A person charged with aggravated prostitution in Tennessee must register as a violent sex offender for the rest of their life. But a law passed during this year’s legislative session will change that punishment, and provide a pathway to be removed from the registry.
Tennessee’s aggravated prostitution charge applies only to people who have HIV — a fact that prompted American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee and partner organizations to bring a lawsuit to repeal the statute entirely in October. The U.S. Department of Justice joined the effort in its own complaint against the state of Tennessee and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation in February, asserting that the charge is in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, as HIV is a protected disability.
According to the law, a person who is HIV-positive can be charged with aggravated prostitution if they simply “loiter in a place for the purpose of being hired to engage in sexual activity,” points out Jeff Preptit, ACLU of Tennessee staff attorney. (Preptit also happens to be the Metro councilmember for Nashville’s District 25.)
It does not matter if the person has transmitted HIV to anyone, and it does not matter if the person takes precautions not to transmit the disease. If they are caught even arranging sexual acts, they can be charged with aggravated prostitution. Prostitution is typically a misdemeanor charge in the state of Tennessee. But even after this year’s changes, aggravated prostitution is a class-C felony, carrying three to 15 years of potential imprisonment, loss of voting rights and fines. The law disproportionately affects Black trans women, Preptit observes.
“One of the things that is so insidious is that it specifically disincentivizes people from learning of their health status and getting tested,” Preptit says. “Because if you have knowledge of your health status — you go out, you’re getting tested, you are receiving treatment, to where there’s essentially no risk of transmission because you were on a certain regimen of medication — you’re still criminalized for it.”
When expungement becomes available following the law taking effect in July, individuals have to reach out to TBI — they won’t necessarily be notified. In expungement, they have to show proof they’ve been forced into sex work. It’s a “tall order,” Preptit says.
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Sen. Page Walley (R-Savannah) was a freshman in the House when the aggravated prostitution law was added to the books in 1991 — the same year Magic Johnson revealed he was HIV positive, Walley recalls. In 2010, the sex offender requirement was added (though Walley was not in the state legislature at that time). This year, 33 years after the original law was passed, he tells the Scene he was proud to bring the bill to remove the sex-offender-registry requirement.
“There was a lot of fear amongst everyone because [HIV] was basically a death sentence back then,” Walley says. “I think it needs additional work, but we decided to take an incremental approach.”
Thistle Farms, a local nonprofit that works with women who are survivors of prostitution, trafficking and addiction, originally sought to remove aggravated prostitution as a charge too. But after consulting with the TBI and state legislators, the group opted to chip away at the issue, according to spokesperson Amanda Clelland. The change in aggravated prostitution prosecution will affect around 80 people statewide — but for those people, the change will be significant.
Clelland shares testimony from a survivor of rape and abuse who was infected with HIV by a man she dated. The survivor was arrested twice for prostitution by an undercover cop — the first incident was a misdemeanor, but the second was a felony because she had been tested and learned she was HIV-positive. After her prison time, she was told she would have to register for the sex offender registry every year for the rest of her life. She began working with Thistle Farms, but couldn’t work at the organization’s cafe because of its proximity to a church and school.
After she graduated from the program, the woman struggled to find housing and employment because of her sex-offender-registry status. Advocacy efforts are a new venture for Thistle Farms, Clelland says, but they see the obstacles that survivors face firsthand.
“Removing the barrier of the sex offender registry for prostituted people living with HIV is huge,” Clelland says. “It opens up so many doors, it removes so many barriers for people to be able to go to treatment centers, to be able to access safe housing and be able to have meaningful employment. We’re just going to continue to look forward to seeing what other meaningful legislative efforts we can pursue to help make the world a little better for survivors because they deserve that. It’s the least they deserve.”
