Gates to Deliver Petitions for Sheriffs’ Initiative on AIDS Risks

Sheriff Brad Gates is expected to deliver 42,000 petition signatures to the county registrar of voters today in support of a proposed statewide initiative that would allow certain people to learn whether they might have come into contact with the AIDS virus.

Similar deliveries are planned by other California county sheriffs in a bid to qualify the measure for the November ballot.

The initiative, which covers all communicable diseases, would enable judges to order blood tests on individuals charged with sex crimes or those who attack police officers, firefighters or paramedics in a way involving exposure to body fluids. The results of those tests would be disclosed only to the people who had been exposed.

The initiative has nothing to do with another initiative drive seeking mandatory testing and registration of people afflicted with acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

Gates said that about 580,000 signatures have been collected statewide in a three-month petition drive begun by the California State Sheriffs Assn.

Gates said: “We tried to get legislation passed. That didn’t work. So we had no recourse but to take it to the people. We’ve gotten overwhelming support.”

The proposed initiative, he said, has the support of victim rights groups, but Rochelle Coffey, co-chairwoman of the Southern California Rape Hotline Alliance, said such support is far from universal. In fact, she said, many who are involved with organizations that help victims of rape see the initiative as a ploy by Block to “get a foot in the door” for mandatory AIDS testing.

“If they can pull us (the rape alliance) into this, then they stand to get a lot more sympathy from the public,” Coffey said. “The fact of the matter is that if a woman wants to, she can get an AIDS test herself.”