Porn Stars React to New Bill Reducing the Penalty for Knowingly Exposing Someone to HIV

California lawmakers recently passed SB 239 into law—a bill that reduces the charge for knowingly exposing someone to HIV from a felony to a misdemeanor. The state, meanwhile, is spinning this reduction in penalty as a win for sex workers.

Claims that the law has mostly impacted the lives of sex workers stem from a study conducted by the UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute, which found that whether contact occurred or not, over 90 percent of the cases under the former laws were sex work-related.

Intentionally transmitting an incurable, life-threatening autoimmune disease—while morally repugnant—should not be considered a crime punishable with jail time and a felony conviction, according to adult performers who support the new bill.

Due to his own personal experiences, adult performer Conner Habib understands the underlying complexities in a way few can. “I was with someone that knowingly lied to me. He felt pressured to say he’s negative even though he’s positive, so I experienced that. I felt violated by his lie,” recalls Habib.

After finding the HIV medication on the bathroom counter, Habib recalls confronting his sex partner about the lie and the potential risk. According to Habib, the shame and stigma that surround HIV infection are one of the issues that make talking about it a problem, but keeping it from a partner shouldn’t be considered a felony. “HIV-positive sex workers who give blowjobs would have been charged with a felony [under the old legislation], so in my opinion this is a step in the right direction even though it’s complicated,” says Habib.

Taking into account the overcrowded jails and state deficit, adult performer Tasha Reign also favors the reduced penalty, and says former legislation unfairly targeted sex workers while wasting government money and attention. “If you know you’re infected you shouldn’t be infecting others against their will, that is malicious. Every time you consent to having sex you’re taking a risk but I don’t think the government should be interfering in our lives and regulating this,” says Reign.

As chairperson for APAC, the Adult Performer Advocacy Committee, Reign’s handled a wide variety of nuanced situations and doesn’t believe this law will have much impact on those in the porn industry, given their stringent two-week testing policies. “Overall, decriminalizing infecting others with HIV seems to be the right choice,” says Reign. “Government should not be involved in peoples lives this way… I don’t believe this is something people should be going to prison for.”

Despite APAC’s official endorsement of California SB 239, some performers within the adult business are shocked by the industry support. After all, not disclosing your STD status and willfully, knowingly transmitting HIV to an unsuspecting sex partner could be regarded as a non-consensual act, even if you are using a condom.

Jillian Janson feels the reduction in penalty from felony to misdemeanor when knowingly transmitting HIV is unjust. “It’s appalling. A misdemeanor is like a little slap on the wrist. I think they should be slapped with a felony for knowingly transmitting HIV,” says Janson. After four years in the adult business, Janson feels it’s not just a moral obligation but a rule of thumb for professional sex workers to be upfront about their STD status.

For some it’s about being held accountable—not just on a moral level, but on a legal one. “Any sex industry, any sex worker, you should be tested. It’s good health, good business, and promotes a good working relationship. If that person has HIV then you can then discuss that,” remarks Kelley Cabbana.

As an adult performer who primarily resides in Florida, Cabbana’s not sure how much impact this legislation will carry for her personally. However, making knowingly transmitting HIV equal in stature to knowingly transmitting Ebola by reducing the penalty doesn’t sit well with Cabbana, either. She feels the field is being leveled in the wrong direction.

“If you’re infecting people with SARS and Ebola those are deadly viruses, those to me should be felony charges. If you are knowingly infecting someone it’s no different than killing somebody, making someone wait it out and suffer through a deadly disease first,” says Cabbana. “We need to make sure people are held accountable for their actions, and if we lower something like this to a slap on the wrist then we are knowingly putting our country at risk for something worse in the future.” 

HIV is an incurable life sentence and a disease that wreaks havoc on the immune system. While currently treatable, not everyone can afford or has access to the necessary medication. Intentionally transmitting a disease that will negatively impact another human being for the rest of their lives shouldn’t be decriminalized, says porn star Kayden Kross.

“The fact that lawmakers were not able to find a legal means of separating the two issues so that people who menacingly attempted to harm others could be legally distinguished from low-income, high-risk, mostly-minority sex workers with few other options is astounding,” says Kross. “It’s one more argument for the decriminalization of prostitution, not the decriminalization of malicious behavior.”