Out lesbian lawmaker says criminalizing intentional attempts to spread HIV OK
Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) says that anyone with a communicable disease should be punished for intentionally attempting to spread the illness.
In an interview with CNSNews.com, Baldwin, who is an out lesbian, said:
“When somebody has a communicable disease, whether it be H1N1 flu, and they go about the public without — you know, potentially doing harm, or a sexually transmitted disease with calculation, tries to expose others, that is something that I think should be punishable,” Baldwin told CNSNews.com.
It’s nice to know that one of the few out gay lawmakers in the nation’s capitol is looking out for the rights of HIV-positive people. I wonder if Baldwin supports the terror charges against Daniel Allen, a 44-year-old HIV-positive gay man from Macomb county. Allen was charged with bio-terrorism after a neighborhood scuffle. During the fight, the victim–Winfred Fernandis, Jr.–alleges Allen bit him. Police reports from the October incident show Fernandis had a laceration through his lower lip.
But Allen alleges Fernandis, his father and his wife, ganged up him in what he has alleged is a hate crime based on sexual orientation. The FBI is investigating a complaint Allen and his attorney James Galen, Jr. filed with the Clinton Township field office last week. Allen also sought, and received a personal protective order against Fernandis in the days after in the incident.
Allen was charged on Nov. 2 with the bio-terrorism charge. The charge was brought after Allen admitted to Fox 2 news that he was HIV-positive. That admission came 10 days after the fight. But hey, Tammy says charge HIV-positives, so what’s a little terrorism charge based in ignorance?
