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Health Feb 28, 2022
| Photo courtesy of HopeMedia Stock Photography/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
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The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation (ETAF) and The Sero Project announce today as the first official “HIV IS NOT A CRIME Awareness Day.” The date is significant as it ties a symbolic bow to the closing of National Black History Month and the beginning of National Women’s History Month — two demographics that are disproportionately impacted by both the HIV epidemic & HIV criminalization.
This date is also a symbolic nod to the legacy of ETAF Founder, Elizabeth Taylor following the day of what would be her 90th birthday. Elizabeth held a tireless commitment to raising awareness and fighting the stigma of HIV and AIDS globally.
Thanks to scientific advancements, HIV is no longer a death sentence. And with the right medications, the risk of transmitting HIV from one person to another is nearly zero. Despite this therapeutic progress, people living with HIV in more than 30 states are being charged and branded as criminals because of their status, even when there is no risk of HIV transmission.
According to the CDC, these laws discourage HIV testing, increase stigma, and exacerbate disparities, noting they are outdated and do not reflect the significant advances to treat and prevent HIV transmission, such as effective therapeutics that can suppress the virus to the point of it being virtually undetectable, and therefore untransmittable (U=U).
After over 30 years of HIV research and significant biomedical and pharmaceutical advancements to treat and prevent HIV transmission, many state laws are now outdated and do not reflect our current understanding of HIV. In more troubling news, black Americans make up 40% of people living with HIV in the United States, and 33% of those incarcerated for HIV crimes.
“HIV Is Not A Crime Awareness Day is significant to me as a Black woman living with HIV because I believe it will help resource the capacity of advocates impacted by the unjust laws and people living with HIV working in innovative, strategic ways to mobilize, change laws and ultimately bring awareness to the residue of the stigma that has lived far too long in our society,” said Kamaria Laffrey, Program Director at The Sero Project. “The harmful practice of HIV criminalization impacts the Black community and women living with HIV beyond the courtroom contributing to the marginalization and discrimination in the criminal justice system, preventing us from living the full and healthy lives we all deserve.”
“The HIV is Not a Crime campaign is so incredibly important right now,” said legendary actor Billy Porter, Ambassador for The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation. “The criminalization laws put in place at the beginning of the AIDS crisis have not followed the advancements in science which have made the disease a manageable chronic illness. Today, a person living with HIV can take medication and achieve an undetectable status, meaning that the virus is sexually untransmittable. That is a fact and the laws should be modernized to reflect this.”
With support from Gilead Sciences, Inc. and the collaboration of the Health Not Prisons Collective, ETAF has made the HIV IS NOT A CRIME campaign its priority advocacy initiative within the organization.
