Current:Home > Contact-usIn deal with DOJ and ACLU, Tennessee agrees to remove sex workers with HIV from sex offender registry-LoTradeCoin
In deal with DOJ and ACLU, Tennessee agrees to remove sex workers with HIV from sex offender registry
View Date:2024-12-23 23:02:11
The Tennessee government has agreed to begin scrubbing its sex offender registry of dozens of people who were convicted of prostitution while having HIV, reversing a practice that federal lawsuits have challenged as draconian and discriminatory.
For more than three decades, Tennessee's "aggravated prostitution" laws have made prostitution a misdemeanor for most sex workers but a felony for those who are HIV-positive. Tennessee toughened penalties in 2010 by reclassifying prostitution with HIV as a "violent sexual offense" with a lifetime registration as a sex offender — even if protection is used.
At least 83 people are believed to be on Tennessee's sex offender registry solely because of these laws, with most living in the Memphis area, where undercover police officers and prosecutors most often invoked the statute, commonly against Black and transgender women, according to a lawsuit filed last year by the American Civil Liberties Union and four women who were convicted of aggravated prostitution. The Department of Justice challenged the law in a separate suit earlier this year.
Both lawsuits argue that Tennessee law does not account for evolving science on the transmission of HIV or precautions that prevent its spread, like use of condoms. Both lawsuits also argue that labeling a person as a sex offender because of HIV unfairly limits where they can live and work and stops them from being alone with grandchildren or minor relatives.
"Tennessee's Aggravated Prostitution statute is the only law in the nation that treats people living with HIV who engage in any sex work, even risk-free encounters, as 'violent sex offenders' subjected to lifetime registration," the ACLU lawsuit states.
"That individuals living with HIV are treated so differently can only be understood as a remnant of the profoundly prejudiced early response to the AIDS epidemic."
In a settlement agreement signed by Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee on July 15 and filed in both lawsuits on July 17, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said it would comb through the state's sex offender registry to find those added solely because of aggravated prostitution convictions, then send letters alerting those people that they can make a written request to be removed. The language of the settlement suggests that people will need to request their removal from the registry, but the agency said in the agreement it will make "its best effort" to act on the requests "promptly in the order in which they are received."
The Tennessee attorney general's office, which represents the state in both the ACLU and DOJ lawsuits and approved the settlement agreement, said in an email statement it would "continue to defend Tennessee's prohibition on aggravated prostitution."
In an email statement, the ACLU celebrated the settlement as "one step toward remedying the harms by addressing the sex offender registration," but said its work in Tennessee was not done because aggravated prostitution remained a felony charge that it would "fight to overturn."
Molly Quinn, executive director of LGBTQ+ support organization OUTMemphis, another plaintiff in the ACLU lawsuit, said both organizations would help eligible people with the paperwork to get removed from the registry.
"We would not have agreed to settle if we did not feel like this was a process that would be extremely beneficial," Quinn said. "But, we're sad that the statute existed as long as it did and sad that there is any process at all that folks have to go through after living with this extraordinary burden of being on the sex offender registry for really an irrelevant reason."
Michelle Anderson, a Memphis resident who is one of the plaintiffs in the ACLU lawsuit, said in court records that since being convicted of aggravated prostitution, the sex offender label has made it so difficult to find a home and a job that she was "unhoused for about a year" and has at times "felt she had no option but to continue to engage in sex work to survive."
Like the other plaintiffs, Anderson said her conviction kept her minor relatives at a distance.
"Ms. Anderson has a nephew she loves, but she cannot have a close relationship with him," the lawsuit states. "Even though Ms. Anderson's convictions had nothing to do with children, she cannot legally be alone with her nephew."
The Tennessee settlement comes months after state lawmakers softened the law so no one else should be added to the sex offender registry for aggravated prostitution. Lawmakers removed the registration requirement and made convictions eligible for expungement if the defendant testifies they were a victim of human trafficking.
State Sen. Page Walley (R-Savannah), who supported the original aggravated prostitution law passed in 1991 and co-sponsored the recent bill to amend it, said on the floor of the legislature that the changes do not prevent prosecutors from charging people with a felony for aggravated prostitution. Instead, he said, the amendments undo the 2010 law that put those who are convicted on the registry "along with pedophiles and rapists for a lifetime, with no recourse for removal."
"Having stood, as I mentioned, in 1991 and passed this," Walley said, "it is a particular gratifying moment for me to see how we continue to evolve and seek what's just and what's right and what's best."
KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling and journalism.
- In:
- United States Department of Justice
- Tennessee
- Sex Work
- Sex Crimes
- HIV / AIDS
veryGood! (6813)
Related
- Black women notch historic Senate wins in an election year defined by potential firsts
- Jets begin Aaron Rodgers’ 21-day practice window in next step in recovery from torn Achilles tendon
- The Essentials: 'Wish' star Ariana DeBose shares her Disney movie favorites
- From tapas in Vegas to Korean BBQ in Charleston, see Yelp's 25 hottest new restaurants
- November 2024 full moon this week is a super moon and the beaver moon
- Ukraine insists it sees no sign of NATO war fatigue even as fighting and weapons supplies stall
- Canada says Google will pay $74 million annually to Canadian news industry under new online law
- Average US life expectancy increases by more than one year, but not to pre-pandemic levels
- Brian Kelly asks question we're all wondering after Alabama whips LSU, but how to answer?
- Good American Flash Sale: Score up to 65% Off Jeans, Blazers, Shirts & More at Nordstrom Rack
Ranking
- Kate Spade Outlet’s Early Black Friday Sale – Get a $259 Bag for $59 & More Epic Deals Starting at $25
- Why is my hair falling out? Here’s how to treat excessive hair shedding.
- Blind golden mole that swims in sand detected in South Africa for first time in 87 years
- U.S. life expectancy rose in 2022 by more than a year, but remains below pre-pandemic levels
- Trump ally Steve Bannon blasts ‘lawfare’ as he faces New York trial after federal prison stint
- Will wolverines go extinct? US offers new protections as climate change closes in
- Video of rich kid beating parking guard outrages Mexico, already plagued by class divisions
- Gwyneth Paltrow and Dakota Johnson Are Fifty Shades of Twinning in Adorable Photo
Recommendation
-
Isiah Pacheco injury updates: When will Chiefs RB return?
-
Kyle Richards' Sisters Kim and Kathy Gush Over Mauricio Umansky Amid Their Separation
-
AP Photos: Church that hosted Rosalynn Carter funeral played key role in her and her husband’s lives
-
Top diplomats arrive in North Macedonia for security meeting as some boycott Russia’s participation
-
Federal judge blocks Louisiana law that requires classrooms to display Ten Commandments
-
Jan. 6 suspect who later fired a gun toward Texas officers gets 2 years for firearm charge
-
Netflix's 'Bad Surgeon' documentary dives deep into the lies of Dr. Paolo Macchiarini
-
Kim’s sister rejects US offer of dialogue with North Korea and vows more satellite launches