This is something that was in my friendly local gay newspaper. An HIV convict CRIMINALIZATION / Handy awaits Jan 31 sentencing for aggravated sexual assault Matt Mills / Xtra.ca / Friday, January 25, 2008 In 2002, like so many young gay men itching to spread their wings, 20-year old Ryan Handy moved to Toronto. He quickly made friends in the gay party scene, met a man, fell in love and began to experiment with party drugs. Two years later, he was firmly in the clutches of a crystal meth addiction. One night while they were both rolling on ecstasy, his boyfriend — with whom had regular unprotected sex — finally told him that he was HIV-positive and knew it since before the two met. Handy stayed with the man for a year after he tested HIV-positive himself because he was in love with him. By November 2004, the relationship was over, Handy had kicked the meth addiction and left Toronto but he was still wrestling with his life-long demon: mental illness diagnosed as schizoaffective bipolar disorder, a condition that was exacerbated by the party drug addiction. He suffered then what he describes as a "mental break." In February 2004, Handy met a man online. The two had unprotected sex. Handy says his mental illness had left him delusional and psychotic, that he believed he was a messiah, that he could cure HIV and that he had healed himself. Soon Handy realized he'd made a mistake. After he told the man he was HIV-positive, the man called police. Handy immediately confessed and was charged with aggravated sexual assault. He was convicted in November, faces up to 25 years in prison and is due to be sentenced on Jan 31. As a so-called victim of sexual assault, the identity of Handy's accuser is protected by a court-imposed publication ban. The man has refused to talk with Xtra on the record. Handy, and other gay men facing similar charges, are branded as sex criminals and pilloried in the mainstream press. Their accusers, who freely chose to have unprotected sex, hide behind a tradition of publication bans that are intended to protect rape victims from further humiliation. Xtra has declined to publish the identities of these accused men without their permission and cooperation but Handy agreed to describe his experience in a Jan 7 interview with Xtra. The rest of the article is available here, including part one of an interview.
To be honest knowingly passing on HIV to someone should be illegal, as you're effectively passing them a death sentence of some description. However, in this case I believe that Handy (who came to have HIV by his partner, passing it on knowingly to an unsuspecting bf), should be given some sort of mental help, instead of just chucked in the slammer.
It is illegal in Arkansas. (Not sure about other states.) I believe it is Man Slaughter... maybe... not sure and I don't care. lol I'm glad it is a law but it doesn't apply to me and hopefully never will.
Slightly related to the story: My boyfriend actually has schizoaffective bipolar disorder, but as with most mental illnesses, there are different degrees of severity, and he's pretty much harmless when medicated. Jerr: It's probably either attempted murder or manslaughter in most places. I'm glad it doesn't apply to me either. EthanS: Well it is attempted murder after all..you can't not throw him in jail. If you do the crime, you gotta do the time, as the saying goes. As long as he gets help (while he's in jail?), that treats both parts of the problem.
as i said some sort of mental institution is probably better. On lock down, but not in the mainstream system... as that will kill him one way or another.
OK, OK, thinking of it that way.. if I committed a crime, I'd want to be in a mental institution rather than jail because it would benefit me more in the long ruin. I don't know why I didn't think of the obvious, now I look very silly saying "he belongs in jail"... I don't really know what I was thinking at the time. Let's pretend I didn't say that. :eusa_doh: I'll see if some nice moderator can strikeout that comment. I have a relative who's really sick, like some really severe bipolar/obsessive compulsive that even his medication can't completely treat. He could've been charged with stealing a lot of money from family at some point years ago, but he would've gotten off with a slap on the wrist. No repaying the money, no counselling, just a slap on the wrist. Those are some really screwed up laws.
Yeah, I agree. Prison is not the right place for him at all. How can you have 25 years of your life ruined because your were mentally ill?
i think knowingly having un-protected sex as an HIV positive person is illegal in all 50 states. if you tell the person before its not illegal, something like that. Any way, i'm pretty sure that they would give him the help he needs,etc.
If he gets killed... doesn't that solve any future problems? lol ...yeah... that was mean... but I'm still laughing.
I think Xtra's position is that in the criminalisation of "knowingly" having unprotected sex if you're HIV+, all the responsibility is put on the shoulders of those who are positive, who already have a lot of shit to deal with, and the people who are being super-irresponsible by having unprotected sex are considered "victims" when if they chose to have unprotected sex, then aren't they just as responsible for their infection as the person by whom they were infected? I think it's one thing to lie about one's status but just not to mention it, should that be a crime? For instance, are there other STIs you can have where you can be imprisoned for such long terms if you knowingly go around having unprotected sex with people? I think the law around HIV reflects some really deep-seated issues people have with sex, and with HIV in particular. Not that I think HIV+ people who have unprotected sex with others without letting them know are being responsible, good people, but I'm not really convinced they they merit the kind of legal consequences they're currently being faced with. The case in the article is a good example of why. I just can't imagine what a burden it must be to be HIV+, let alone having to spend the rest of your life feeling like you have to confess a sin every time you want to have sex with someone, when surely many people contract HIV out of ignorance, fear, and maybe some stupidity. The thing is... we all make stupid choices at various points in our life, and to me ending up HIV+ is a pretty big "sentence" just as it is. I can imagine getting to a point where you're just like, "Fuck it... I'm tired of having to deal with this AND deal with all the crap from people AND feel responsible for telling people I'm sexually radioactive. If they're not gonna ask, I'm not gonna tell." I'm not saying that's right, but surely it's understandable. And unless they're going around raping people, TWO people's choices are involved in any potential further infections. And surely the law should recognise the difference between someone who, basically, has a moment of weakness and doesn't declare their HIV status, and others who have become twisted and do it on a repeated basis.
It's both of their responsibilities not to have unprotected sex. I think it's really only criminal if he was asked and lied about being HIV positive. It really is one of those things that law has trouble accomnodating for, the circurstances I believe deserve a much different consequence than jail, maybe mental hospitalisation.
A friend of mine told me a story of a really good friend who normally didn't go out drinking did that one night and met this guy. They had a one nighter (of course unprotected) and the guy woke up to a note on his door the next day. It pretty much said he had a great time and btw he was HIV + but wanted to still hook up. Needless to say, this friend now is HIV + and greatly depressed over it. I agree both sides are at fault however I feel that the one who is HIV + has greater responsibility to those he/she hooks up with. If you know you got it then why would you make others suffer? However those having unprotected sex show that they are naive to how vulnerable they really are. I hope I never get this disease because it's known as a death sentence. Could I love someone who had HIV? I know I can. There are ways to protect myself from getting it and there's more to a relationship than sex, right? I think that message is a huge one to get out because there's still this huge stigma. Maybe these instances would decrease if people know that they are still lovable.
