Health Not Prisons Dispatch: April 2021
The Health Not Prisons Collective (“HNP”, or “the Collective”) is an intersectional national initiative launched in 2020 by Counter Narrative Project (CNP), Positive Women’s Network – USA (PWN),Sero Project,Transgender Law Center (TLC), and theU.S. Caucus of People Living with HIV (the HIV Caucus) — longtime collaborators led by and accountable to communities most affected by HIV criminalization in the United States.
HNP fosters and sustains a robust, intersectional grassroots HIV decriminalization response that centers and elevates leadership by impacted communities: Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC), people living with HIV, people involved in the sex trade, immigrants, LGBTQ people, people with disabilities, and no- and low-income people.
The Health Not Prisons Dispatch is a monthly bulletin highlighting recent developments relevant to criminalization and policing of people living with HIV in the United States, along with upcoming events, relevant resources, and opportunities to get involved. For more information about the coalition email Tyler Barbarin at [email protected].
National Updates
HNP Provides Comments on the HIV National Strategic Plan
The HIV National Strategic Plan (HNSP) is the national roadmap to ending the HIV epidemic in the United States by 2030. This plan informs the federal response to the HIV epidemic–funding priorities, strategies to correct disproportionate health outcomes, and various other priorities for the administration.
HNP provided a comment to the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA), which develops the plan and has the power to center criminalization and a number of overlapping oppressions in the federal strategy. HNP’s comment emphasized the need for the explicit application of a racial and gender justice lens to correct years of criminalization, hyper surveillance and harm done in the name of public health.
Read our full PACHA comment here.
HNP Activities to Decriminalize Sex Work
Data shows that sex workers are among those most harmed by laws that criminalize people living with HIV, due to disproportionate policing as well as HIV-specific sentence enhancements.
HNP supports efforts to decriminalize sex work at the federal, state, and local levels. The Transgender Law Center is exploring litigation and supporting coalitions that are working to decriminalize sex work. Pillar 5 of their Trans Agenda for Liberation explicitly names sex work decriminalization as a means to bring an end to the “stigma, violence, and policing that plague our communities.”
Read the full Trans Agenda for Liberation here.
Decriminalization Efforts at the State Level
Pennsylvania
HNP joined the AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania, ACLU-PA, and others to oppose House Bill 103 (HB 103), which would create a misdemeanor offense for causing a police officer to come in contact with bodily fluid.
Even more troubling, the bill would enhance the penalty to a felony–punishable by up to SEVEN YEARS in prison and up to $15,000 in fines–for people living with HIV, hepatitis B, and other communicable diseases.
Although we have been mobilizing to oppose this legislation, it is perceived as a pro-law enforcement bill and has broad bipartisan support. HB 103 passed the House quickly and currently resides in the senate judiciary committee.
Because of our coalition’s rapid mobilization, we do not expect the bill to be voted out of the Judiciary committee, but we will continue to monitor the bill. Read the full text of HB 103 here.
Virginia
HNP has seen Senate Bill 1138 (SB 1138), a bill that modernizes Virginia’s HIV criminalization laws, all the way through to Governor Northam’s desk. SB 1138 has been signed into law, making Virginia the first state in the South to modernize its HIV criminalization laws. Read more coverage here.
We celebrate the hard work of the state leaders ECHO VA and Equality Virginia. While we are excited for the bill’s enactment, we are disappointed that it retained a felony penalty–a penalty that only serves to reinforce HIV stigma.
California
In collaboration with the Decrim Sex Work California coalition, PWN is a proud co-sponsor of Senate Bill 357 (SB 357). This bill repeals provisions that criminalize loitering for the intent to engage in sex work.
While SB 357 does not decriminalize soliciting or engaging in sex work, this bill is a positive step forward, laying the groundwork for future efforts to decriminalize. SB 357 simply eliminates an anti-loitering offense that results in the legal harassment of LGTBQ+, Black, and brown communities for simply existing and “looking like a sex worker” to law enforcement. Read the bill here.
Georgia
As a member of the Georgia HIV Justice Coalition, the Counter Narrative Project oversaw Senate Bill 164 (SB 164). This bill would modernize Georgia’s HIV criminal statute, but failed to pass on the last day of the legislative session after historically passing both chambers. The coalition looks forward to re-introducing the bill next session.
Upcoming Events and Opportunities
-
HIV Is Not a Crime IV is virtual! The fourth national training academy to educate and train people living with HIV, activists, stakeholders, and policy leaders to mobilize state-level advocacy to end HIV-related criminalization will be held online June 7 – 10, 2021. Find more information and registration details for HINAC IV here.
-
The Sero Project is launching the National Survey on Criminal Laws and HIV. It is a new survey that will help understand the progress the HIV field has made and devise effective strategies for moving forward as our advocacy to end HIV criminalization continues to evolve. The new survey has been drafted with the input of many partners and experts, including Dr. Sprague and, in particular, Dr. Alex McClelland, a scholar living with HIV who has researched and written extensively on HIV criminalization. The Institutional Review Board is at Vanderbilt. Please participate in and share the survey linked here.