Essays
Why I Put a Condom on Philadelphia’s City Hall Tower
An overview of condom issues and controversies in the context of HIV prevention, including my explanation of why we need to “normalize” condoms.
HIV and the ADA Amendments Act of 2008
This essay, reprinted from AIDS and the Law, explains in detail the changes Congress made in 2008 to the Americans with Disabilities Act and how those amendments enhance protection against discrimination for people with HIV.
In this essay, I critique the CDC’s “Prevention for Positives” Initiative – when was the last time a federal agency tried to get people to admit that they had committed a crime without offering them any protection from prosecution? That’s what the CDC is doing.
HIV Testing During Pregnancy: The Value of Optimizing Consent
Here I explain why HIV testing during pregnancy should be fully voluntary and consensual – a view, unfortunately, that appears to be embraced less and less by law and policy makers, even though the rate of transmission from mothers to newborns has never been lower.
Roberts’s Queer Reasoning on AIDS
If you’ve ever wondered what John G. Roberts Jr., now Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, did in response to the AIDS epidemic as a young lawyer in the 1980s, you can read about it in my essay in The Nation. It’s not a pretty picture.
The Legacy of Michael Nicolosi
On the occasion of the fifteenth anniversary of the founding of the AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania, I described two very different men’s responses to the epidemic. One of them you’ve probably never heard of; someone who, in a sense, was lost to history. The other is just the opposite.
My mostly “thumbs down” review of a book by two of our leading HIV researchers/authors explains how they constructed a biased account of the issue of HIV disclosure and ducked the critical issues any book on this subject should address head-on.
Other Publications
“1990: Enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act,” in Great Events from History:The GLBT Series (Lillian Faderman et al., eds. 2006).
Article author, “AIDS and the Law,” “Political Trials,” and “Riots: The Law,” in Encyclopedia of Criminology (Richard Wright & J. Mitchell Miller, eds., New York: Routledge, 2005).
Editor, HIV/AIDS Public Benefits Advocacy Manual (2002 edition), available from the AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania. This spiral-bound 289 page fully-indexed manual provides in-depth coverage of all public benefits programs available in Pennsylvania, including Social Security disability, General Assistance and TANF, Food Stamps, Medical Assistance (and managed care issues), Medicare, and public benefits eligibility issues pertaining to immigration law and criminal law. Includes numerous sample forms and illustrative charts.
Article co-author with Lawrence O. Gostin, “Discrimination Based on HIV/AIDS and Other Health Conditions: ‘Disability’ as Defined Under Federal And State Law,” 3 Journal of Health Care Law & Policy 266-329 (2000).
Article co-author with Lawrence O. Gostin & Chai Feldblum, “Disability Discrimination in America: HIV/AIDS and Other Health Conditions,” 281 Journal of the American Medical Association 745-52 (1999).
Article author, “At Last, the Law Strikes a Blow for Those with HIV,” Philadelphia Inquirer, July 2, 1998, at A35.
Article co-author with Lawrence O. Gostin, “HIV Infection and AIDS in the Public Health and Health Care Systems: The Role of Law and Litigation,” 279 Journal of the American Medical Association 1108-13 (1998).
Article co-author with Lawrence O. Gostin, “The AIDS Litigation Project: HIV/AIDS in the Courts in the 1990s,” 12 AIDS & Public Policy Journal 105-21 (1997) (Part 1) and 13 AIDS & Public Policy Journal 3-19 (1998) (Part 2).
Article author, “The Confidentiality of HIV-Related Information Act,” Pennsylvania AIDS Law Report, Issue #1 (July 1993). This overview of Pennsylvania’s Act 148, which governs HIV testing and confidentiality in Pennsylvania, is a must-read for Pennsylvania health care and social service professionals. Included are an Act 148 quiz and a checklist for informed consent for testing. Copies are available in downloadable PDF format from the AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania. Also, you can read the entire text of Pennsylvania Act 148 right here on my website.
Article author, “AIDS/HIV and Discrimination: Protection Under Federal and State Laws,” Pennsylvania AIDS Law Report, Issue #2 (March 1994). This issue of the Pennsylvania AIDS Law Report provides an overview of nondiscrimination standards under federal and Pennsylvania law, including a chart that compares coverage, filing deadlines, enforcement, and remedies under federal and state laws. Copies are available in downloadable PDF format from the AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania.
Article author, “Documenting Personal Decisions,” Pennsylvania AIDS Law Report, Issue #3 (May 1994). This guide to Pennsylvania law on wills, powers of attorney, and advance health care directives is available in downloadable PDF format from the AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania.
