Yingling Votes to Repeal Discriminatory Law Criminalizing HIV

ROUND LAKE BEACH, Ill. – Individuals with HIV will no longer be able to be criminally prosecuted due to legislation that state Rep. Sam Yingling, D-Grayslake, helped pass.

“It is abhorrent that we continue to have laws on the books that treat people with HIV as criminals for living a normal life,” said Yingling. “These archaic laws are not only discriminatory, they also incentivize people to not learn their HIV status, potentially causing harm to people by stopping them from getting the information they need to receive treatment. It is past time that we stopped treating those with HIV differently than anyone else.”

Currently, Illinoisans with HIV can be criminally prosecuted for engaging in consensual sex, needle-sharing, and donating blood. To ensure that Illinois is treating HIV like any other chronic disease and using public health measures to combat the disease, Yingling co-sponsored House Bill 1063 to repeal the Criminal Transmission of HIV law.

“The stigma around HIV is one of the primary obstacles there are to effectively treating the disease, and having laws on the books contributing to that is just an additional barrier to truly addressing the issue,” said Yingling. “We do not treat patients of any other disease like this, and there is no real reason why we should treat those with HIV differently. Criminalization does not truly address the disease and, if anything, exacerbates it.”