Could Tennessee cease the practice of placing HIV-positive sex workers on the registry for violent sex offenders?

The law, in place for decades, is in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Tennessee is contemplating changes to the criminal code that currently discriminates against sex workers who are HIV-positive.

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.”

LGBTQ+ and civil rights organizations are challenging the law in federal court. Following an investigation in December, the Justice Department concluded that the law infringes upon the Americans with Disabilities Act.

However, the law, which disproportionately affects Black and Latino women, is not being completely repealed.

Initially enacted during the peak of AIDS-related concerns in 1991, the law underwent revisions two decades later, incorporating mandatory lifetime registration as a sex offender.

State Senator Page Walley (R) has proposed a bill aiming to eliminate the mandatory registration requirement while retaining the heightened criminal charge.

Despite the repeal of HIV criminalization laws in multiple states in recent years, Tennessee continues to uphold such legislation. Additionally, in states retaining these laws, individuals of color are disproportionately prosecuted. Notably, a significant majority of those prosecuted under Maryland’s HIV criminal law were Black men.

The term “HIV criminal laws” refers to hastily enacted legislation in the late 1980s and ’90s during the widespread panic over the AIDS epidemic. These laws target individuals who intentionally transmit the virus causing AIDS. Currently, nearly two-thirds of U.S. states and territories have laws that criminalize individuals living with HIV.

This statute exclusively singles out individuals based on their HIV status, trapping them in cycles of poverty without providing any tangible benefit to public health and safety,” stated Molly Quinn, Executive Director of OUTMemphis. “As HIV stigma fades away, it’s high time for state law to align with this progress.

The organization is among the plaintiffs involved in the ongoing legal proceedings.

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