2024 Legislative Session
HIV Modernization bill HB: 436
House Rep. Aimee Freeman
During the regular 2024 Legislative Session, LCCH partnered with Rep. Aimee Freeman in an attempt to Modernize our current HIV Criminal law.
Our goal was to bring our existing HIV “exposure” law into closer alignment with modern science, and to narrow the definitions of “criminal intent” to limit the law’s ability to be used coercively against People Living With HIV.
Initial discussions about the bill in the House Criminal Justice Committee made it clear that additional education about HIV prevention, transmission, and treatment were needed in order for the legislators to have an adequately informed discussion about changing the law.
In light of this, LCCH opted to voluntarily defer the bill, and are now strategizing how to most effectively educate members of the House and Senate Criminal Justice Committees before attempting to reintroduce future legislation.
Join us at our monthly virtual Legislative Outreach Subcommittee Meetings at 11:00am CT every 1st Tuesday of the month to learn how you can get involved in developing our legislative strategy!
Please email our Statewide Coordinator at cooridnator@lacch.org for more information.
2023 Legislative Session: HR 130 Study Resolution
During the 2023 Legislative Session, LCCH Partnered with
House Reps. Aimee Freeman and Mandy Landry
to launch the HR 130 Task Force
to explore the impacts of HIV criminal law in Louisiana.
In order to better inform our legislature about the real impacts that HIV Criminal law has on People Living With HIV (PLWH) in Louisiana, LCCH held 9 focus groups and 5 community education sessions throughout the state to uplift the collateral damages this law has on people’s lives, even if they never touch a court room.
You can view the Executive Summary of our community research here.
You can view the Full Report of our community research here.
You can view the Task Force Legislative Report for HR 130 here.
HERE ARE THE FACTS:
HIV criminalization laws DON’T work as intended.
Not a single study or peer-reviewed paper asserts HIV criminalization has actually reduced HIV transmission in any jurisdiction where it exists.
HIV criminalization laws DO work against public health.
They punish those who protect their health by being tested for HIV, and privilege those who remain ignorant of their HIV status.
They create mistrust of health professionals, making people who test HIV positive less likely to cooperate with partner notification, treatment adherence and other forms of prevention.
HIV criminalization laws DON’T align with current science.
The risk of HIV transmission has changed drastically since the beginning of the epidemic.
Today, a person on effective HIV treatment (which means having an undetectable viral load) is incapable of transmitting HIV.
Currently, medications are available to be taken that can dramatically reduce a person's chances of transmission of HIV.
The harm of HIV acquisition has also changed dramatically.
A person newly diagnosed and provided with treatment can expect to live a lifespan basically equal to a person who is not living with HIV.
HIV criminalization laws DO increase stigma & discrimination.
Experts agree that HIV stigma is among the biggest obstacles to ending the HIV epidemic.
Laws criminalizing HIV status exacerbate the already overwhelming social stigma that accompanies an HIV diagnosis.
Forced disclosure of one’s HIV-positive status carries significant risks -- including potential intimate partner violence, loss of housing or custody of one’s children, and other forms of discrimination.
These laws most strongly affect communities that are already disenfranchised, who comprise a disproportionate portion of people living with HIV.
HIV criminalization laws DON’T make sense for our justice system.
That's why advocates in Louisiana join more than a dozen states, including Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas, and others, in actively working to change these discriminatory laws.
