Federal lawsuit challenges sex offender registration for prostitutes

Published: Wednesday, February 16, 2011, 12:03 PM     Updated: Wednesday, February 16, 2011, 12:18 PM

People who must register as sex offenders because they were convicted of engaging in oral or anal sex for money filed a lawsuit against state officials last night, arguing the requirement is unconstitutional and discriminatory.

Only in Louisiana can people convicted of selling their bodies be required to register as a sex offender, according to the lawsuit filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights. The plaintiffs include several women from New Orleans and the surrounding areas, as well as transgender women and a man.

The registration requirement only affects people prosecuted under the state's crime against nature by soliciation law, which is used when a person is accused of engaging in oral or anal sex in exchange for money. People accused of prostitution, which includes any sex act, are not required to register.

Alexis Agathocleous, an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, which filed the lawsuit, called the legal distinction "archiac and discriminatory" and rooted in homophobia.

The lawsuit was filed against state and local officials, including Governor Bobby Jindal and Attorney General Buddy Caldwell.

The lawsuit was filed anonymously, but describes the difficulty the plaintiffs have experienced obtaining work and finding housing because they are registered sex offenders. In Louisiana, the driver's license of a registered sex offender is inscribed with those words in bright orange letters. Registered sex offenders appear in a state database and must notify neighbors of their legal status.

At a news conference in front of federal court in New Orleans, attorneys for the plaintiffs said the registration requirement erects "insurmountable barriers" to people who are trying to restart their lives. In New Orleans, nearly 40 percent of the people registered as sex offenders are on the registry because of a crime against nature conviction.

The label of sex offender often keeps people from being able to access drug treatment or domestic violence services, said Deon Haywood, director of Women With A Vision, a New Orleans non-profit organization, which works with women trying to leave prostitution.

"The toll it takes is devastating," Haywood said about the registration requirements. "They did what they did to survive and put food on the table."

Louisiana is the only state that has separate laws depending on what kind of sex acts a prostitute engages in, according to the lawsuit. Prostitution can cover any kind of sex for money. But people accused of offering oral or anal sex for money can be charged with "crime against nature by solicitation."

The Legislature in the last session changed the penalties for "crime against nature by solicitation" to make the first offense a misdemeanor, which matches the potential sentence for first-offense prostitution. Previously, a first conviction of crime against nature was a felony.

But while a person convicted of prostitution is not required to register as a sex offender. a defendant convicted repeatedly of crime against nature by solicitation would have to register, according to the lawsuit. Plus, people who were convicted once of crime against nature before last year, when the law was changed, still must remain on Louisiana's sex offender registry.

With the exception of crime against nature, all of the other offenses that require registration as a sex offender in Louisiana involve some kind of force, coercion, or exploitation of a minor, according to the lawsuit. These offenses include, for example, rape, aggravated kidnapping of a child or prostitution of a person under 17.