Georgia is the latest US state to update its laws around HIV transmission

The Governor of Georgia has signed a bill to modernise the state’s laws related to HIV transmission. The signing comes after over five years of work by the Georgia HIV Justice Coalition and Georgia Equality.

Previously, a person living with HIV could have faced a felony charge and up to 10 years in prison for not disclosing their HIV status before ‘any type of sexual act’ - even if there was no transmission or no risk of transmission at all.

The updated law says that the person living with HIV could only be committing a crime if they withheld their HIV status with “specific intent” to infect another person, and where there is “significant risk based on scientifically supported levels of risk”.

People living with HIV, who are taking effective treatment and maintaining an undetectable viral load, cannot pass HIV on to their sexual partners. This is a fact which is supported by the vast majority of the medical world - including the CDC.

“As a person living with HIV, I’m encouraged that the legislature understands the advances in HIV science. Ending the stigma around HIV is a necessity to ending the HIV epidemic and I look forward to continuing efforts that support people living with HIV,” states Malcolm Reid, Coalition Co-chair and Federal Policy Chair for the People Living With HIV Caucus.

For more info see: https://georgiaequality.org/2022/05/press-release-georgia-makes-strides-in-modernizing-hiv-disclosure-law/