Exposing a person to HIV is treated more seriously under California law than infecting someone with any other communicable disease, a policy some lawmakers say is a relic of the decades-old AIDS scare that unfairly punishes HIV-positive people based on outdated science.

Several lawmakers are promoting a bill by state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, that would make it a misdemeanor instead of a felony to intentionally expose someone to HIV, the virus that causes the immune system-weakening disease AIDS. The change would treat HIV like other communicable diseases under California law.
Under current law, if a person who knows they are infected with HIV has unprotected sex without telling their partner they have the virus, they can be convicted of a felony and face years of jail time. Intentional transmission of any other communicable disease, even a potentially deadly condition like hepatitis, is a misdemeanor.

"These laws were passed at the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic when there was enormous fear and ignorance and misinformation around HIV," Wiener said. "It's time for California to lead and to repeal these laws to send a clear signal that we are going to take a science-based approach to HIV not a fear-based approach."

Wiener's bill, SB239, would also repeal California laws that require people convicted of prostitution for the first time to be tested for AIDS and that increase penalties for prostitution if the sex worker tested positive for AIDS in connection with a previous conviction.

The original laws were passed during the 1980s and 1990s based on incomplete and outdated science, said Dr. Edward Machtinger, director of the Women's HIV Program at the University of California, San Francisco. Transmission rates are much lower than people believed when the laws were enacted. Modern treatment dramatically reduces the effects of the virus and chances for transmission, he said.
Although modern treatments are highly effective, the current laws deter people from getting tested for HIV and seeking treatment, Wiener said.

Between 1988 and 2014, at least 800 people were arrested, charged or otherwise came into contact with the criminal justice system related to their HIV status, according to a study conducted at the University of California, Los Angeles. The study found "HIV criminalization" laws disproportionately affected women and people of color.

California Governor Jerry Brown is proposing cuts to higher education scholarships for middle class students while increasing scholarship funding for illegal immigrant students.

A budget deficit that is projected to hit $1.9 billion by the summer of 2017 has forced Brown to recommit to balancing the state’s budget, and one area facing cuts is financial aid for middle income college students, reports KCRA.

In the 2017-18 Governor’s Budget, Brown announced plans to phase out the Middle Class Scholarship program, which covers 40 percent of tuition costs for students with combined family income and assets not exceeding $156,000.

“Given the state’s overall financial condition, to continue the Administration’s support for long-term stable growth in funding for the UC and the CSU, and to maintain the broad Cal Grant entitlement for the state’s neediest students, the Budget proposes a phase-out of the Middle Class Scholarship Program,” the Governor’s proposed budget reads.

The phase-out of the program would save the state approximately $115 million per year by 2021, but despite the desperate situation with the state budget, Brown has refused to decrease funding for illegal immigrant students under the DREAM Act.

[RELATED: UC system pledges $25 million for illegal immigrant scholarships]

An analysis of last year’s proposed budget by the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) noted that “implementation of the California Dream Act, which beginning in 2013–14 made certain undocumented and nonresident students eligible for state financial aid, accounts for $67 million of the increase in Cal Grant spending,” the report stated.

Paul Golaszewski, Principal Fiscal & Policy Analyst for the LAO, told Campus Reform that expected financial aid costs under the DREAM Act will reach $88.6 million in fiscal year 2017-18.

[RELATED: Millions in scholarships for children of illegals sit unclaimed in California]

In response to the budget proposal, families that rely on the Middle Income Scholarship to offset tuition costs have spoken out, saying Brown’s plans to phase out the program overlook the financial struggles that many middle-income families face, and that shortchanging their aid while maintaining scholarships for low-income and illegal immigrant students could create conflicts.

“I wake up in the middle of the night thinking about this stuff,” Jill Cohen-Sandler, whose daughter will attend college soon, told The Los Angeles Times. “I’m constantly calculating, how are we going to make this work?”

Rafi Sands, a UCLA student who serves as the Vice President of Undergraduate Students Association Council, feels that Brown’s proposal denies the struggles middle class families face when it comes to affording higher education.

“It’s pitting groups of students against each other,” Sands explained. “There’s an idea that middle-class students don’t deserve to be asking for aid and don’t need it, but from what I've seen, people could not be more wrong about that.”