Knowingly transmitting hiv seems fine if the recipient is aware and consenting to the fact. Making it an out right felony does have a roundabout way of discriminating against the gay community which for some reason has a higher than average rate of hiv.
it was against the law to knowingly transmit HIV even if the other party knew? I don't think that was the case, was it?
And the reason HIV spread in the gay community is because of butt sex. It's easier to contract HIV that way.
this is quite reductive
HIV spreads quickly in the gay community, but it's actually pretty complicated:
1. It's fact that not all gay men have anal sex. It is easier to transmit STDs through anal sex, but not the only method. Sharing needles spreads HIV faster than sex
2. The stigma that continues to exist around the gay community prevents men from coming forward, getting tested, and protecting future partners
3. HIV is a weak virus, and is quite difficult to transmit anyway, even through an easy channel such as anal intercourse
4. Nearly all men who have HIV are on medicine regimens, from the poor to the rich, and California has insanely great resources for men who are HIV+, even with no money, to seek this medicine at low cost.
5. Men who are undetectable, through meds or otherwise (many gay male immune systems naturally repress the HIV virus enough for it to be impossible to transmit), cannot transmit the virus
... Therefore, the men who have it, and are transmitting it, are men who don't know they have it/haven't gotten tested due to stigma/etc.
Decriminalizing the act of transmitting HIV removes a whole host of stigma about the infection. It does not, as other idiots have surmised, encourage people to transmit it. There's a tiny subsection of the gay community (that's barely existent) who bug chase. Everyone else would rather not have to deal with the daily routine.
On top of that, PrEP is a drug that exists that is absolutely fantastic in curtailing the spread, thus reducing the need to criminalize those who have it. Most who have it never knew they did in the first place.