INDIANAPOLIS — Todd Fuqua openly lives with HIV.
They believe they should be treated the same as everyone else under the law.
“We shouldn’t be singled out just because we have a health condition. That’s just bad public health," Fuqua said.
They're a member of the grassroots organization HIV Modernization Movement-Indiana, which is a statewide network of people living with HIV and allies consisting of service and clinical providers, public health authorities, community leaders, legal experts, and many others, of diverse racial, gender, and sexuality backgrounds.
There are six HIV-related laws in Indiana.
Two of them — Battery by Bodily Fluid or Waste and Malicious Mischief by Body Fluid or Waste — make it a felony for a person who knows they are HIV positive to knowingly, intentionally, or recklessly expose another person to body fluids or waste.
Fuqua says these laws do not reflect current science.
“It’s horrific. The thought of it kinda scares me. There’s a huge difference between a misdemeanor and a felony. It’s difficult getting housing, it’s difficult getting employment. It’s something that sticks with you for the rest of your life," they said.
Damien Center President and CEO Alan Witchey says many of these laws were written at a time where there was very little knowledge about HIV.
“Unfortunately, a lot of the laws in Indiana were written back in the 80s, when the HIV epidemic was first coming into being. They weren’t really based on science at that time, because we didn’t have a lot of knowledge," Witchey said.
WRTV reached out to the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office to see how many of these cases we see locally.
Since 2015, there have been 1,256 cases of battery by body fluid or waste and 11 cases of Malicious Mischief by Body Fluid or waste in Marion County.
The Prosecutor’s Office says these cases should be considered “very rare.”
Although the number of cases is relatively low, Witchey says these laws further stigmatize the more than 13,000 Hoosiers living with HIV.
“It’s a big stigmatizing factor for these individuals because they’re getting this and they can’t spread the disease this way and at the same time they’re getting this enhancement that penalizes them at a much much greater rate," he said.
A new report from the Williams Institute at UCLA looked at HIV criminalization in Indiana from 2012 to 2023.
The report found that Indiana's HIV-related body fluid laws punish acts that don't transmit HIV.
“Looking at these fluid exposure laws. Things like spitting and biting. Throwing bodily fluids or waste at another person," Nathan Cisneros, HIV Criminalization Project Director at the Williams Institute, said.
HIV is spread through blood, breast milk, semen and vaginal secretions.
But, one of the report’s key findings is that 82% of HIV-related battery by body fluid cases involved exposure to saliva, which poses no transmission risk.
“What we’ve found over and over is that people are being arrested prosecuted, convicted and incarcerated for acts that could not transmit HIV," Cisneros said.
Fuqua and the HIV Modernization Movement have spent years trying to change these laws.
In 2023, WRTV reported on a bill that would do just that. The bill passed through the House but died in the Senate.
Fuqua hopes that this legislative session will be different.
“We’re optimistic that if it passes out of the house this year, we’ve been working the past two years to build support and awareness in the senate so we’re optimistic we’ll do better this year," they said.
House Bill 1355removes enhancements for Battery by Body Waste and Malicious Mischief with Food based on HIV contamination.
That bill has been assigned to a committee but has yet to have a hearing.
