The U.S. 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 that warned that the statute violates the Americans with Disabilities Act. The case heads to court separately from another federal lawsuit filed in October by LGBTQ+ and civil rights advocates over the aggravated prostitution law.
Tennessee is the only state in the United States that imposes a lifetime registration as a “violent sex offender” if convicted of engaging in sex work while living with HIV, regardless of whether the person knew they could transmit the disease.
Oh wow, that’s really interesting. On the one hand, I don’t want sex workers spreading HIV. Reducing the transmission should be a priority from a public health perspective.
On the other hand, this is so obviously evil and ignorant, and doesn’t display any nuance or evidence based practice. I can absolutely understand how under educated lawmakers pushed this through without a problem, but it creates more problems than it solves, and likely costs society more than it saves. It’s a bad law financially, morally and ethically.
Ok. I’m going to preface this with a very large statement: I AM NOT EVEN REMOTELY A CONSERVATIVE. I really fucking hate them. And because of my leanings, I’m inclined to be distrustful of any law that occurs only in a red state.
Of course, there is a but…
But, if you know you have HIV and you still engage in sex work, that seems like a pretty heinous crime. Granted, I’m sure there has been a lot of misuse of this law, as is common with conservatives and minority targeting legislature, but I think on the surface the law makes a good point. If you have a virus that can potentially cause another human a lifetime of suffering ultimately ending in their agonizing death, a virus which is predominately spread through sexual contact, and you make you living selling said sexual contact, then I think you have a moral obligation to stop for the sake of others. I fully support sex work. Go for it. Fuck your brains out and get paid to do it if that’s what you like. But don’t kill others. It’s a pretty simple rule to follow.
Now, I’m not saying that we need to have laws that target those with HIV, but we have to ensure that a deadly virus that can only be managed and not cured is not spread throughout the population. So, at surface level, I agree with the law, and honestly I think the punishment for sentencing someone to a life of brutal war against their own body should be a bit heavier than having to register on a list. These aren’t offenders who found out after the fact that they had HIV, they knew full well and decided to spread it. That seems pretty “violent” to me. If anyone has a better way to handle this, I’m 100% open to it, but making this an issue of disability, sexuality, or gender identity is disingenuous to the real problem.
Indeed. This shouldn’t even be unpopular. It’s literally already charged as aggravated assault in most jurisdictions. Knowingly spreading shit like HIV, HepC, and other things that will kill others already gets prosecuted. People were flipping their lids over licked ice cream. Knowingly spreading HIV when you’re a prostitute is Typhoid Mary levels of fucked up.
Taking it one step further and tacking on the sexual assault charge makes sense to me. Especially if you’re in conservative territory.
The key ingredient is simply that it’s not equitable. Spreading debilitating and deadly diseases knowingly, no matter how terrible your position in life, deserves action and recompense to those you harmed and debilitated. Addition to a felony sexual offender registry seems apt.
And this guys knows deadly communicable diseases…
Thankfully, I was literally useless lol.
You:
The article, emphasis mine:
This is a status offense; there is no requirement in status offenses that the perp has any knowledge of their status. The most famous example I can think of of a status offense is BAC limits on drivers: the prosecutor simply doesn’t have to prove in court you knew your BAC was too high to drive.
You know what fixes this problem? Be like more advanced parts of the world and stop criminalizing sex. It’s pretty simple. All these issues evaporate once you have a safe place/system.
Undetectable = Untransmissible