"Eve, who asked that we not reveal her real name or age, spent two years in prison. During her time..."

"Eve, who asked that we not reveal her real name or age, spent two years in prison. During her time behind bars she was raped and contracted HIV. Upon release, she was forced to register in the state's sex offender database. The words "sex offender" now appear on her driver's license. "I have tried desperately to change my life," she says, but her status as a sex offender stands in the way of housing and other programs. "When I present my ID for anything," she says, "the assumption is that you're a child molester or a rapist. The discrimination is just ongoing and ongoing." Eve was penalized under Louisiana's 205-year-old Crime Against Nature statute, a blatantly discriminatory law that legislators have maneuvered to keep on the state's books for the purpose of turning sex workers into felons. As enforced, the law specifically singles out oral and anal sex for greater punishment for those arrested for prostitution, including requiring those convicted to register as sex offenders in a public database. Advocates say the law has further isolated poor women of color in particular, including those who are forced to trade sex for food or a place to sleep at night."

- Federal Civil Rights Suit Challenges Louisiana's Felony Sex Work Law - COLORLINES