Activists call for repeal of Iowa law prohibiting HIV-positive sexual contact

Gay rights activists renewed their call on the Iowa Legislature to repeal a state law following an Iowa appellate court's decision released Wednesday that upheld the conviction of an HIV-positive man who engaged in sexual activity with another person.

Iowa's law makes it a felony for a person who has the human immunodeficiency virus to have “intimate contact” with another individual. Thirty-eight other states have laws that criminalize the transmission of HIV in certain circumstances.

The decision released Wednesday involves Nick Rhoades, an HIV-positive man who pleaded guilty in 2009 to criminal transmission of HIV after he was arrested in Black Hawk County following a 2008 encounter with a man he met online.

Rhoades did not tell the man about his HIV status and used condoms during part of the encounter. The man was not infected with the virus, but Rhoades was convicted.

Rhoades spent time in the Black Hawk County Jail and Clarinda State Prison before his sentence was reduced in 2010 to time served, but he still has to register as a sex offender.

"We're extremely disappointed that the Iowa Court of Appeals is allowing Mr. Rhoades's conviction to stand because it was based on a misinterpretation of the plain language of the statute," said Christopher Clark, an attorney with Lambda Legal, which represented Rhoades at a hearing in Des Moines last month. "Someone who engages in safe sex, as Nick did, does not have the intent required to support a conviction under Iowa's law concerning the criminal transmission of HIV.”

Lambda argued that Rhoades didn't intend to infect his partner and that Rhoades received bad advice from his attorney, who convinced him to plead guilty.

The group may appeal the case to the Iowa Supreme Court.

In its decision upholding the conviction, members of the three-judge appellate panel wrote “Rhoades engaged in unprotected oral sex with A.P., and consequently, Rhoades's claim that he did not ejaculate provides no support to his argument there was a lack of a factual basis regarding the 'intent element' of 'intimate contact.'"

Advocates for changing the statute say it's an antiquated law drafted and passed before people fully understood HIV or how it was transmitted. But legislative attempts to remove the law from the books have failed.

"One Iowa will continue to work with our legislators as we urge them to update and reform Iowa's current law,” One Iowa Executive Director Donna Red Wing said in a statement released Wednesday. One Iowa is a Des Moines-based gay rights activist group.

“This discriminatory piece of legislation singles out people living with HIV and AIDS for severe criminal penalties and perpetuates harmful stereotypes,” Red Wing said. “What's worse, this law is a public health risk, as it discourages testing and disclosure by punishing those who know their status.”