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.
That’s a lot of trust to put on something so deadly.
Here’s an example. I work in a restaurant setting. If I have a virius that can kill people, and it can be transmitted by food that I touch, but I’m taking treatments and it’s not transmittable, should I be hired to work in restaurants? If I am, should I inform every customer that what they eat may kill them? Or do we just take my word for it and hope that a) I’m honest, or if you don’t trust that, that b) the doctors got it 100% correct and not 99.9999999%? Would you eat at that restaurant? Would you let your loved ones?
That’s a lot of nines. A failure rate of one in one billion? I’d definitely roll those dice for some Five Guys.
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Be as glib about it as you want, but I wouldn’t take the chance.
1/1,000,000,000 is probably safer than driving to the store, and I do that every few days.
The number isn’t important, I just pulled a bunch of nines out of my ass to illustrate my point that there is a life and death difference in 100 and 99.99999.
But the number is important, and the number in this case is probably work to get that number closer to one by handing out prep and condoms to the prostitutes and Johns.
Instead they’re prosecuting the only people involved who are likely to be victims.
Yeah, along with the rest of your argument. You are free to not participate in *checks notes* the consumption of illegal prostitution if you are uncomfortable with the inherent risks associated with *double-checks notes, just to be sure* the consumption of illegal prostitution.
You take that chance a thousand times a day.
You should probably never drive a car, take a bath, or be near weather. Your car, shower, and lightning are all far more likely to kill you.
Considering that any customer might choke on the food or get an allergic reaction from something in the food and die, I’d say the chance of one of your customers dying is a higher percentage than you think.
So yes, I would eat at a restaurant where there is such a low risk of dying because that means almost no one ever chokes or gets an allergic reaction and this must be a very special restaurant.
You know something interesting? The pathogens you can spread as a restaurant employee are SIGNIFICANTLY more transmissible than HIV. You can give someone hepatitis just by not washing your hands well after you poo. Your example doesn’t work here because the danger of a restaurant is actually greater than of getting an STI.
Ahh you are talking about Mary Mallon aka Typhoid Mary
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Mallon
I see what you’re trying to get at but I’d say your argument is disingenuous at best. As far as I know such an illness does not exist. More importantly you’re using an industry that, in most locales, is highly regulated and has laws for food safety.
What you do do is raise a great argument for why sex work should be legalized and regulated.
Do you not trust that the restaurant is cleaning properly and using safe ingredients, that some nutcase hasn’t poisoned the food to murder people, etc?
There’s already so much blind trust we have to place in society for things to function and not kill people, what’s one more.
So you are advocating that it’s ok for unnecessary risks to be taken by others in regards to your health because “what’s one more?” Your the kind of person that doesn’t secure the ladder brace before you climb it, aren’t you? Keep on keeping on, rebel.
I’m saying risks happen all the time, that alone is not cause to discriminate against someone who doesn’t pose a risk due to treatment.
In my country it is not illegal for HIV positive people to be sex workeds, nor do they have to disclose their status. There is not an epidemic of HIV being spread, in fact STIs are lower among sex workers than the general population so you’re safer with them.
There doesn’t have to be an epidemic. There just has to be one case. Ever. One time where another human life is ruined by a sex worker with a deadly virus. Do you not agree? Want to put a number to it? How many people have to die so sex workers with HIV can fuck indiscriminately? Do we even need one? Or can we preempt the misery and just say, “hey, be a decent human and don’t kill other people.” I’m glad your country doesn’t give a shit about people with HIV selling their disease on the street. Good for wherever you live, I hope it works out. Personally, I’d prefer safeguards against that shit. Fuck whoever you want to fuck, but if you are selling it, certain safeguards for health need to be observed.
There are safeguards, it’s called a decent healthcare system.
This isn’t the 80s, you can drop the AIDS panic.
I’m sorry, what?
A decent healthcare system doesn’t mean shit if you don’t require people with a deadly disease to tell people THEY HAVE A DEADLY DISEASE. Sure, you can help those infected to live better lives, but they would be living much better ones if the prostitute had told them they have HIV so they could make an informed decision not to fuck someone who could kill them. Do you even read what you write? How can you even begin to justify that logic? That’s some sociopathic shit. Again, I’m not trying to say people with HIV shouldn’t be allowed to have sex. Go for it. But informed consent is a big deal.
Mate you’re more likely to die from a car than you are HIV. It’s not the death sentence you think it is.
If you’re so worried about it, don’t sleep with a sex worker. It’s not a big deal and doesn’t cause these huge issues you think it does.
Frankly I’m going to trust expert opinions on the issue over uninformed fear mongering comments.
Yeah, but a car is a necessary evil in today’s world. Fucking a sex worker who doesn’t disclose their list of deadly diseases isn’t. If you don’t care about it, great, I’m happy for you, but maybe think about others who may not be so comfortable with the idea. Maybe everyone doesn’t share the same joie de vivre as you with regards to completely avoidable lifelong disease. So, how about you be a team player and agree that regulations on informed consent of HIV infected sex workers is a pretty low bar to clear for a better world.