Court weighs challenge to HIV law

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

An Ohio law requiring HIV-infected individuals to tell sexual partners of their status before having sex or risk criminal charges is unconstitutionally based on outmoded stigmas against the gay community and doesn’t take into consideration current survival rates for people with HIV, say lawyers challenging the law in a case before the state Supreme Court.

Ohio’s HIV-assault law also violates free speech rights because it focuses only on disclosure, not the actual transmission of the disease, say attorneys arguing against the law on behalf of an Ohio man convicted of failing to tell his girlfriend he had HIV after they started having sex.