The US Justice Department on Thursday sued the state of Tennessee over its decades-old felony aggravated prostitution law, arguing that it illegally imposes tougher criminal penalties on people who are HIV positive. The lawsuit, filed in western Tennessee, follows an investigation completed in December by the Justice Department warning that the statute violates the Americans with Disabilities Act. The case heads to court separately from a federal lawsuit filed in October by LGBTQ+ and civil rights advocates over the aggravated prostitution law, the AP reports.
Tennessee is the only state that imposes a lifetime registration as a "violent sex offender" on those convicted of engaging in sex work while living with HIV, regardless of whether the person knew they could transmit the disease. "People living with HIV should not be subjected to a different system of justice based on outdated science and misguided assumptions," Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said in a statement Thursday. Meanwhile, state lawmakers are close to approving a change to the law that would not fully strike it. The Republican-carried legislation would only remove the requirement that those convicted of aggravated prostitution must register as a violent sex offender.
Prostitution has long been a misdemeanor in Tennessee. But in 1991, lawmakers enacted a harsher statute applying only to sex workers with HIV. Nearly 20 years later, the state legislature revised the law by requiring lifetime sex offender registration for those convicted. Since then, the federal CDC has warned that laws criminalizing HIV exposure are outdated and ineffective. Black and Latino people have been particularly affected by these laws even as the same standards do not apply to other infectious diseases. The lawsuit seeks to require the state not only to stop enforcing the law, but to remove those convicted under it from the sex offender registry and expunge their convictions.
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