Text blast falsely claims gay Florida candidate is HIV positive: 'I knew exactly what they were trying to do'

This story originally appeared on Them.

A text message falsely stating that openly gay Florida state senator Shevrin Jones is living with HIV is now facing widespread condemnation — and possible litigation, per CBS News. Jones, who currently represents Florida’s 34th district in the state senate, is running in the Democratic primary to represent its 24th district in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The text, which was sent under the clearly hateful guise of being sympathetic towards Jones’s alleged HIV diagnosis, claimed it was paid for by Equality Florida, a statewide LGBTQ+ advocacy organization. The text alleged that Jones was “denied to donate blood to Covid survivor due to testing positive for HIV/AIDS because of his homosexuality. This is not right stand with our Gay community.” The text ended with, “Paid for by Equality Florida,” per Miami CBS affiliate WFOR. Equality Florida says it did not send the text messages and is considering legal action.

The text included a link to a 2020 article about Jones not being able to donate blood due to being gay. The Biden administration relaxed these outdated, homophobic rules regarding blood donation from gay and bisexual men in 2023.

Jones condemned the texts in an interview with Them, saying he was “disgusted” when he first saw them.

“Not simply because someone lied about my health, but because I knew exactly what they were trying to do,” he said. “They were trying to use my sexuality to create fear and shame around me. I am not HIV positive. But I refuse to defend myself by saying, ‘That’s not me,’ and then leave people who are living with HIV carrying the stigma. There is nothing shameful about living with HIV. There is nothing shameful about being gay.”

He continued, saying that the texts say much more about his opponents than him. “Not only was I disgusted, I was also disappointed,” he told Them. “I’m human. You look at something like that and realize that someone sat down and made a conscious decision thinking that that could be used to diminishing me in the eyes of the people I’ve spent my career in service to.”

In a statement, Equality Florida affirmed that they were not behind the text messages. “Equality Florida did not send these text messages,” Brandon Wolf, a spokesperson for the advocacy group, which has endorsed Jones, told CBS News. “Whoever did violated federal law by misrepresenting our organization by claiming to be us.”

Speaking for Equality Florida, Wolf also said that the text was “attempting to prey on the stigma of people living with HIV, people in the LGBTQ community, to drive voters away from Shev.”

Miami-Dade Commissioner Oliver Gilbert also condemned the texts in a statement. “I saw the attack made against Shevrin Jones today,” Gilbert said in a statement. “I will not repeat it. It’s a lie. It’s evil, hurtful, and it needs to stop."

Equality Florida told the Palm Beach Post that it will be looking into legal options regarding the text campaign using the organization’s name. “I just want to make clear that accountability is coming from us,” Wolf told the Post. “We’ve had conversations with outside counsel to get some help identifying who the perpetrators are and ultimately understand what our legal options might be.”

Jones is one of seven candidates vying for the House seat, which is opening up because 83-year-old incumbent Frederica Wilson opted not to run for reelection. Democrats outnumber Republicans three to one in the district, which is also 40% Black and 40% Latino, per the Post.

Voters who spoke to local TV station WPLG were similarly disgusted by the text tactic. “It’s low down and despicable why anyone would choose to do that,” one voter, who gave her name as Cathy, told WPLG.

Stigma against people living with HIV remains high in Florida. As Jones pointed out in his interview with Them, the state government attempted to implement cuts earlier this year that would have forced 16,000 Floridians to lose access to their HIV medications. Though the move was initially halted, the Department of Health ended up cutting funding for the AIDS Drug Assistance Program in February. The cuts were not reversed until the state budget passed in June.

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