Democrat El-Sayed Demanded Repeal Of ‘Hateful’ HIV Law Requiring Disclosure Before Sex

Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed once pushed to repeal a law criminalizing sex without disclosure of a known HIV infection, deeming the law “hateful” and “discriminatory.”

“You should not be criminalized for a disease. That is absolutely wrong,” El-Sayed said in 2018, during an unsuccessful run for Michigan’s governor. “It’s hateful. It’s discriminatory, and we can, as a state, do better. You can count on me for that.”

“One of the big things that we have to recognize about HIV is that no disease can be illegal,” he also said. “The continuing forward of these laws on the books stigmatize people with the disease.”

“Repeal HIV/AIDS criminalization laws and the exclusion of transgender Michiganders from state Medicaid,” El-Sayed’s campaign website read at the time, according to Fox News.

The law was reformed in a package signed by then-Governor Rick Snyder, a Republican, in December 2018, narrowing when people with HIV could face criminal penalties. Under the old law, which dated to 1988, people who knew they were HIV-positive and had sex without disclosing their status faced felony charges carrying up to four years in prison. The reforms limited the felony to vaginal or anal sex involving intent to transmit HIV or actual transmission, reduced some other offenses to misdemeanors, and shielded people with medically suppressed HIV from prosecution under the law’s reckless disregard provision.

Responding to his unearthed 2018 position, El-Sayed’s campaign stood by his stance that the previous law was “discriminatory,” but said he supports the reformed version.

“Abdul supports the bipartisan reform bill that passed in 2019 through a Republican legislature that eliminated the discriminatory laws on the books,” campaign spokesperson Roxie Richner said in a statement to Fox News. “As a public health professional, Abdul has fought to support programs that stem the spread of diseases, including HIV.”

“The Trump administration has completely exacerbated this crisis by defunding the organizations and programs that do frontline care to prevent transmission and exposure in the first place,” the statement continued. “In the U.S. Senate, Abdul will fight back against Donald Trump and RFK Jr’s attempts to dismantle our public health infrastructure and ensure all Americans have access to the care they need.”

El-Sayed’s past positions have come under renewed scrutiny in recent months. A Washington Free Beacon published Wednesday resurfaced a 2012 letter that El-Sayed signed supporting then-Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, a senior Muslim Brotherhood figure, and calling on him to “purge the media and the police.” The report noted that the statement came shortly before Morsi’s government cracked down on journalists.

El-Sayed has also faced scrutiny over his association with anti-American streamer Hasan Piker. El-Sayed campaigned alongside Piker during the Democratic primary, including at rallies at the University of Michigan and Michigan State University in April. Piker said in a 2019 stream that America “deserved 9/11,” and last week said that the U.S. is worse than the terrorist group al-Qaeda. Piker has also said, “We’re gonna destroy the white race” in a resurfaced clip he claimed was mockery of right-wing conspiracy theories, and that people should “motherf*ck the U.S. Constitution and motherf*ck this country.” El-Sayed has refused to disavow Piker.

Related: The Call To ‘Purge’ Police And Media That Abdul El-Sayed Put His Name Behind

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