Kamaria Laffrey speaks to attendees at Orlando’s HIV Is Not A Crime Academy March 1. (Photo by Bellanee Plaza)
ORLANDO | Experts, activists and community members gathered at the Heart of Florida United Way in Orlando March 1 to learn and discuss how to challenge the stigma around HIV and HIV decriminalization at the HIV Is Not A Crime Academy.
The in-person gathering was facilitated by Kamaria Laffrey, a nationally renowned activist and person living with HIV. Somos LOUD, or Latino Outreach & Understanding Division, hosted the event in partnership with the Sero Project, Central Florida HIV Planning Council and the HIV Stigma Taskforce.
Laffrey, co-executive director of the Sero Project, shared that she got involved with HIV work after she was diagnosed with HIV in 2003.
“For me, it’s beyond the diagnosis,” Laffrey says. “I always tell people who you are as a person of HIV shouldn’t shift who you were before your diagnosis, your dreams are not infected, you can still live those out.”
Laffrey’s focus at the event was to educate attendees on HIV criminalization in the U.S., and specifically in Florida. She told attendees that she wasn’t there to change anyone’s mind, just to add context to the issues. The discussion was opened with statements related to HIV and how guests felt about the statements.
“HIV criminalization is a racial, gender and economic justice issue,” Laffrey said. “It is disproportionately used to target Black, indigenous and other people of color, especially those who are also cis, trans women and bisexual men, people who use drugs, sex workers and immigrants.”
Laffrey explained how Florida works with its HIV criminalization laws, discussing four statutes that could result in criminal conduct with the first one being written in 1986.
Florida criminalizes people living with HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases in the contexts of sex work, nonconsensual sex offenses, donation of blood and other bodily products and consensual sex without disclosure, according to the Williams Institute.
If penalized, it is a third-degree felony, punishable by up to five years in prison and/or a $5,000 fine, if a person living with HIV knows that they are HIV positive and have been informed that HIV may be transmitted during sexual intercourse; and has sexual intercourse with any other person without disclosing their HIV status.
Advocates in Florida are currently trying to lower the HIV penalty to the STD penalty which is a first-degree misdemeanor.
“From 2015 to now, what I’ve seen transform is recognizing the gaps and the barriers in our healthcare around HIV,” Laffrey says. “Also, the opportunities to push our federal partners, our federal government funds to hear us.”
Fidel Gomez Jr, President of Somos LOUD, praised the event as a success, saying events like this help to connect people with community leaders.
“I think HIV is always a very stigmatized conversation,” Gomez says. “I think the conversation needs to continue getting deeper, especially with the criminalization aspect. I for one, didn’t know a lot of the stuff that was on the slides.”
Laffrey says she is very inspired by those who fight to repeal laws in states like Virginia, Georgia and Illinois.
“I’m proud of other people,” Laffrey says. “I’m proud because they inspire me to keep going. I call it heart work. It’s not hard work, it’s heart work; you have to have the heart for it. It’s not for everybody.”
The goal was to educate activist on the ins and outs of HIV criminalization and to host a conversation about civic engagement to build a coalition for HIV decriminalization in Central Florida, according to the event details.
Eli Garcia, Director of community outreach and engagement for Hispanic Federation, spoke about voting rights after Laffrey. She said she was able to learn more about HIV from the discussion and it made her want to engage more.
“It was very informative for me,” Garcia says. “The laws can be very manipulated. This was a better introduction to make me want to learn and investigate more as well.”
Laffrey says she is always grateful for spaces to talk about HIV, not just to center herself as a woman living with HIV, but to amplify the voices that don’t get a chance to speak.
“I’ve seen tremendous change come from that of our federal partners inviting us to the table and holding seats for us in different decision-making spaces,” Laffrey says. “There’s still a long way to go but forging those relationships and bridging those gaps has been one big transformation that I’m really proud of my community for.”
You can learn more about the national HIV Is Not A Crime Academy by going to SeroProject.com/HINAC.
