out to make the documentary, This Child of Mine, about parents who faced criminal charges of child neglect, abuse and homicide for refusing HIV medications for their kids, and choosing to breastfeed.

The video below, Perpetuating Stigma, tells another story of the criminalization of HIV, particularly as it affects women. In the US, where 36 states have laws criminalizing HIV and exposure, women have been charged with assault with a deadly weapon and sex crimes simply for not disclosing their HIV status. And yes, people have done hard time for these sex crimes.

Let me say that again. Sex crimes. Meaning if you are HIV+  and have consensual sex but fail to mention your status, you could be prosecuted as a sex offender. Lumped in with with rapists and child molesters, and forced to live with the same stigma that goes along with that prestigious title for the rest of your life.




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23 comments:

  1. These very dramatic stories appearing in this video "perpetuating stigma" could have been further more balanced and effective if they knew and expose in their defense that there is no scientific proof of the so called transmission or causative role of HIV in the syndrome named AIDS, in fact, it seems that none of them had AIDS, or when some did, they were also taking the very well known highly toxic and poisonous anti-HIV drugs, that can cause 'per se' the damages they presented.

    A lot more need to be done in this field, when the question of some inhuman laws meets the question of some inhuman scientific dogmas, but a lot of this have already been done, visit http://www.omsj.org/

    God bless all the women who stood up and fought for their rights, we all need to do it, if we are still sane.

    "It is no measure of Health -nor of Justice- to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society"

    "The institutionalized health systems have become a serious threat to the health itself"

    “Political -and medical- language is disigned to make lies sound truthful and murder respectful, and to give the appearance of solidity to pure wind.”

    Thanks
    Raul

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  3. Hi Raul,

    You wrote “it seems that none of them had AIDS, or when some did, they were also taking the very well known highly toxic and poisonous anti-HIV drugs, that can cause 'per se' the damages they presented”

    I don’t feel that we can accurately and medically evaluate the health of these women based on what we see in the video, or assume they are, or are not, on HIV drugs, or what the effects of those drugs might be in their lives today, other than what they tell us.

    In fact in one of the cases, the mothers discuss how when they met Betsy as a little girl, she was very sick and once they adopted her and got her treatment, her health improved: “she got better”.

    Years later, as an adult, she developed cancer and died, and yes, I agree that this could have been related to her medications, but there is certainly no proof of that here, or that the medications were the only factor, if they were a factor at all.

    I think the bigger issue is that she was incarcerated for spitting on a police officer when she was HIV+. Whether or not one subscribes to the theory that HIV causes AIDS, I think most medical experts would agree that simply spitting on someone would not result in transmission. The charge against her : assault with a deadly weapon, and her resulting incarceration and death , was the miscarriage of justice the video was highlighting, not the question of HIV itself. I imagine the producers of the video are very likely aware of the point of view that HIV does not cause AIDS and either do not agree with it, or wanted to keep the scope of their video to the specific issues that they did expose, or both.

    I struggled with this frequently in making my own film on this topic. In my own experience I eventually came to the conclusion that, while there is a lot of misinformation, assumption, inflated AIDS estimates, issues with accurate testing (and how it is used to derail people’s lives), there is good and bad science on both sides of the issue. I have seen people with HIV live healthy, holistic lives and die anyway; I have met people who were on the brink of death until they got medications. It is not a zero-sum game, although there are many – again, on both sides of the issue – that would have us believe that.

    Thank you for writing and sending me the link for the OMSJ. I will be writing a follow up post on this issue and including links to other articles and websites where people can find info on HIV and criminalization.

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