Positive Women: Exposing Injustice

(45 min, Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, Canada, 2012)

Positive Women: Exposing Injustice is a 45-minute documentary film that tells the personal stories of four women living with HIV in Canada — a Quebecker who was charged for not telling her partner that she had HIV at the beginning of an ultimately abusive relationship, a young woman who chose not to pursue charges against the man who infected her, an Aboriginal woman who has personally faced extreme stigma and threats, and a Latina woman who describes the challenges of disclosure and intimate relationships for women living with HIV. Their stories are real, raw and from the heart, and tell the truth about what it’s like to live in a society that all-too-often criminalizes intimate behaviour between consenting adults and discriminates against those living with HIV. Legal experts, doctors, counsellors and support workers also lend their voices to challenge current Canadian laws that are letting down the very women they are meant to protect.

Produced and Directed by Alison Duke
Directors of Cinematography: Kim Derko and Robin Bain
Camera: Sean Black and Richard Chong
Composer and Sound Mixing: Derek Brin
Editor: Eugene Weis
Co-producers: Janet Butler-Mcphee, Cécile Kazatchkine and Alison Symington
Executive Producer: Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network

UK: Young woman with HIV blogs about her personal experiences of HIV criminalisation

It was soon after my diagnosis with HIV that the nurse asked whether I would be reporting my then partner to the Police for transmitting HIV to me. I was stunned, simply stunned by the question. I suppose the nurse had to ask…or did the nurse need to pose the question?

US: HIV criminalisation survivor, Robert Suttle – why I support the REPEAL HIV Discrimination Act

When I was released from prison, in January 2011, I knew that I needed a new life plan. I was now not only a gay black man with HIV, but also a convicted felon and registered sex offender. My career had been in the state appellate court system, but they could not hire a convicted felon.

SERO speaks on injustice of HIV discrimination | The Johns Hopkins News-Letter

“Hi. I am Robert Suttle and I am not a criminal. I am not a sex offender.” Last Thursday, Suttle, alongside two colleagues, stood before a sea of Hopkins undergraduates and professed the reality of his situation. He was personable, grounded and boldly transparent. “Me. Living in the south. I’m black.

Advocates Urge Repeal of U.S. Laws Criminalizing HIV

Advocates Urge Repeal of U.S. Laws Criminalizing HIV The producer of a new documentary about criminalizing those with HIV summed up such laws’ effects at a public showing of the film. “These horrendous punishments are vastly disproportionate to the crime,” said the film’s producer, Sero Project founder Sean Strub.

Four Stories: The Effects of HIV Criminalization on Sex and Intimacy

“As a trans woman living with HIV, I’m always worried that if I don’t disclose to my partner before we even approach the bedroom that they’ll turn around and charge me with a crime. When you have to tell a potential partner that you’re trans and poz, there’s always a fear that they will use that information to make your life hell.

Visual AIDS Blog reports on New York screening of two powerful anti-criminalisation documentaries

A vivacious roar of 200 voices from around the world could be heard spilling out of the SVA theater last night on West 23 rd Street. Representatives from the ICW: International Community of Women living with HIV (in town for UN meetings), people from the neighborhood, and others from across the 5 boroughs, gathered to watch HIV IS NOT A CRIME and POSITIVE WOMEN: EXPOSING INJUSTICE.

Nondisclosure prosecutions and population health outcomes: examining HIV testing, HIV diagnoses, and the attitudes of men who have sex with men following nondisclosure prosecution media releases in Ottawa, Canada

This study was designed to examine HIV testing, HIV diagnoses, and the attitudes of men who have sex with men following media releases about a local nondisclosure prosecution in Ottawa, Canada. The authors first reviewed the trends in HIV testing and HIV diagnoses from 2008 through 2011 in Ottawa, Canada. They went on to explore the attitudes and beliefs of local MSM about HIV, HIV prevention, HIV serostatus disclosure, nondisclosure prosecutions, and public health.

Researchers found that, statistically speaking, HIV testing and HIV diagnoses among men who have sex with men did not significantly change after the media releases about a local nondisclosure prosecution. However, qualitatively, a subgroup of 27 men who have sex with men (12 HIV-positive, 15 HIV-negative) expressed their belief that the local public health department openly shares information about people living with HIV with the police. Some HIV-positive participants stated that this perceived association between the local public health department and police services caused them to not access public health department services. The authors conclude that nondisclosure prosecutions do likely undermine HIV prevention efforts.

A Spectacle of Stigma: A First-hand Account of a Canadian Criminal HIV Exposure Trial, by Carl W. Rush

Carl W Rush’s powerful essay on the trial of Noel Bowland and Steven Boone who were found guilty on two counts each of aggravated sexual assault in December 2012 for allegedly not disclosing that they were HIV-positive before having a foursome in a hotel room is published in full below with his permission.

It begins thus:

I recently attended the criminal HIV exposure trial of two young men in Kitchener, Ontario. Each was found guilty of two counts of Aggravated Sexual Assault for exposing (but not infecting) two other men to HIV. They are now liable for a Life Sentence.

Prior to the trial, I had been following HIV exposure trials in Canada and reading the courts’ decisions. To me, many of the guilty verdicts just did not seem to fit the evidence presented in the trial or in some cases did not even seem to follow the law. How does non-violent, consensual sex between adults become a crime? I had been wondering if I was missing something; I wondered what it was that I was blind to. Was I being unreasonable? Did I not properly understand the law or the legal procedures? Was I blind to my own ignorance or bias? When I found out that another HIV exposure trial was scheduled right in my own neighbourhood, I knew that I had to go. I had to see what was happening for myself.

His conclusion, that “Canadian HIV exposure trials are both a symptom and a perpetuation of the stigmatization of Canadians with HIV,” definitely resonates with those of us working to end such unjust prosecutions.

Q&A with Dalhousie University health promotion professor on why Canadian Supreme Court got HIV ruling wrong

Dalhousie University health promotion professor says Supreme Court decision acts as barrier to public health initiatives around HIV testing and treatment Jacqueline Gahagan is speaking on HIV non-disclosure at Dalhousie University on Jan.