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Eazy-E Portrait Session

Source: Al Pereira / Getty

The late Eazy-E‘s son, Lil Eazy-E, claims to be an HIV activist, yet he is for harsh punitive punishment when it comes to HIV-positive sex-partners not disclosing their status. In an interview with TMZ, Lil’ Eazy-E said he was against California lawmakers possibly lowering the penalty for knowingly exposing a sex partner to HIV. By his thinking, knowingly exposing a partner is the same as giving a death sentence and it should be treated as a felony, not a misdemeanor.

He further gives the insidious example of a woman possibly wanting to mess “the whole football team up” by knowingly infecting them. He also believes we can’t allow a “down low man” to go around “poking at these beautiful women” unprotected. You can watch the full video below.

So “down low men” are the sole culprits participating in unsafe sex and spreading HIV? Spiteful women living with HIV must be tamed or else they could kill off the whole football team? And this is an HIV activist?

Much research and medical breakthroughs have proven that HIV is no longer a death sentence. Though conversations about safe sex should always be had, criminalizing people who don’t disclose their HIV-positive status can have dire consequences, especially for communities that are already criminalized and stigmatized (e.g. HIV rates are already high amongst Black gay men, which could put them at a higher risk of being funneled into the prison system).

Lil Eazy-E’s father died from AIDS, so it’s understandable that he sticks close to the issue. But a more complex (and modern) understanding of HIV in relation to mental health, access to resources, and efforts to dismantle mass incarceration could be beneficial for the 32-year old rapper.