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Open Society
Institute files suit against U.S. policy requiring pledges
against sex work

Open Society
Institute files suit against U.S. policy requiring pledges
against sex work

An organization founded by billionaire George Soros on Friday filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Agency for International Development, claiming that its requirement that all groups receiving U.S. AIDS grants sign a pledge opposing commercial sex work is unconstitutional and hampers efforts to prevent HIV infections overseas, The Wall Street Journal reports. The Open Society Institute says the pledge requirement undermines efforts to "provide lifesaving services and information to sex workers, who are at significant risk of infection and can also transmit HIV to others," according to the Journal. The lawsuit also claims that the pledge requirement is unconstitutional because it forces private organizations to endorse the Bush administration's political positions and can be applied arbitrarily because it is too vague.

DKT International, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit group that provides HIV prevention and education services to sex workers overseas, filed a similar lawsuit against USAID last month. That lawsuit says the policy violates DKT's First Amendment right to free speech.

The Bush administration began applying the pledge requirement to all USAID grants recipients in June. The policy stems from two 2003 laws that prohibit U.S. tax dollars from going to any group that does not have a policy opposing sex work and sex trafficking. The pledge is required for all grant recipients, including those based in foreign countries and all organizations that receive funding through the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. (Advocate.com)

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