INDIANAPOLIS — It was a day of traditions at the statehouse on Tuesday.
Organization Day happens every year and one advocacy group has been coming for years with the goal of changing an Indiana law.
"I was diagnosed in 1988, 36 years ago,” Dr. Carrie Foot, Chair of the HIV Modernization Movement Indiana, said. “That is when Indiana's first law was enacted. We've come leaps and bounds. Decades later the science has changed."
The HIV Modernization Movement is advocating for lawmakers to change a criminal law called battery by bodily fluid. Anyone can be charged with the crime, but people with HIV face a harsher punishment
"If we got into a fight and we spit on each other, that's a crime in Indiana,” Foot said. “For you, it would be a minor crime, a misdemeanor crime. For me, because I live with HIV, it gets enhanced to worse penalties, I would face a felony solely because of my HIV status. We know today that spit does not transmit HIV."
Meanwhile, inside the Senate chamber, it was business as usual.
Senate minority leader Greg Taylor addressed his colleagues. He was criticized by some in his party due to sexual harassment allegations laid out in an Indy Star article.
Taylor didn't directly address those allegations.
"I will continue to fight for those who think that they don't have a voice and my actions will be my statement,” Taylor said.
When asked about the allegations, republican president pro-tem Roderick Bray expressed disappointment.
"I am extremely disappointed in Senator Taylor,” Bray said. “I have expressed that to him. We conduct ourselves at a much higher level than that here in this chamber and as the president pro-tem, I've got an obligation to make sure that happens and will continue to do so."
Senator Taylor did talk to the press about the Democrats’ policy plans for the upcoming session, however, he did not take any questions.
As for the HIV Modernization Movement, it says they have been endorsed by the mother of Ryan White, Jeanne. They hope her voice will encourage policy change in Indiana.
The regular session begins on January 8.
