The Woke War on Safe Sex-In the war on HIV, the Biden Administration has sided with the disease

By Northern Exile:

In the decades since the start of the HIV and AIDS epidemic, progressives and conservatives have been divided on all sorts things: its causes, its results, and how best to fight it.

Whether or not we fight it, however, has never before been in question. Until now.

Recently, the Biden Administration’s website was updated to include its policy priorities. Under the section entitled ‘The Biden Plan to Advance LGBT+ Equality in America and Around the World’, the platform page names the decriminalisation of ‘HIV exposure and transmission laws’ as one such priority.

For the uninitiated, HIV exposure and transmission laws criminalise knowingly exposing another individual to HIV. For instance, it would be criminal to engage in sexual relations with a partner, knowing you have HIV, and not telling them about your status.

As of writing, 37 states have these laws. They take various forms, but are united in seeking to disincentive recklessly and knowingly exposing a fellow citizen to a deadly disease.

As a layman generally opposed to people getting deadly diseases, this seems reasonable. After all, if you have an infectious illness it is common courtesy not to expose your fellow man to it – especially when that illness is permanent and kills near one million people a year. Adults are entitled to take risks in their private lives, but they are not entitled to endanger others without facing consequences for their actions.

I see it as analogous to drunk driving. You’re allowed to get horribly drunk in the privacy of your home, even to get so drunk that you harm your health. You’re not allowed, however, to then hop in your car and speed down the motorway. Your right to get drunk does not extend to risking the lives of innocents.

The same principle ought to apply here. Yet, for Joe Biden, it seems not to. Instead, being woke and ‘sensitive’ to this disease is more important than saving lives. Rather than discussing the need to protect public health, Biden proclaims that these laws promote ‘discrimination and stigma’.

Whilst it is true that some scholars dispute the efficacy of these laws, that is not the point. I don’t want there to be additional HIV exposure, and I want laws in place that would punish those that expose others to this illness without the full and informed consent of their partner. There is a principle at stake – the principle that you cannot knowingly give somebody an irreversible and deadly illness without their consent.

The further ‘justifications’ provided by Biden and his citations illuminate where their concerns really lie: with bogus visions of discrimination. The article cited proclaims that the ‘criminalization of transmission creates an unjust public health environment where individuals living with HIV may be fearful about disclosing their own status.’ and one where stigma against people with HIV is promoted.

Frankly, if you’re adult enough to engage in the score of practices that typically result in HIV, you’re adult enough to face up to the matter and get a test. That might sound callous, but adults ought to take responsibility for their choices and face the results. The answer to people being too scared to get a test is to make the process easier, more calming, not to let malicious people get away with exposing others.

Keep in mind, these laws don’t exist to punish unknowing exposure. The signs of HIV can take years to emerge, and you can’t blame someone for passing on a disease they had no clue they had. They exist to punish knowing exposure. This seems to me to be common sense and consistent with how criminal justice works in other areas.

Whether or not this horrid policy will come into action is questionable. The run-offs in Georgia are a week away and control of the Senate hangs in the balance. Even if the Democrats pull it out the bag, more reasonable Democrats could still stop this in its tracks.

The fact that we’re even having to discuss this is disheartening. America and the world face so many problems – economic collapse, crumbling infrastructure, racial tension, threats from rogue states like Iran and China – and yet the Biden Administration is putting resources into this.

Fighting the war on HIV is a noble cause. It’s just that Biden is fighting for the wrong side.