LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) — The U.S. Department of Justice has notified the state of Tennessee it has determined the state is violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by enforcing a law targeting sex workers living with HIV.
A 1991 Tennessee law considers sex workers who are HIV-positive to be violent sex offenders, punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
“Tennessee’s aggravated prostitution law is outdated, has no basis in science, discourages testing and further marginalizes people living with HIV,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said in a press release. “People living with HIV should not be treated as violent sex offenders for the rest of their lives solely because of their HIV status. The Justice Department is committed to ensuring that people with disabilities are protected from discrimination.”
its crazy being on the registery for a disease.. welcome to America.. land of no second chances and curropted politicians pencil whipping laws for votes
Once we find the Registry right smack in the middle of more systemic civil rights violations. It has nothing to do with promoting safety, it has everything to do eternally punishing people hated by their community. This time, the moral panic idiocy of the Registry combined with the moral panic idiocy of the HIV scare.
In legitimate country, this would matter. Another example of the registry being used as a key element of a civil rights violation pogrom. However here in the US that will mean nothing, and in no way will it ever suggest that that is the only thing it has ever been used for. A means to eternally punish hated people with disregard for their civil rights.