Today, Deutsche AIDS-Hilfe (DAH) has published a Position paper and a press release on the criminalisation of HIV transmission. The message is clear: responsibility for self-determined sexual acts cannot and must not be shifted to HIV-positive people. The (potential) transmission of HIV must no longer be a criminal offence. Several interviews show what criminalisation can mean in the lives of people with HIV.
"That's when the drama took its course." With these words, Tilo (35) describes in a Interview, the criminalisation he experienced as an HIV-positive person.
When he meets a man in a trendy Munich pub in 2005 and takes him home, everything looks like a normal sex date. Tilo doesn't make an issue of his HIV infection. Why should he? Thanks to successful treatment, his viral load is below the detection limit. This means he is effectively no longer contagious. Besides, the two of them only make out and give head anyway, they don't fuck that night.
The next morning, Tilo tells him about his infection and also that he is below the detection limit. Although there was no risk of transmission, his sex partner panics and shortly afterwards undergoes a PEP - a four-week therapy with HIV medication that can prevent the "implantation" of HI viruses in the body shortly after a risk contact.
A year later, the police call Tilo and question him briefly about that evening. A short time later, charges are brought against him. The public prosecutor's office does everything in its power to portray Tilo as an irresponsible culprit. Clear expert reports that exonerate Tilo as not being contagious because his viral load was below the detection limit are ignored.
Only at second instance do Tilo and his lawyer manage to invalidate a dodgy expert judgement from the first instance and avert a conviction. But the court and the public prosecutor's office want to prevent an acquittal at all costs.
Mentally exhausted, Tilo agrees to a labour condition. "Today I regret that I didn't see the case through to the end." But his mental state simply didn't allow it at the time.
Tilo's story shows the extent to which HIV-positive people can be criminalised by the justice system, but also by society. How the sole responsibility for sex is shifted to them. Deutsche AIDS-Hilfe strictly rejects this one-sided shifting of responsibility! Under the title "No criminalisation of people with HIV!", it has published a Position paper published. The clear message: everyone is fully responsible for their actions. Responsibility cannot be delegated to the positives.
Several interviews on aidshilfe.de shed light on this topic from different perspectives. In addition to Tilo's experience report, lawyer Jacob Hösl explains the legal situation. Hösl is also clearly against the criminal prosecution of HIV transmissions. (Interview with lawyer Jacob Hösl)
Dr Dr Stefan Nagel deals with responsibility during sex and criminal attributions. He also comes to the conclusion that HIV-positive people have no more responsibility to bear than their sex partners. (Interview with Dr Dr Stefan Nagel)
"The fear is palpable," says therapist and counsellor Stephan Jäkel. He describes the effects of discriminatory and criminalising procedures on HIV-positive men and how they deal with them. (Interview with therapist Stephan Jäkel)
(Tim Schomann)
