Unearthed: El-Sayed called for repealing law that made sex without disclosing HIV status a felony

Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed's 2018 push to scrap a state felony law targeting people who don't disclose their HIV status before sex has resurfaced as he faces Republican Mike Rogers in one of the country's most closely watched midterm races. El-Sayed, an epidemiologist who later served as Wayne County's health director, has not walked back the stance, which he took while losing the Democratic gubernatorial primary to Gretchen Whitmer. The 1988 Michigan statute imposes up to four years in prison on someone who knowingly has HIV and has sex without telling their partner beforehand, according to Fox News.

During that governor's bid, El-Sayed's campaign platform called for repealing "HIV/AIDS criminalization laws" alongside ending the exclusion of transgender residents from state Medicaid. He argued at the time that "no disease can be illegal" and that such laws stigmatize people living with HIV, describing the criminalization as "hateful" and "discriminatory." Whitmer, who went on to become a two-term governor, also backed revisiting the statute, calling it wrong to "criminalize sickness."

El-Sayed is now competing against Rogers, a former congressman, for the seat being vacated by retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters. Democrats view holding the Michigan seat as essential to regaining Senate control, making El-Sayed's past positions a point of scrutiny in the contest.

Summarized by PolitiKool from Fox News’s reporting. Read the full story at Fox News →