We Stand with Michael Johnson: HIV Is Not a Crime

HIV and Justice Organizations Stand with Michael Johnson and All Black Gay Men, and Condemn Laws Criminalizing HIV-Positive Status

As organizations committed to human rights, social justice, and dignity for people living with and vulnerable to HIV, we release this statement in solidarity with Black gay men who have been organizing a response to the criminalization of Michael L. Johnson. After only two hours of deliberation by a jury in a trial that was fraught with misinformation about HIV transmission, misunderstanding about gay hookup culture, and inadequate legal counsel, a nearly all-white jury quickly convicted Michael Johnson, a 23-year-old Black gay man in St. Charles, MO, finding him guilty on five felony counts and sentencing him to 30 years in prison. HIV criminalization is yet another tool used to police and incarcerate bodies that are too often poor, Black or brown, or queer-identified. In this case, Michael will be incarcerated for the next 30 years for allegedly exposing sexual partners to HIV, a condition that is chronic and manageable with proper care and treatment. This is atrocious. As a point of comparison, killing someone while driving under the influence of alcohol carries a sentence of 7 years in Missouri. St. Charles is less than a half-hour’s drive from Ferguson, MO, a city that has made international headlines due to racist police brutality and a scathing record of racial bias in law enforcement. HIV criminalization laws are widely understood to be based on hysteria, misinformation, and outdated science as it relates to HIV transmission.  Expert-led professional associations including the HIV Medicine Association, the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care, and the American Medical Association have taken positions supporting the repeal or modernization of these laws, and President Obama’s Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS passed a resolution in 2013 calling for HIV criminalization laws to be reviewed and repealed. This particular prosecution and the media hysteria around it were fueled by homophobia, HIV stigma, and anti-Black racism embedded in portrayals of Black male hypersexuality.  Michael Johnson is not the first Black gay man to be incarcerated under these laws, and it is unlikely he will be the last. Black lives and Black leadership matter.  We stand in support of the agenda released today by Black gay men:

1. Support Michael Johnson while he’s in prison, continue to raise awareness about his case, work to support any potential appeals or strategies to reduce his sentence or overturn this ruling altogether.

2. Continue to dialog with Black gay men around the country in person and through social media about the importance of opposing such laws.

3. Repeal the laws that criminalize HIV exposure, nondisclosure, and transmission, in Missouri and nationwide.

4. Challenge our allies in Black progressive organizations, criminal justice reform, HIV prevention and treatment, and the LGBT movement to take more of an active role in challenging HIV criminalization.

5. Develop more capacity for Black gay men’s grassroots organizing.

When people with HIV are prosecuted under HIV criminalization laws, no justice is achieved. Stigma, fear, and, in many cases, racism, win. And independently of HIV, criminalization, incarceration, and police brutality disproportionately impact Black and brown communities, LGBT folks, and people living in poverty. Black gay men cannot and must not be removed. With the recognition that anti-Black racism, homophobia, and HIV stigma are at the heart of the epidemic and the verdict in the Michael L. Johnson case, we as an HIV community must commit to centering Black leadership and to ensuring that the police state does not factor into addressing the HIV epidemic. Incarceration and prisons are never the solution. We echo and amplify the love from the open letter to Michael L. Johnson to all Black gay men; we will continue to stand with all of you in this fight for Michael’s freedom. To Michael: we love and will continue to support you. To Black gay men across the nation: we commit to fight by your side in service of justice, love, and liberation. In solidarity,   ACT UP Boston Advocacy Without Borders The Afiya Center African American AIDS Activism Oral History Project AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts AIDS Alabama AIDS Alabama South AIDS Arms, Inc AIDS Foundation of Chicago AIDS Project of the East Bay AIDS Project Los Angeles (APLA) APLA Health & Wellness AIDS Resource Center Ohio AIDS United AILES Alabama HIV/AIDS Policy Partnership American Run to End AIDS (AREA) Amida Care Arkansas RAPPS Believe Out Loud Berkeley Builds Capacity #BlackLivesMatter BlaQueerFlow: The Griot’s Pen The Body Is Not an Apology BOOM!Health C2EA (Campaign to End AIDS) Cascade AIDS Project CLAGS: The Center for LGBTQ Studies The Center for Sexual Justice The CHANGE (Coalition of HIV/AIDS NonProfits & Governmental Entities) Coalition Chicago Black Gay Men’s Caucus Desiree Alliance End AIDS Now End Discrimination & Criminalization Org Fresh Anointing Ministries/Living Positive HIV/AIDS Ministry Friends For Life Full Of Grace Ministries Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) Global Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS-North America (GNP+ NA) Harm Reduction Coalition Hawaii Island HIV/AIDS Foundation Health Initiatives For Youth (HIFY) Hepatitis, AIDS, Research Trust HIPS HIVE/UCSF HIV Disclosure Project HIV Justice Network HIV Medicine Association HIV Prevention Justice Alliance House of Blahnik, Inc. Housing Works Houston HIV Cross-Network Community Advisory Board Howard Brown Health Center Intimacy & Colour Iowa Unitarian Universalist Witness/Advocacy Network Justice Resource Institute Legacy Community Health LinQ for Life, Inc. LIVES WORTH SAVING INC Louisiana AIDS Advocacy Network Men’s Health Foundation Metropolitan Community Church Missouri HIV Criminalization Task Force MrFriendly MyFabulousDisease.com National Black Justice Coalition National Center for Lesbian Rights National LGBTQ Task Force NIA Women in Public Health NO/AIDS Task Force (d.b.a. CrescentCare) Northern Nevada HOPES Ohio AIDS Coalition One Struggle KC Positive Iowans Taking Charge Positive Women Inc. New Zealand Positive Women’s Network – USA (PWN-USA) PWN-USA Bay Area PWN-USA Louisiana PWN-USA-Ohio PWN-USA Philadelphia Chapter PWN-USA San Diego Region POZ VETS USA INTL Project Inform Queerocracy Sandshouse SERO Project SisterLove, Inc. SOCIAL ACTION AND REHABILITATION CENTRE-SARC TRUST Sophia Forum Southern AIDS Coalition Southern HIV/AIDS Strategy Initiative Steps to Living on Facebook Stopping  da Stigma Sweet Georgia Press, LLC Tougaloo Pride Transdiaspora Network Transgender Law Center United Church of Christ HIV AIDS Network, Inc. (UCAN) US People Living with HIV Caucus Unity Fellowship of Christ Movement Unity Fellowship Church Movement Victim of HIV Criminalization Visual AIDS The Well Project W King Health Care Group The Women’s Collective Women Together For Change Women with a Vision (List updated May 19, 2015) Click this link to sign your organization onto this statement Resources: Commentary: Stop Locking Up Black Men for HIV, by Keith Boykin On Uplifting Voices, Social Justice and Listening to HIV Criminalization Accusers, by Mathew Rodriguez ‘Tiger Mandingo’ is guilty because Missouri law ignores three decades of science, Jorge Rivas Guiding Principles for Eliminating Disease-Specific Criminal Laws, Positive Justice Project HIV Criminalization: What You Need to Know, Sero Project