Tennessee removes sex workers with HIV from the sex offender registry

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Tennessee has agreed to remove sex workers with HIV from the sex offender registry following two lawsuits that argued the state’s law did not account for evolving science on the spread and prevention of the disease, according to the Chattanooga Times Free Press. 

The state’s decades-lasting laws made prostitution a misdemeanor for the majority of sex workers, but a felony for those who were HIV-positive.  

Eighty-three residents of the state were on the registry for aggravated prostitution, according to the lawsuit. This classification posed limits on housing, work and relationships with minor relatives.  

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"Plaintiffs argue that the Aggravated Prostitution statute is rooted in fear and discrimination, targeting people living with HIV for harsh punishment and forcing them to register as "violent sex offenders" for the rest of their lives," the ACLU said in an October press release when the court case was filed. "Criminalizing people with HIV defies evidence-based best practices and is patently unlawful as it singles out people living with HIV — a protected disability — for harsher punishment." 

Gov. Bill Lee, R-Tenn., signed a settlement agreeing that the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation would alert those now wrongly on the sex offender registry that they can make a written request for removal. Victims of human trafficking were able to get their aggravated prostitution records expunged earlier this year after the law was tweaked.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee speaks on stage on the second day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum on July 16, 2024 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

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Fox News Digital reached out to the Attorney General's Office to ask about the litigation.

"The General Assembly recently amended the sex offender registry statutes to remove aggravated prostitution from the list of offenses that require registration," Director of Communications Amy Lannom Wilhite told Fox News. "The plaintiffs have agreed to drop their challenges to the registry statutes as the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation implements those amendments. The TBI has removed multiple registrants who were made eligible for removal by the amendments and who requested to be removed. The litigation is ongoing, though, as our Office continues to defend Tennessee’s prohibition of aggravated prostitution."