Another case of some one deliberately infecting their lover with HIV, this time here in Queensland. This sort of behaviour is clearly a problem nation wide and It seems to me that the legal sanctions are by no stretch of the imagination of great enough magnitude .
A Brisbane man accused of deliberately infecting his teenage boyfriend with HIV told the younger man he was “clean” and didn’t need to worry about having unprotected sex, a court has heard.
Jamie Michael Richards, 34, has pleaded not guilty to unlawfully and intentionally transmitting a serious disease and causing grievous bodily harm to the boy, now aged 20.
A District Court jury was today told the pair had embarked on a casual sexual relationship between January 2004 and January 2005, after a “fluke” meeting at Beenleigh Railway Station.(source)
What comes to mind in terms of a just punishment is a long term of imprisonment and a denial to the convicted of any of the expensive medication that would keep their disease at bay…
Iain Hall's SANDPIT 
Just another example of members of the gay community making stupid decisions that affect all of us. Men like this give us all a bad name.
As a member of the HIV community now 14 years, I can tell you that this is not new news. Gay men are stupid – and all because of the issue of disclosure, which will affect their chances of ‘hooking up.’ I am ashamed of this man and feel sorry for the boy, but in the same vein, the fact that he allowed unprotected sex to occur just tells me that safe sex wasn’t even considered.
We are taught that always assume that the other party IS positive and protect thy self, lest things like this happen. At 20 we should be aware of disease, safe sex and condoms, not to mention communicable diseases.
At the end of the day both are guilty. The Bugger for lying and passing the disease, and the boy for not taking steps to prevent this – and now he has to live with his decision to forgo safe sex, and now will be mandated to a life of pills, doctors and the stigma of HIV.
sad, this could have been prevented…
Alas another asshole gas placed a black mark on the gay community world wide. And actions like this only embolden the leader of Australia to BAN Poz men from emigrating to OZ.
Jeremy
Montreal
Its terrible when people are so stupid that they don’t practice safe sex with strangers.
Even more terrible when those in power conspire to ensure that people remain in ignorance and die as a result. The current ‘abstinence first’ policy of the US and the classical ‘ignorance first’ policy of the Catholic hierarchy being the front runners.
I therefore present to you the three people who have deliberately infected more people with HIV that anyone else on the planet;
Pope John Paul II
Pope Benedict XVI
‘President’ George Bush
Not one of them is a member of the gay community unless you count the first two having their testicles fondled by a male neophyte as part of the job interview.
They share responsibility for the appalling spread of this easily preventable disease throughout Africa and the orphaning of hundreds of thousands of kids.
20th Century War criminals don’t even come close…
Cheers
Jeff
This is very true…
The church as it is still maintains the policy of abstinence rather than prevention. I study Papal History, namely John Paul II.
The spreading of disease is one issue, that eclipses any other discussion as the one above. Unless we change minds and hearts locally, we won’t make a difference globally.
If you don’t know for sure, then you better wrap it before you use it.
Jeremy
Firstly welcome to my blog Jeremi and Jeff 🙂
Jeremi although you may have got the impression that the banning of anyone (male, female gay or straight) from getting permanent residency if they are HIV+ is something new; it is not. In Australia to get residency everyone has to meet very strict health criteria and this has been the situation for a long time.
Jeff
I would suggest that you are in denial if you think that you can lay all of the blame for the spread of HIV on to the catholic church and George Bush. Clearly like any disease spread by sexual contact the most important factor is promiscuity and there is no social group that celebrates and promotes promiscuity in the same way as the gay community does. I full support the concept of safe sex by the way but it is not by any means the best prophylactic for this problem.
Cheers
Hi Iain
Not denial, simply the outworking of a clear-eyed view of what monotheistic belief does to its followers, both voluntary and those pressganged by missionaries. I am not laying all the blame – just a very large proportion of it. The Church likes to have “all power, no responsibility” in this world – not that there’s any other! This is utterly reprehensible. Fortunately most educated women and men very sensibly ignore the churches pronouncements on contraception and disease prevention. But what about those poor buggers who are kept ignorant by missionary schools and fundamentalist bishops like most of Africa? The church has evaded it’s responsibilities for far too long and should be brought to account for crimes against Humanity.
I’d be intrigued to hear what better prophylaxsis there is, given the utter failure of all historical and modern attempts to enforce chastity. Forced separation into individual bubbles perhaps…
Cheers
Jeff
Not denial, simply the outworking of a clear-eyed view of what monotheistic belief does to its followers, both voluntary and those pressganged by missionaries.
if we are referring to Africa I think that it is clear that the influence of Christianity on peoples sexual behaviour has far less hegemony than you think and I would think that it is the animist beliefs that predate the arrival of Christianity that has had a far more pernicious effect. For it from there that we get notions that having sex with virgins is a cure for aids.
I am not laying all the blame – just a very large proportion of it. The Church likes to have “all power, no responsibility” in this world – not that there’s any other!
You will get no argument from me about the non existence of a deity, however such a belief position does not mean that I am willing to lay all of the blame at the feet of those who do believe in God.
This is utterly reprehensible. Fortunately most educated women and men very sensibly ignore the churches pronouncements on contraception and disease prevention.
It is the duty of secular governments to protect their citizens and to work towards the betterment of the people that they govern. and it is the manifest failure over a very long period that is responsible for the woeful health outcomes in Africa.
But what about those poor buggers who are kept ignorant by missionary schools and fundamentalist bishops like most of Africa? The church has evaded it’s responsibilities for far too long and should be brought to account for crimes against Humanity.
In the absence of any state secular education in many parts of Africa I would contend that education provided by Christian missionaries is far superior to the alternatives which are nothing or the pernicious influence of radical Islam.
I’d be intrigued to hear what better prophylaxis there is, given the utter failure of all historical and modern attempts to enforce chastity. Forced separation into individual bubbles perhaps…
“Enforced Chastity” is not the issue but rampant promiscuity is and given the magnitude of the problem combined with the promotion of “safe sex” it seems prudent to suggest that people should be encouraged to have fewer sexual partners during their life time. As I said before, and you conveniently side stepped, The promotion of free and easy promiscuity with in the gay community is not some thing that should be lauded and celebrated and as soon as the gay community grows up enough to realise that the sooner we will see more respect for those who are same sex attracted.
“Promiscuity”
The trouble with your position is that it’s as fallacious as that of the churches. Men are basically programmed to spread their genetic material about as much as possible. Monogamy, polygamy etc are all failed attempts to stop that.
“Promiscuity” is not the problem, it is in fact the “basic state” of male sexuality. Any attempt to stop an STI that doesn’t accept that fact is doomed to failure.
Australia has the lowest HIV infection rate in the western world because it was gay men running AIDS Councils that set up our very successful prevention programs based on the simple facts that you can’t stop men having ‘illicit’ sex but you can educate them to do it safely.
As to the idea that queers will be ‘accepted’ when we stop screwing around I’m afraid you’re crediting bigots with far more rationality than they possess! I’ve yet to hear of anyone who’s been refused housing, or been bashed being asked beforehand if they were promiscuous!
“Education”
I have to disagree with your analysis of Missionary education. There’s not a lot of point substituting one diseased and violent monotheism for a barely distinguishable one. The missionary schools were set up and supported by colonial authorities to produce broken, submissive peoples worthy of servitude. The prevailing ethic is rigidly paternalistic and just as unhelpful as any other folk belief in promoting safe sex education to save lives.
Safe sex education works. I’m the living proof. Twenty years of living a fairly radical sexual life, thousands of partners and nothing worse than crabs and an occasional fungal infection.
Cheers
Jeff
Jeff
A rather long response for you 🙂
While I have a good understanding of the male biological imperative I also understand that the other aspect of human psychology is to raise and nurture the offspring that we make. as a gay man this may be something that you do not think about but most men and women who have children accept that exclusive relationships are the glue that holds a pair bond together for the nurture of children, Curbing the male biological imperative is by product of marriage and not its Rasion Detre .
I do not deny that all men would love to have many sexual partners or that this proclivity should be ignored but I do think that you are mistaken to think that your “basic state “is immutable or that there is something wrong with moderating the tendency for sexual adventurism. I am not saying that such behaviour modification will on its own be an answer but it is part of the answer.
It does not follow that the Australian experience is in any way analogous to that in Africa and the “safe sex message has only been effective here because we have a generally well educated population to start with.
The pointy that I’m trying to make here is that as long as the predominate image of Gay’s in the straight world is one of nihilistic decadence then you have to expect that this will be seen as a threat. Frankly If I had straight neighbours who set out the shag everything that moves I and many others would be just as concerned as if they were gay men doing the same thing.
This is neo Marxist nonsense. The colonial dominance of Africa is very long dead. When I said that education from missionaries is better than nothing I meant that to be taken literally. A Christian sourced education that at least gives the children the chance to learn to read is better by many orders of magnitude than no education at all.
But you are not living in Africa are you Jeff? Neither are you living a subsistence lifestyle where condoms are relatively expensive and no where as easily available as they re here, I am willing to bet that your good fortune in avoiding a serious sexually transmitted disease would not have held out for any where near twenty years were you living in Africa.