TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Julia Wilburn on Jul 19, 2024

The Tennessee government has agreed to remove individuals convicted of prostitution while they had HIV from its sex offender registry upon request. This decision comes after the state settled two lawsuits: one from the American Civil Liberties Union and four women who were convicted of aggravated prostitution, and one from the U.S. Department of Justice. The suits argued that Tennessee's laws were based on outdated science and unfairly labeled individuals with HIV as sex offenders. The Tennessee Lookout reports that at least 83 people are believed to be on the state sex offender registry solely because of those laws, with most living in the Memphis area, where undercover police officers and prosecutors most often invoked the the statutes. The Tennessee attorney general's office says it plans to “continue to defend Tennessee’s prohibition on aggravated prostitution,” which makes prostitution a misdemeanor in most cases but a felony for those who are HIV-positive.