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| Notice "Sex Offender" under photo. |
When sex offender ___ moved to town, police went door to door to warn Milford business owners and residents.
His crime?
___, who is HIV-positive, had sex with his partner.
Though consensual, it was an act that landed him in a hard-labor prison, branded him a sex offender and changed his life.
After a 2008 relationship ended badly, his then-partner told Shreveport, La., police that ___ did not disclose his HIV status before they were intimate.
Soon, ___ realized he was being investigated.
Search warrant
Sex crime detectives visited him at the Louisiana Second Circuit Court of Appeals, where he worked as an assistant clerk.
"The only question they ever asked me was, 'Do I know that person?'" ___ said.
One day he returned home from work and found a search warrant on the kitchen counter.
Detectives had gone through his apartment, opening doors and drawers, searching for documents and medicine related to HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
"When I saw that, my stomach just turned. It was like, this wasn't real. Wow, I'm really being investigated. At that point, I did not understand how far it could go," ___ said.
'Shameful'
Things were quiet for a while. Then in August 2008, after ___ returned from lunch to work, court security called him to the front desk.
Sex crime detectives were waiting there with handcuffs.
"They told me, 'Put your arms behind your back. You are under arrest'," ___ said. "My mind went blank. I said, 'What for?' and one said, 'Do you want me to say what it is?'"
It was a humiliating confrontation in front of friends and co-workers.
He was not out as a gay man or as being HIV-positive. Not that he was trying to hide it. He just kept his personal life personal.
"It was shameful and it continued to be shameful," ___ said.
The charge was "intentional exposure to the AIDS virus."
He spent three days in jail, was released on bond and awaited multiple court hearings that dragged on for almost a year.
As an accused felon, he could no longer work in the court and was placed on leave.
Burden of proof
"In court, it boils down to whether the person with HIV can prove they disclosed," said Sean Strub of Milford, executive director of Sero, a national advocacy group that helps people who have faced stigma, discrimination or prosecution for being HIV-positive.
"We don't have laws like this for other sexually transmitted infections. In the absence of any measurable risk of transmission, they are just based on fear and stigma."
___ was convicted in June 2009, but it took nearly another year to be sentenced. He went to prison in July 2010 and was released in January 2011.
___ was required to register as a sex offender for 15 years, which in Louisiana comes with a long list of requirements.
His driver's license prominently declares him a sex offender, he must notify landlords and employers that he is a sex offender and when he moves to a new area, neighbors, businesses, schools, child care centers, parks and playgrounds must be notified of his presence.
Pennsylvania does not require this level of notification, unless the offender comes from a state where it is required, Strub said.
HIV criminalization
___ lives with a host of stigmas.
"If I could change being gay, I would. It's almost like I messed myself up for living in this society. I'm black, gay and a sex offender. Those things don't look good. You have to work three times harder to show yourself as a worthy person, not what society says you are," ___ said.
Despite the stigma, ___ says he feels like a normal person and draws self-worth from his faith.
"In Christ, there is no condemnation. I have no reason to be ashamed of being black, gay or being HIV-positive. I'm not defined by any of those things," ___ said.
In the days after being released from prison, he read an article about HIV criminalization written by Strub.
It was the first time he realized there was a name for what had happened to him and that others are being charged for HIV-related crimes.
'I care'
People charged with a crime get more severe sentences when they are HIV-positive.
"___ in Texas spit at a cop. Not nice behavior, appropriate for some kind of charge. But he was charged with assault with a deadly weapon, and it put him in jail for 35 years," Strub said.
Even without a crime, some with HIV are treated like criminals through discrimination.
Milton Hershey School and the AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania settled a lawsuit last month involving a 13-year-old who was denied admission to the school because he tests HIV-positive. The school now will pay $700,000 to the boy and his mother and allow admission of HIV-positive students.
___'s mission in life has become ending HIV criminalization. Today he works with Strub as the assistant director of Sero.
"I realize the vulnerability of people with HIV and how easy it is for them to be received as people who intentionally want to harm people — that seems to be the idea — that is what we intend to do. We do not want to infect others. We just want to live our lives," ___ said. "It seems that because we are HIV-positive, we have no value. We are of value. It's like it's OK for us to be prosecuted. I'm doing this because it is hard being HIV-positive in a society that does not seem to care. I care. And I hope somebody else does." ..Source.. by Beth Brelje, Pocono Record Writer
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