YOU CARE ABOUT HIV CRIMINALIZATION (YOU JUST DON'T KNOW IT YET)

YOU CARE ABOUT HIV CRIMINALIZATION (YOU JUST DON'T KNOW IT YET)* was a site-specific project by Avram Finkelstein for Visual AIDS, created for the 2018 New York City Pride March.

The criminal justice system considers HIV a deadly weapon and in many states exposing someone to HIV is a crime, regardless of condom use, viral load, or actual risk of transmission.

For people living with HIV, a contentious relationship, a personal misunderstanding or even a minor infraction of the law can lead to prison sentences of over thirty years, sensationalized media coverage, and registration as a sex offender.

Know the facts. AIDS is not over. HIV criminalization can be.

* The image and wording behind this project were developed collaboratively by Avram Finkelstein, Queerocracy, Sero Project, and the HIV Is Not a Crime Flash Collective through a series of projects from 2012–14.

In June 2018, Visual AIDS returned to the NYC Pride March for the first time in decades, distributing 10,000 copies of a new artistic broadsheet project about the stakes of HIV criminalization to thousands of people along the march route during Pride.