From the beginning of the epidemic, AIDS was linked to punishment. Calls to punish people living with HIV—mostly stigmatized minorities—began before doctors had even settled on a name for the disease. This talk explores how HIV was transformed from sickness to badness under the criminal law and investigates the consequences of inflicting penalties on people living with disease. Professor Hoppe’s Lambda Literary Award-winning book, Punishing Disease: HIV and the Criminalization of Sickness (University of California Press), analyzes the rise of punitive and coercive responses to HIV. The Queer Studies Lecture Series is made possible thanks to the Women’s and Gender Studies Department, Queer Studies Minor, SSU Instructionally Related Activities Program, Campus Life, and the HUB.
