A 26-year-old Atlanta gay man has been arrested and charged with deliberately exposing at least three men to HIV. Garry Wayne Carriker, a medical student at Emory University, was arrested in March after he disclosed to a man he had been dating for five months that he was HIV-positive; nondisclosure is a felony under Georgia law. After posting bond, Carriker was again arrested and charged with similarly exposing two other men to the virus through unprotected sex. Carriker faces three counts of reckless conduct, and if convicted could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison.
'It's like shooting bullets into the crowd,' says Atlanta attorney Adam Jaffe, who is arguing a civil lawsuit against Carriker. 'Eventually someone's going to killed.'
AIDS activists worry that criminalizing HIV exposure will discourage people from being tested for HIV infection. They also say it undermines efforts to encourage everyone to practice safer sex. 'The most important thing is that both sexual partners, not just the HIV-positive one, take responsibility for preventing infection,' says Joel Ginsberg, executive director of the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association.
