But see, that’s the thing. HIV-positive people in effective treatment aren’t less contagious. They aren’t contagious at all. I know people find this hard to believe, but study after study shows it’s true. Tens of thousands of mixed-status couples who have been together having unprotected anal sex for years have participated in research showing that the negative partner is not at risk.

So there’s nothing to get a pass from. I mean, unless this jerk was intentionally not taking his medication because he actually wanted to pass the virus on. Which is almost unheard of, but not completely unheard of.

Some prosecutors in states with 1980s-era laws on the books about HIV transmission, laws that date back before effective treatment, will leverage those laws to bring more charges against alleged rapists like this guy, who obviously clearly deserves to be charged as hard as possible.

But the trouble is when prosecutors do that, they are feeding into stigmatization and stereotypes that make the fight to strangle viral circulation even harder.