Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation is plastering this city with posters to remind lawmakers #HIVisnotacrime
repeal a decades-old ban on gay bathhouses. The emerging Covid pandemic halted their immediate return.The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation is not focussing on another area of HIV legislation: laws criminalizing people living with HIV.More specifically, it’s behind posters and billboards around parts of Pennsylvania informing people, “HIV is not a crime”.The posters have gone up around Philadelphia, Harrisburg and Bucks County.According to the ETAF, “in more than 30 states people are being imprisoned due to their HIV status as a result of outdated laws enacted decades ago.“These laws do not reflect scientific progress and what we now know about HIV transmission, and they ultimately put public health at risk simply because stigma and fear of prosecution discourage people from getting tested and treated.”The posters use images of outdated products from yesteryear (like vintage cellphones), and compares them to outdated HIV laws.Catherine Brown, Executive Director of ETAF, said in a press release, “Although these laws have a real, often devastating impact on individual lives – especially on BIPOC and LGBT+ communities – the fact is they’re not widely known.
We’re hoping to change that, because we know that once people learn about these laws, they’ll understand how outdated, unjust, and unnecessary they are.”In a statement on its website, the Foundation says, “Thanks to scientific advancements, HIV is no longer a death sentence and, with the right medications, the risk of transmitting the virus from one person to another is nearly zero.
Despite this medical progress, people living with HIV are being charged and branded as criminals because of their status.”ETAF, and other HIV advocacy organizations, believe such laws increase.
