Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a diagnosis no one wants to hear from a doctor. This word invokes fear, panic, and sometimes anger. When the AIDS epidemic gripped the United States in the early 1980s, these emotions drove many of the laws addressing HIV and AIDS. States passed laws criminalizing people living with HIV for engaging in certain, loosely defined, prohibited conduct and rarely required a connection with HIV transmission. These laws served to assuage the rising anxiety of the general public by quarantining people with HIV from the general public through incarceration. Despite an immense body of scientific research since the passage of many of these laws, people with HIV continue to be prosecuted each year under these laws, and no states have repealed these outdated statutes. Some states continue to prohibit biting and spitting by someone who has HIV despite an abundance of evidence suggesting that

* JD, University of California, Hastings College of the Law, 2006. Angela is a staff attorney at the National Center for Lesbian Rights. She volunteers with the AIDS Legal Referral Panel and serves on the San Francisco Human Rights Commission's Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) Advisory Committee, which provides advice and assistance to the San Francisco Human Rights Commission regarding issues in the LGBT community and for persons with HIV/AIDS. Angela has represented individuals with HIV and participated in and moderated panels discussing HIV criminalization laws. t I would like to first thank the many individuals living with HIV who have shared their personal stories of discrimination and helped me understand the myriad legal and nonlegal ways to combat discrimination. I also would specifically like to thank Health Commissioner Cecilia Chung and the HRC LGBTAC for their leadership on this topic and Commissioner Chung for reviewing this article and sending me frequent updates on this issue. I also want to express my deep admiration for the AIDS Legal Referral Panel and coalition partners for fervently advocating on behalf of our HIV communities. I also would like to express my gratitude to the National Center for Lesbian Rights for its unwavering commitment to exploring issues of intersectionality. Finally, I would like to thank the Hastings Women's Law Journal for their many helpful edits and comments.