When I saw this post from my colleague once-removed at Twitchy I nearly choked.

Could it be that a Babylon Bee headline made it onto Twitchy by mistake? Perhaps I accidentally ingested a hallucinogen along with the Asian noodles I ate for lunch yesterday. There must be some explanation other than “This is real.”

Well, it is real. The ACLU is suing the state of Tennessee because it created a category called “aggravated prostitution,” penalizing prostitutes for knowingly putting people at risk of catching HIV due to their own infection with the disease.

The law elevates engaging in sex work from a misdemeanor to a felony based on someone's HIV status – a protected disability.

— ACLU (@ACLU) October 24, 2023

Uh, wut? “This law … disproportionately affects Black and transgender women.”

I have news for the ACLU: Knowingly exposing people to a deadly disease disproportionately affects the victim of such exposure.

I don’t share the belief that prostitution is a victimless crime. Society itself is the victim, as prostitution degrades everybody involved in the practice, degrades the social fabric, commoditizes human bodies, and ruins the areas where it is practiced. I believe that prostitution itself should be illegal, and patronizing prostitutes should be as well.

But being a patron of prostitutes should not include a life sentence to illness and medicalization, and knowingly spreading a deadly disease should be punished more harshly than selling sex for money.

Instead of criminalizing HIV, which disproportionately targets people who are already socially and financially marginalized, lawmakers should invest in evidence-based public health support for people with HIV.

Tennessee, we'll see you in court.

— ACLU (@ACLU) October 24, 2023

Instead of criminalizing HIV, which disproportionately targets people who are already socially and financially marginalized, lawmakers should invest in evidence-based public health support for people with HIV.

I have news for you, ACLU: lawmakers have invested in evidence-based public health support for people with HIV, by the hundreds of billions of dollars. HIV has been turned into a chronic disease instead of a death sentence, and there is lots of support for people with HIV and education about how to prevent its spread. The problem isn’t that there is no support for victims of HIV, but rather that some people are intentionally putting others at risk.

Remember when vaccine mandates were all the rage? The ACLU supported them, denying people the right to refuse a medical treatment they didn’t want. Here is their statement on the matter:

Far from compromising civil liberties, vaccine mandates actually further them. They protect the most vulnerable among us, including people with disabilities and fragile immune systems, children too young to be vaccinated, and communities of color hit hard by the disease.

Seem consistent with their position on prostitutes intentionally putting people at risk of a disease like HIV?

I didn’t think so. This is about intersectional politics, not civil rights law. The ACLU is choosing sides based not on law, but on their sense that people who engage in prostitution are higher up the intersectional ladder than their victims.

If you donate to the ACLU, this is what you are supporting.