Will Tennessee stop forcing HIV+ sex workers onto the violent sex offenders registry?

Tennessee is considering revisions to the criminal code that discriminates against HIV+ sex workers.

Currently, the law treats prostitution as a misdemeanor unless the sex worker is HIV+. Then the offense becomes “aggravated prostitution,” and if convicted, workers are required to register as a “violent sex offender.”

Related:

An HIV drug is showing promise as a treatment for dementia

Two separate studies indicate Maraviroc is effective at restoring memory loss.

The law is being challenged in federal court by LGBTQ+ and civil rights organizations. The Justice Department, after investigating in December, decided that the law violates the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Stay connected to your community

Connect with the issues and events that impact your community at home and beyond by subscribing to our newsletter.

Daily

Weekly

Good News

But the law, which disproportionally targets Black and Latino women, isn’t being repealed entirely.

Passed initially during the height of AIDS panic in 1991, the law was revised 20 years later to include forced lifetime registration as a sex offender.

State Sen. Page Walley (R) has introduced legislation that would strip the mandatory registration requirement but would leave the enhanced criminal charge in place.

While several states have repealed their HIV criminalization laws over the past few years, Tennessee remains a holdout. And in states that do still keep the laws on the books, people of color are those most likely to be prosecuted. Almost all the people prosecuted under Maryland’s HIV criminal law were Black men.

“HIV criminal laws” were rushed through state legislatures in the late 1980s and ’90s as panic over the AIDS epidemic swept the country. These laws prosecute individuals who “knowingly” transferred the virus that causes AIDS. Nearly two-thirds of U.S. states and territories have laws that criminalize people living with HIV.

“This statute solely targets people because of their HIV status and keeps them in cycles of poverty while posing absolutely zero benefit to public health and safety,” said Molly Quinn, executive director of OUTMemphis. “HIV stigma is becoming a thing of the past, and it’s time for state law to catch up.”

The group is one of the plaintiffs in the ongoing court case.

An estimated 83 Tennesseeans are currently on the registry because of the law.