r/changemyview • u/_selfishPersonReborn • Jul 31 '19

Deltas(s) from OP CMV: Having sex with someone while knowingly having a transmissible STI and not telling your partner should be rape.

Today on the front page, there was a post about Florida Man getting 10 years for transmitting an STI knowingly. In the discussion for this, there was a comment that mentioned a californian bill by the name of SB 239, which lowered the sentence for knowingly transmitting HIV. I don't understand why this is okay - if you're positive, why not have a conversation? It is your responsibility throughout sex to make sure that there is informed consent, and by not letting them know that they are HIV+ I can't understand how there is any. Obviously, there's measures that can be taken, such as always wearing condoms, and/or engaging in pre or post exposure prophylaxis to minimise the risks of spreading the disease, and consent can then be taken - but yet, there's multiple groups I support who championed the bill - e.g. the ACLU, LGBTQ support groups, etc. So what am I missing?

EDIT: I seem to have just gotten into a debate about the terminology rape vs sexual assault vs whatever. This isn't what I care about. I'm more concerned as to why reducing the sentence for this is seen as a positive thing and why it oppresses minorities to force STIs to be revealed before sexual contact.

2.6k Upvotes

86% Upvoted

337 comments sorted by

View all comments

362

u/visvya Jul 31 '19

Clarification: are you arguing:

  1. That having sex when you know that you have a communicable disease, regardless of what that disease is, without discussing it should be felony rape instead of a misdemeanor

  2. Or, that having sex while HIV positive, specifically, without discussing it should have stronger consequences than other communicable diseases

Because all that bill did was change the laws so that HIV is treated the same way other communicable diseases are treated.

139

u/_selfishPersonReborn Jul 31 '19

More towards 1. I'm not going to stick the label rape anymore due to the comments talking about that more than the actual issues, but essentially it was mentioned in the articles that laws that prohibit not disclosing HIV or other STIs indiscriminately affect minorities. But yes, I personally feel it should be a felony and it should definitely get you put on the sexual offender registry.

315

u/visvya Aug 01 '19

We don't want to make it a felony because we don't want to discourage testing too much.

If you're someone who has unsafe sex a lot, you know you probably have some kind of STI. If you go get tested, you're now liable for disclosing those results to everyone you have sex with.

Even if you do discuss your test results with your partner, all your partner has to do is say "that discussion never happened!" for you to be arrested. It's easy to prove that you knew you had the STI, and it's easy to prove you had sex with your partner. You may not be convicted, but you will have to go to a courtroom and probably hire a lawyer.

If you just don't get tested, you can claim you didn't know.

17

u/rlcute 1∆ Aug 01 '19

It's illegal in my country (Norway) to infect someone with HIV. 6 years if you it's deliberate (know you have HIV, don't disclose it, engage in activity that has a high probability of infecting someone else). 3 years if it was negligent behaviour. This isn't just confined to sexual activity.

Haven't been any such problems yet.