NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday sued the state of Tennessee over its decades-old prostitution law, arguing that it illegally imposes harsher criminal penalties on people who are HIV-positive.
The lawsuit, filed in western Tennessee, follows an investigation completed in December by the Justice Department, which warned that the statute violates the Americans with Disabilities Act. The case comes before the court separately from another federal lawsuit filed in October by LGBTQ+ and civil rights activists over the tightened prostitution law.
Tennessee is the only state in the United States that imposes a lifetime registration as a “violent sex offender” if convicted of sex work while living with HIV, regardless of whether the person knew he or she could transmit the disease.
Meanwhile, state lawmakers are close to approving a change in the law that would not completely affect the law. The Republican-passed legislation would only remove the requirement that those convicted of aggravated prostitution register as violent sex offenders.
“People living with HIV should not be subjected to another legal system based on outdated science and misleading assumptions,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said Thursday in a news release announcing the lawsuit. was announced. “This lawsuit reflects the Department of Justice’s commitment to ensuring that people living with HIV are not targeted because of their disabilities.”
Prostitution has long been criminalized as a crime in Tennessee. But in 1991, Tennessee lawmakers passed an even stricter statute that applied only to sex workers with HIV. Nearly two decades later, the state legislature revised the law again to require lifetime sex offender registration for those convicted under the controversial statute.
In the years since, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned that laws criminalizing exposure to HIV — many of which were introduced during the height of the AIDS epidemic — are outdated and ineffective. Black and Latino communities have been particularly affected by these laws, even though these standards do not apply to other infectious diseases.
Over the years, some states have taken steps to repeal their HIV criminal laws, such as Illinois, which repealed all of its HIV-specific criminal laws in 2021. That same year, New Jersey and Virginia repealed all their HIV-specific felony laws.
The lawsuit seeks to require the state not only to stop enforcing the law, but also to remove those convicted under the law from the sex offender registry and expunge their convictions.
The Public Prosecution Service says it is aware of the complaint and will investigate it.
HIV and AIDS are considered disabilities under the Americans for Disabilities Act because they significantly interfere with life activities. The landmark 1990 federal law prevents discrimination against people with disabilities in everything from employment to parking to voting.
Court documents in the other federal lawsuit say more than 80 people are registered for aggravated prostitution in Tennessee. The majority of these convictions occurred in Shelby County, which includes Memphis.
The Justice Department’s lawsuit details the experience of an unnamed black transgender woman from Memphis who learned she had HIV in 2008, was arrested in 2010 for prostitution near a church or school, and pleaded guilty in 2012 to one count of aggravated prostitution. Having to register as a sex offender, the woman has experienced periods of homelessness while struggling to find safe housing that meets gender registration requirements.
She has also had difficulty finding a job after employers conducted background checks on her, and she cannot spend time alone with her cousin because of her conviction, the lawsuit said.
In addition, she was arrested and found guilty of violating a requirement to update her change of address within 48 hours after being displaced by a fire over the weekend. Tennessee law also prohibits her from changing her legal name to reflect her gender identity, the lawsuit said.