ACLU fights to reverse law that harshens penalties for HIV-positive prostitutes selling services.
The ACLU’s Outrageous Lawsuit: Challenging Penalties for HIV-Positive Prostitutes
The ACLU and transgender activists have been running the loony bin for some time in this country, but this one is crazy even for them.
The American Civil Liberties Union, the Transgender Law Center, and the ACLU of Tennessee filed a lawsuit Tuesday in the U.S. District Court in Memphis on behalf of four plaintiffs identified as “Jane Does” and a local nonprofit that serves the LGBT community called OUTMemphis, according to The Tennessean.
The lawsuit challenges a Tennessee prostitution statute that has a higher penalty for “aggravated prostitution,” which applies to people who engage in prostitution knowing they are HIV positive.
Under state law, “generic prostitution” is a misdemeanor that can bring a small fine and minimal jail time, but “aggravated prostitution” is a felony that requires a “lifetime registration as a ‘violent sex offender.’”
The preliminary statement in the lawsuit says, “Aggravated Prostitution is identical to Prostitution, with one key additional element: knowledge that one is living with HIV.”
To which any sane person would say: “Yes, that is one very key element indeed.”
In a Tuesday news release, the ACLU claimed “the Aggravated Prostitution statute is rooted in fear and discrimination, targeting people living with HIV for harsh punishment.”
In completely unrelated news, the ACLU is suing because the aggravated prostitution laws that make those who knowingly spread HIV register as sex offenders ‘disproportionately’ impact black and transgender women. pic.twitter.com/jawhzR2XJH
— Owen Gregorian (@OwenGregorian) October 24, 2023
The lawsuit uses the fact that HIV is listed as a “disability” protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act to claim discrimination as the reason for the lawsuit.
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Alexis Agathocleous, deputy director of the National ACLU’s Racial Justice Program, said in a statement, “Disability discrimination is illegal, and yet the Aggravated Prostitution singles out economically-marginalized people living with HIV for excessively harsh punishment.”
The news release goes on to say that it is “patently unlawful” to criminalize people with HIV and that the law “singles out people living with HIV — a protected disability — for harsher punishment.”
Molly Quinn, executive director of OUTMemphis, said in a statement that having to register as a sex offender makes it harder for prostitutes to get back on their feet while “posing absolutely zero benefit to public health and safety.”
The lawsuit contends that HIV can be prevented by using protection and “even unprotected encounters pose very little risk of transmission,” according to The Tennessean.
This, coming from the same organization that sued South Carolina and Iowa for banning mask mandates in schools.
By the ACLU’s logic, perfectly healthy kids with little to no risk of COVID must be forced to wear masks to protect other kids who also have little to no risk of COVID, but prostitutes with an incurable disease should have no legal consequences for knowingly putting an unknowing person at risk through sexual contact.
It’s clear that the motivation for the lawsuit has nothing to do with the concern for Americans with disabilities. If it were, the ACLU would worry about the risk of HIV for prostitutes’ clients who may have other underlying health risks or disabilities.
Not to mention the risk of spreading or producing new strains.
Protecting the right to spread HIV? https://t.co/YTvWhgcK0H
— Tomi Lahren (@TomiLahren) October 25, 2023
The motivation is to end “HIV stigma” and normalize a disease linked to sexual promiscuity and homosexuality. Let’s make HIV like chicken pox was for kids 40 years ago — if you’re a kid, you just get it — it’s normal.
World Health Organization statistics show that more than half a million people died of HIV/AIDS in 2022. That doesn’t sound like a small number.
New strains of the virus are still appearing. Last year, Oxford University scientists were studying a new “highly virulent” HIV strain found in the Netherlands, where — coincidentally — prostitution is legal.
A new HIV variant found in the Netherlands is said to progresses to Aids faster, but is responsive to treatment. According to Oxford University scientists the strain appears to cause more rapid disease#AfricanDialogue #ChannelAfrica
Listen live: https://t.co/4tlgyAwx8i pic.twitter.com/eYMdWHj35a
— Channel Africa (@channelafrica1) February 15, 2022
But Quinn declared that “HIV stigma is becoming a thing of the past, and it’s time for state law to catch up. OUTMemphis fights so that queer people are free to live in safety, with dignity, and we believe everyone deserves that regardless of their HIV status.”
Those words are the real motivation behind the lawsuit.
The post ACLU Seeks to Overturn Law That Increases Penalties for Prostitutes Who Sell Their Services Knowing They Have HIV appeared first on The Western Journal.
How does the ACLU’s lawsuit challenging penalties for HIV-positive prostitutes bring up concerns about the Americans with Disabilities Act and the potential violation of anti-discrimination principles?
The ACLU’s recent lawsuit challenging penalties for HIV-positive prostitutes has raised eyebrows and sparked controversy. The lawsuit, filed by the ACLU, the Transgender Law Center, and the ACLU of Tennessee, argues that a Tennessee prostitution statute that imposes harsher penalties on those engaging in prostitution while knowing they are HIV-positive is discriminatory and violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Under Tennessee law, engaging in generic prostitution is considered a misdemeanor and carries a small fine and minimal jail time. However, when a person engages in prostitution knowing they are HIV-positive, it is classified as aggravated prostitution, a felony offense that requires a lifetime registration as a violent sex offender.
The lawsuit’s preliminary statement argues that aggravated prostitution is identical to prostitution, with the key additional element being the knowledge that one is living with HIV. While this may seem like a reasonable distinction to make, the ACLU and transgender activists view it as discriminatory and stigmatizing towards people living with HIV.
In a news release, the ACLU claims that the aggravated prostitution statute is rooted in fear and discrimination, targeting individuals living with HIV for harsh punishment. They argue that classifying HIV as a disability protected under the ADA is recognition that HIV-positive individuals should not face further discrimination and punishment based on their health status.
Critics, however, argue that knowingly engaging in prostitution while HIV-positive poses significant risks to public health and the individuals involved. They contend that the higher penalties associated with aggravated prostitution are necessary to deter such behavior and protect the public from the potential transmission of HIV.
The lawsuit raises important questions about the balance
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