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What is HIV modernization?

How communities change HIV criminal laws, what recent reforms do, and why justice must include people with detectable or unknown viral loads.

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Educational resource — General information for learning and support. Check the linked sources and organizations for current policies, services, and eligibility when relevant.
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HIV modernization means changing criminal laws to reflect evidence and reduce unjust penalties. Proposals differ: some narrow offenses, some remove enhancements, and others repeal provisions. People living with HIV, including Sero’s networks, lead advocacy; CHLP provides legal analysis. Pennsylvania’s 2026 change illustrates why the precise scope matters: it removed an HIV-specific sex-work enhancement, rather than every potential basis for prosecution.[1][2][11]

Repeal, modernization, and why the difference matters

Repeal deletes a particular provision. North Dakota repealed its HIV-specific exposure offense in March 2025, and Maryland repealed its HIV-specific statute in May 2025. Broader criminal or public-health provisions can remain; a repeal announcement should not be read as blanket immunity.[3][4]

Modernization keeps a statute but narrows it — adding intent, requiring actual transmission, requiring conduct that can actually transmit HIV, cutting penalties, or recognizing treatment and prevention. California, Michigan, Nevada, Virginia, Georgia, and Louisiana are the documented examples.

Neither is a finish line. CHLP’s September 2026 maps include broader communicable-disease provisions as well as explicitly HIV-specific laws. Reform must be evaluated by what remains, who benefits and who may still face punishment.[2]

Who leads this work

The movement's defining feature is that people living with HIV lead it. Sero Project describes its mission as centering “PLHIV leadership to end HIV criminalization, mass incarceration, racial and social injustice by supporting inclusive PLHIV networks to improve policy outcomes, advance human rights and promote healing justice.” Sero runs the Network Empowerment Project, produces the biennial HIV Is Not a Crime national training academy, co-founded HIV Justice Worldwide, coordinates with Latinx+, and publishes Turn It Up! Staying Strong Inside for and by incarcerated people living with HIV[1].

CHLP supplies the legal infrastructure: the Sourcebook, the criminalization map set, state-by-state reform analyses, and advocacy that includes denouncing backward steps and continuing to press for full repeal of offenses like aggravated prostitution[6]. And the Williams Institute supplies the evidence base — enforcement studies plus the racial-justice analysis showing that Black Americans were roughly 12% of the U.S. population but 39% of people living with HIV in 2023, with incarceration rates nearly five times those of white Americans[10]. Advocacy, law, and data working together is what has moved legislatures.

The four principles, in real statutory language

  1. Intent required, not just knowledge. Nevada's replacement offense under SB 275 (2021) requires intent to transmit, conduct likely to transmit, and actual transmission[5]; Louisiana's HB 808 limits prosecutions to conduct with a “substantial likelihood of transmission”[7].
  2. Treatment and viral suppression recognized. Michigan's MCL § 333.5210(4) provides that a person “adherent with the treatment plan of an attending physician” and “medically suppressed per accepted medical standards is not acting with reckless disregard”[8], and Louisiana's HB 808 adds an affirmative defense for people who disclose and maintain an undetectable viral load[7]. These are examples with different statutory conditions, not a ranking or a complete national list. Check the current text and how each provision applies.

Proportional penalties, and stripping out the enhancements

  1. Proportional sentencing. California's SB 239 (2017), Chapter 537, approved and filed October 6, 2017, repealed felony HIV exposure and donation provisions carrying 3/5/8 and 2/4/6 years, creating a disease-neutral misdemeanor framework. The intentional-transmission branch requires actual transmission and other specified elements, but the law also includes attempted-transmission and willful-exposure provisions with separate requirements[9]. Nevada repealed a 10-year HIV-specific felony outright[5].
  2. Enhancements and collateral consequences removed. Pennsylvania's SB 45, signed July 20, 2026, removes the HIV-specific felony enhancement for prostitution-related conduct[11]. Tennessee's 2024 law removed aggravated prostitution from the sex offender registry lists and allowed expungement petitions, without repealing the offense itself[6].

The verified reform timeline

The examples below draw on CHLP’s reform resources and the linked state legislative records. They are not a complete inventory of current laws. See the national guide’s reform discussion and check the current law before relying on a historical entry.[2]

Progress is real and it is uneven. Tennessee expanded HIV-related criminalization in 2023 before narrowing its registry consequences in 2024, and CHLP denounced that expansion at the time[6]. Modernization is won legislature by legislature, and it can go backwards.

Florida: the 2026 bills did not pass

Florida retained the provisions discussed in our state guide. In 2026, SB 764 and HB 1223 died in committee on March 13. Equality Florida reported bipartisan public support but no committee hearing. Those bills were proposals, not enacted law.[2][12]

If you live in Florida and want to help change that, the national doors are open: Sero Project's biennial HIV Is Not a Crime national training academy and its PLHIV network-building work are the standard entry points for people who would rather organize than wait[1]. In-state advocacy is anchored by Equality Florida, with CHLP providing the legal analysis legislators are handed[2].

Fair treatment beyond an undetectable result

U=U is important evidence, but rights must not depend on a lab result. CHLP, SERO and partner organizations warn that reform limited to people who can document suppression leaves others behind. Unequal access to care is part of that concern.[13]

A lawyer may use relevant medical evidence in an individual defense. That is different from making suppression the condition for fair treatment in the law. Read about the viral divide and barriers to care, including housing, costs, mental health and substance use. These circumstances do not establish anyone’s viral load or intent.

Related questions

What is the difference between repeal and modernization?

Repeal removes a particular statutory provision. Modernization changes a law, for example by narrowing prohibited conduct, changing required proof, or reducing penalties. Other criminal or health laws can remain under either approach, and the protections differ by jurisdiction.

Have any states written U=U into their criminal law?

Some laws expressly recognize treatment or suppression, with different conditions. Michigan has a provision concerning medically suppressed people following a physician’s treatment plan; Louisiana’s 2026 reform adds a defense requiring disclosure and an undetectable viral load. These are examples, not a universal defense. Fair reform must also protect people who cannot demonstrate suppression.

Who leads HIV modernization work?

People living with HIV. The Sero Project centers PLHIV leadership, runs the Network Empowerment Project and the biennial HIV Is Not a Crime national training academy, and publishes Turn It Up! Staying Strong Inside for and by incarcerated people living with HIV. CHLP provides the Sourcebook, the map set, and state-level legal analysis, and the Williams Institute provides the enforcement and racial-justice data.

Can reform go backwards?

Yes. Tennessee expanded HIV-related criminalization in 2023 — CHLP publicly denounced it — before narrowing registry consequences in 2024 without repealing aggravated prostitution. And CHLP notes that even in repeal states, general criminal and health-code provisions can still reach people living with HIV.

What are HIV criminalization laws?
What these statutes punish, and why the science undercuts them.
Is HIV a felony in my state?
State by state: repeal, modernization, and the states that have not moved.
Policy & Advocacy
Criminalization, funding, and the reforms still pending in Florida.
Is HIV still a death sentence?
What has changed medically, and why the fear outlived the facts.
Find help near you
Testing, care, and support services you can reach today.
Last reviewed: September 2026 by the RiseUpToHIV team. Educational content only — not medical advice.

References & Sources

  1. Sero Project — About Us. Mission statement centering PLHIV leadership; the Network Empowerment Project; the biennial HIV Is Not a Crime training academy; HIV Justice Worldwide; Latinx+; and Turn It Up! Staying Strong Inside. ↩ ↩ ↩
  2. CHLP. Mapping HIV Criminalization Laws in the U.S. (September 15, 2026). Current categories and specificity scale; see individual reform sources for dates and statutory changes. ↩↩↩↩↩
  3. CHLP — North Dakota Becomes Fourth State to Fully Repeal HIV Criminal Law (HB 1217). HB 1217 signed March 19, 2025, repealing a Class A felony carrying up to 20 years. ↩
  4. CHLP — Maryland Repeals HIV Criminalization Law (HB 39, the Carlton R. Smith Act). Signed May 20, 2025, making Maryland the fifth state to repeal; the repealed law required neither transmission, intent, nor conduct capable of transmitting HIV. ↩
  5. CHLP — Nevada Passes Law Reforming HIV Criminal Laws (SB 275, 2021). Intent, likely-to-transmit conduct, and actual transmission required; repeal of the 10-year HIV-specific felony at NRS 201.205; sponsor Sen. Dallas Harris. ↩ ↩
  6. CHLP — Tennessee Removes Aggravated Prostitution from Offenses Requiring Sex Offender Registration (SB 0181 / HB 1384). Signed March 11, 2024, effective July 1, 2024; registry relief and expungement petitions only, with CHLP continuing to seek full repeal — and CHLP's denunciation of Tennessee's 2023 expansion of HIV criminalization. ↩ ↩ ↩
  7. CHLP — Louisiana Enacts Significant Reform of HIV Exposure Law (HB 808, 2026). Rep. Wayne McMahen's HB 808 signed May 15, 2026 and effective August 1, 2026: substantial-likelihood-of-transmission limit plus an affirmative defense for disclosure with an undetectable viral load. ↩ ↩ ↩
  8. Michigan Legislature — MCL § 333.5210. 2018 Public Act 537, effective March 28, 2019, and the subsection (4) provision on treatment adherence and medical suppression. ↩
  9. California Legislature. SB 239 (2017), Chapter 537. Repeals and separate intentional-transmission, attempted-transmission and willful-exposure provisions. ↩
  10. Williams Institute, UCLA School of Law — HIV Criminalization and Black Americans (February 2026). Black Americans as about 12% of the U.S. population but 39% of people living with HIV and 38% of new diagnoses in 2023, with incarceration rates nearly five times those of white Americans. ↩
  11. CHLP, SERO and Positive Women’s Network–USA. Pennsylvania reform and its limits (August 13, 2026). SB 45 removed the HIV-specific sex-work enhancement; the organizations also raised concerns about other changes. ↩↩
  12. Florida Senate. SB 764; HB 1223. Both died March 13, 2026. Equality Florida’s 2026 legislative summary. ↩
  13. CHLP, SERO and partners. Call to Action for Racial Justice in HIV Criminal Law Reform (2018); CHLP, Treatment as Prevention in Criminal Law Reform: FAQ (2017), question 9. ↩

Community publications like POZ, Positively Aware, and TheBody inform framing and lived-experience context on RiseUpToHIV. Every clinical, epidemiological, or public-health claim above is anchored to a primary source.

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