Around New England

Massachusetts State Senate Candidate Wants To Decriminalize HIV Transmission

September 30, 2020

Do you think it should be a crime to knowingly transmit HIV?

Meg Wheeler does not.

The Democrat is running for a seat in the Massachusetts Senate against state Senator Patrick O’Connor (R-Weymouth) on the South Shore.

“A major part of my LGBTQ+ plan is that it focuses on healthcare. Ensuring that all people have access to appropriate healthcare requires that we decriminalize HIV transmission, so I as your state senator I will advocate for this change,” she wrote in a Facebook post last week.

In 2018, 15,820 people with HIV died in the United States, according to HIV.org, although it is unclear  whether all of them died directly of the sexually transmitted disease. The virus disproportionately affects homosexuals. Among racial groups in America, blacks are the most heavily affected, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Wheeler is running to represent the Plymouth & Norfolk District, which covers the towns of Weymouth, Hingham, Hull, Cohasset, Scituate, Norwell, Marshfield, and Duxbury.

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