Re: AIDS infected queer prostitute supported bill would revise Tennessee's decades-old law targeting HIV-positive people convicted of sex work

[Pieter Lawman]

On 16 Feb 2022, Molly Bolt <mollyth...@gmail.com> posted some
news:15ef04d8-cf32-4cb0...@googlegroups.com:

> AIDS and HIV infected faggots will face no accountability for
> spreading incurable sexually transmitted diseases.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Tennessee would no longer be the only U.S. state to
impose a lifetime registration as a “violent sex offender” on anyone
convicted of engaging in sex work while living with HIV under a proposal
that advanced Tuesday in the legislature.

The controversial statute still on the books is being challenged in
federal court by LGBTQ+ and civil rights advocates. They argue that the
law stems from the decades-old AIDS scare and discriminates against
HIV-positive people. The U.S. Department of Justice has also weighed in
on the decades-old law after completing an investigation in December,
saying that it violates the Americans with Disabilities Act and called
on the state to repeal the measure.

However, Republican Sen. Page Walley on Tuesday stopped short of fully
removing the law and instead introduced legislation that would remove
those convicted of aggravated prostitution of having to register as a
violent sex offender.

“It maintains the charge,” Walley said. “But removes the sex offender
registration.”

Prostitution has long been criminalized as a misdemeanor in Tennessee.
But in 1991, Tennessee lawmakers enacted an even harsher statute that
applied only to sex workers living with HIV. Nearly 20 years later, the
state legislature revised the law once more by requiring 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 HIV exposure — many of
which were enacted amid the height of the AIDS epidemic — as outdated
and ineffective. Black and Latino communities have been particularly
affected by these laws even as the same standards do not apply to other
infectious diseases.

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Illinois, which repealed all of its HIV-specific criminal laws in 2021.
That same year, New Jersey and Virginia repealed all their felony
HIV-specific laws.

In Republican-dominant Tennessee, lawmakers have expressed resistance to
outright repealing the aggravated prostitution charge. Instead, the
GOP-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday agreed to advance a
proposal that would drop the lifetime sex offender registration
requirement.

Walley described his bill as “anti-trafficking,” arguing that the
current framework hurts those who may be victims of sexual assault and
hinders attempts to get their lives back on track.

According to court documents, 83 people are currently registered sex
offenders for aggravated prostitution convictions in Tennessee. The
majority of those convictions took place in Shelby County, which
encompasses Memphis. The plaintiffs challenging the law in federal
court, all named Jane Doe, have described years of harassment and
hardships in finding housing and employment that complies with
Tennessee's violent sex offender registry.

The legislation would still need to clear the full Senate and House
chambers before it could make it to Gov. Bill Lee's desk for
consideration. The Republican governor has not weighed in publicly on
the bill.

Meanwhile, the federal lawsuit is ongoing. It's currently scheduled to
go to trial in 2026.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/bill-revise-tennessees-decades-law-ta
rgeting-hiv-positive-106616451