It takes two to tango. Knowing and sharing your HIV status is your choice and responsability Behaving responsably is everyone’s duty

A new report published by Sigma Research shows that, 57% of gay men supported the prosecution and imprisonment of people with HIV recklessly infecting a sexual partner with the virus (commented by Michael Carter at AIDSMAP).

This support was more prominent amongst Gay men who never tested for HIV than amongst those who tested at least once for HIV and were negative whilst less than 20% of those who tested HIV positive agreed that it is a good idea to imprison people who know they have HIV if they pass it to sexual partners who do not know they have it.

This support was higher amongst those under 20 years of age (64.9%), of Black ethnicity (66.1% vs. 59.4% amongst White British) and with low education (64.8% vs. 57% amongst those with a high education). Awkwardly, this survey does not provide information about the statistical significance of this data and therefore no general conclusion should be drawn from these figures.

Harm (physical and moral) as well as responsibility where the two main reasons given to support prosecution of HIV+ Gay men recklessly infecting their sexual partner. For many, responsibility rests with the HIV+ partner, “ the infected” one, “the carrier” who can harm others, the one with “the duty” to come clean, the one who must have “the honesty” to disclose his known status whilst the other, the HIV- or ignorant partner,  has “a right to know” (emphasis on words quoted by respondents).

Interestingly, the one who is HIV- or unaware of his status has no responsibility for asking questions, or for being responsible of coming clean. After all he could start stating that he was HIV negative at his last test or that he does not know his status, this would certainly be a great chat-up line. “Hey my name is John, I am HIV negative, fancy a shag?” This would come with the big advantage of avoiding wasting time chatting up unsuitable partners because let’s be honest, it is dubious to believe that someone unaware of his status or HIV- would be without reserve willing to engage in sex with an HIV+ man.

As well as prosecution, laying the blame on HIV positive people is definitively not going to help increasing the uptake of HIV testing. On the contrary it can only encourage people not to test as a protection against possible prosecution and to increase the stigma associated with being HIV+.

There is a big chip standing on the shoulder of many Gay men, and it is not restricted to HIV status; it extends to age, race (ever counted the number of Black men in a London Gay club?) and even sexuality (no joke about lesbian please). Somehow this is reassuring as it shows that Gay men are not that different from the rest of the population with its prejudice, ignorance and clichés. It is less reassuring 25 years into the AIDS epidemics. It show that there is still a lot of work to do and not always where one think it should be done

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