{"id":151359,"date":"2024-03-15T16:09:18","date_gmt":"2024-03-15T20:09:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/?p=151359"},"modified":"2024-03-15T16:09:18","modified_gmt":"2024-03-15T20:09:18","slug":"fighting-back-against-discriminatory-laws-that-impact-people-living-with-hiv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/hiv\/fighting-back-against-discriminatory-laws-that-impact-people-living-with-hiv","title":{"rendered":"Fighting Back Against Discriminatory Laws That Impact People Living with HIV"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"metadata":[2028,1763,1771,1750,2024,1774,1755,1753,2026,1768],"class_list":["post-151359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","metadata-client-stories","metadata-context","metadata-external-partner-expert","metadata-layout","metadata-length","metadata-litigation-news","metadata-narrative-frame","metadata-plain-text","metadata-standard","metadata-voice"],"acf":{"header_layout":"standard","header_image":151515,"mobile_header_image":null,"description":"The ACLU is challenging a Tennessee law that criminalizes HIV status. This law unfairly prevents people from securing employment and housing.","authors":[151361],"components":[{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":{"text":"As a Black transgender woman and a former sex worker, it\u2019s not unusual for me to face harassment and profiling from police. Regardless of whether we\u2019re engaged in sex work or not, police frequently target transgender women like myself for searches and arrest, using anything from condoms to cash as \u201cproof\u201d we were engaged in sex work. For those who actually do engage in sex work, the criminalization of that livelihood raises the stakes of police encounters, and laws that criminalize our HIV status even more so.\r\n\r\nIn 2010, I was arrested in Memphis, Tennessee, and charged under the state\u2019s aggravated prostitution statute, a law that raises sex work from a misdemeanor to a felony strictly on the basis of my HIV diagnosis. The law, passed in a wave of fear and panic following the height of the AIDS epidemic in 1991, doesn't require transmission of HIV, or even an act that could possibly transmit HIV, for prosecution. It applies to everyone living with HIV, regardless of whether they are taking precautions to ensure there is no possibility of transmission or if they have disclosed their status. It targets someone like me solely on the basis of my HIV status \u2013 a protected disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act \u2013 even though there are lots of ways people living with HIV can have safe sex.\r\n\r\nMost alarmingly, the law requires me, and anyone else convicted under it, to register a \u201cviolent sex offender\u201d for the rest of my life, even though I have committed no such violent act and only engaged in consensual sexual activity between adults. This unfair registration requirement has denied me housing opportunities, leading me to be homeless for more than a year, with no access to shelters or support programs. It shut down job opportunities and has made it difficult to maintain a living. In fact, just 23 percent of people charged under Tennessee\u2019s law are employed in traditional wage work after their conviction.\r\n\r\nEven though my conviction had nothing to do with children, I cannot legally be alone with my nephew, whom I love. I\u2019m afraid to have children of my own for fear of how my registration would impact them and my ability to parent them. This needless shame and embarrassment has been made worse by the public status of my registration, giving strangers the ability to harass, or even blackmail, me.\r\n\r\nWhen I first pleaded guilty to my charges, I was not informed of any of the specifics about registration. I was not informed my registration would be for the rest of my life \u2013 despite the fact that I haven\u2019t hurt a living soul. Tennessee\u2019s law is a relic from a time before treatments such as antiretroviral therapy (ART) and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), which can reduce viral loads to undetectable levels, blocking the possibility of transmission of HIV. I had no idea such a law was even still on the books.Many other states have repealed their HIV criminalization laws because of opposition by advocates and medical experts alike.<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC2635346\/#:~:text=These%20laws%20and%20prosecutions%20don,soon%20after%20seroconversion)%20has%20HIV.\">Studies consistently show<\/a> the laws don't work to reduce HIV transmission, but rather interfere with <a href=\"https:\/\/theappeal.org\/hiv-criminalization-laws\/\">people's willingness to get tested<\/a>, which is the most effective way to reduce transmission.\r\n\r\nIn October 2023, the ACLU, the ACLU of Tennessee, and the Transgender Law Center filed a lawsuit to challenge Tennessee\u2019s aggravated prostitution law on the basis that it discriminates against people living with HIV, like me, in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. I joined this lawsuit because this law has had such a detrimental impact on me and my life. No one should be forced to endure what I have endured."}}],"featured_cases_section":{"enable_featured_cases":false,"title":"Featured Cases","description":"","featured_cases":null},"action":[148398],"issues":[46503,46499],"related_content_cases":"","related_content_documents":"","related_content_publications":"","related_affiliates":"","content_layout":"standard","theme":"light","drupal_nid":""},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>American Civil Liberties Union<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The ACLU is challenging a Tennessee law that criminalizes HIV status. This law unfairly prevents people from securing employment and housing.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fighting Back Against Discriminatory Laws That Impact People Living with HIV | ACLU\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The ACLU is challenging a Tennessee law that criminalizes HIV status. 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