PropertyValue
?:author
?:datePublished
  • 2017-09-18 (xsd:date)
?:headline
  • Is California Governor Jerry Brown Allowing HIV-Positive People to Donate Blood? (en)
?:inLanguage
?:itemReviewed
?:mentions
?:reviewBody
  • On 13 September 2017, YourNewsWire.com posted a story regarding a state legislative bill in California that contradicted itself within the first two paragraphs: The measure, which was approved by the state Senate on 11 September 2017, does indeed reduce the penalties for HIV-positive people who knowingly expose others to the virus or donate blood. But as the state legislature's website stated, doing so is still illegal: Brown signed the bill into law on 6 October 2017. Before then, knowingly exposing a person to the virus via sexual contact was a felony punishable by either three, five, or eight years in prison. It was also a felony for an HIV-positive person to knowingly donate blood, tissue, or, under specified circumstances, semen or breast milk. Democratic state Sen. Scott Wiener, who introduced the bill, told us in an e-mail on 18 September 2017: The goal of the bill, Wiener said, was to end HIV infections: The bill passed in the state Senate by a margin of 24-12 (with four lawmakers abstaining) four days after the state assembly approved it in a 52-19 vote (with eight members abstaining). One of the bill's critics, Republican Sen. Joel Anderson said: However, a 28 June 2017 editorial by two Alameda County Public Health Department officials argued that intentional exposure to the virus is rare. J. Phoenix Smith (interim head of the department's HIV care unit) and Nicholas J. Moss (director of its HIV STD Section) wrote: Wiener and the bill's sponsor in the Assembly, Democratic lawmaker Todd Gloria, said in a statement that the bill is supported by several LGBTQ and HIV-related advocacy groups, including the Center for HIV Law & Policy, the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors, and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation among others. But another HIV activist, Deondre B. Moore, said in a March 2017 post for the group HIV Equal that the bill should be revised. In his piece, Moore reveals that a partner infected him with the virus after lying to him about testing negative. While he does not feel having HIV is a death sentence, he said, his peace of mind was stolen by his former partner's behavior: When asked for a response to Moore's remarks, Wiener told us: (en)
?:reviewRating
rdf:type
?:url