HIV Positive Criminals: Have Sex, Go to Jail
http://www.gay.net/positive-proud/2012/01/01/hiv-positive-criminals-have-sex-go-jailThis may be the defining HIV issue of our time, and it is a true test of our compassion and understanding of both HIV stigma and the law. Please read this closely.
Around the country, and without leadership or guidelines from the Federal government, individual states have taken it upon themselves to draft laws that "protect" people from those of us with HIV. Whether using bio-terrorism statutes or simple "assault with a deadly weapon," people with HIV who do not disclose their status to their sexual partners are risking arrest and prosecution.
You're already having a visceral response to this scenario, aren't you? You may have the vague feeling that anyone who doesn't disclose their HIV+ status to a partner probably deserves to be punished. Don't worry, you're not alone. Not only do most people support laws forbidding sex without disclosing an HIV+ status, but even a majority of gay men support such laws, and it is understandable, albeit a misinformed view, as to why.
Many of us know someone who was infected by a partner who didn't disclose their status, or even lied about it. I have friends who dated someone claiming to be negative, until they found a telltale prescription drug bottle and then discovered they had been infected. Worse yet are the news reports showing some big, scary black man who has been raping white women and infecting them with HIV. How could anyone argue against bringing these liars and malicious infectors to justice?
= new reply since forum marked as read
And more gay people and straight people who are promiscuous will get infected thinking 1) these measure make it safer to have bareback sexual intercourse; and 2) those who are positive but undiagnosed will not have access to treatment that improves their own health and also helps protect their sex partners.
But what do those whose profession is medicine know about health care? 
Both partners should bear responsibility to some degree. If a partner purposely lies about his/her HIV status, I think that is criminal, particularly if the other partner then contracts it. Criminal negligence. And criminally I think it should be treated as such.
If a partner doesn't know that he is HIV positive and he/she engages in unprotected sex and their partner contracts it, both should be considered negligent in that consensual sex is a two way street, both need to take precautions.
If both partners have protected sex and one is HIV positive and doesn't tell the other, and the other contracts it, he/she IMHO should be held as negligent. To a lesser degree perhaps than the unprotected sex contraction, but maybe not. What I see as negligent there is that the person is not being honest about the risk involved, not whether or not they have protected / unprotected sex. Both are being to some degree negligent if they are having unprotected sex and don't know for certain each person's status.
If they have protected or unprotected sex while not knowing their statuses and one gives HIV to the other, then I see both as equally negligent. The fact that one happens to be positive and the other happens to be negative isn't pertinent to the actions being or not being taken by both parties. At that place and time they are both condoning the same action.
I hope I didn't repeat myself, it's late... And then there's the final category...
People who willingly have unprotected sex with multiple partners of uncertain statuses. Honestly, people blow my mind sometimes. In 2012, in the United States, if you don't know what you could be getting yourself into, then you have my pity. I'm not saying by any means that most people won't be fine, but the chance that someone could kill themselves over an hour's worth of thrill, that really bothers me. It's one thing if you're proven clean. It's another if you're protected. But I'll never understand the thought process in that. Just one of my pet peeves I guess. 