Ohio Supreme Court Unanimously Rejects Constitutional Challenge to HIV Disclosure Law

The seven-member Ohio Supreme Court unanimously rejected a free speech and equal protection challenge to the state’s law making it a felony assault for a person who knows he is HIV-positive to engage in “sexual conduct” with another person without disclosing his HIV-positive status to this sexual partner.  State of Ohio v. Batista, 2017-Ohio-8304, 2017 WL 4838768, 2017 Ohio LEXIS 2172 (Oct. 26, 2017).  The court divided 4-3, however, on the appropriate legal analysis leading … <Read More>


Florida Courts Disagree About Whether Sexual Intercourse Can Occur Without a Vagina

Is gay sex “sexual intercourse”?  I’m trying to be polite here, so I’ll speak clinically.  When a man takes another man’s penis in his mouth, or inserts his penis into another man’s anus, are they having “sexual intercourse”?  In Florida — and many other states — this remains a serious question of criminal law, even after Lawrence v. Texas decriminalized consensual gay sex, because Florida has a statute making it a crime for somebody who … <Read More>