The New Jersey State Bar Association supports A5673 (Vainieri Huttle)/S3707 (Vitale), which makes it a disorderly persons offense to purposely transmit an infectious or communicable disease by engaging in act of sexual penetration under certain circumstances.
The proposed legislation will reduce the bias against and unfair treatment of LGBTQ+ individuals because it removes the statute’s separate provision for HIV and AIDS and makes all records of such proceedings confidential. This will ultimately help prevent the unfair targeting of LGBTQ+ individuals based on harmful stereotypes. Furthermore, this legislation is a substantial development in ensuring all people are protected from unjust convictions by requiring specific intent and actual transmission of disease to find a person guilty.
For the reasons set forth above, the New Jersey State Bar Association supports A5673/S3707 and urges you to vote yes to this bill.