UPDATE: View the recording.
Scientific understanding of HIV and strategies to prevent, identify, and treat it have advanced significantly in recent years, offering an unrivaled opportunity to end new HIV infections, improve the health of people with HIV, and reduce or eliminate HIV-related health disparities.
However, state HIV criminalization laws often impede this progress by singling out HIV for disparate treatment relative to other infectious diseases and public health issues. HIV criminalization laws increase stigma; may discourage people from seeking HIV testing; and exacerbate inequities, given that these laws are disproportionately enforced against Black people and LGBTQ+ individuals. Comprehensive legal and policy efforts are needed to protect people with HIV from being unjustly exposed to stigma, discrimination, and criminal prosecution.
We held a webinar to honor HIV Is Not a Crime Awareness Day on February 28, 2023. We partnered with CDC’s National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention, gathering a dynamic team of experts at the forefront of HIV law, policy, and research to discuss the importance of HIV decriminalization; CDC’s new HIV Criminalization Legal and Policy Assessment Tool; and the path toward a more equitable future.
This webinar is for public health practitioners, policymakers, and partners involved in HIV prevention. For more information on these topics, see the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s HIV Criminalization Legal and Policy Assessment Tool.
2/16/2023; updated 3/3/2023