MA City Affirms Sex Worker Rights

Somerville, MA, which is just outside Boston, recently took an official step to show their support for the human rights of sex workers. At their April city council meeting, councilors unanimously voted to support S.1046/H.175, an act to prevent human trafficking and improve the health and safety of sex workers. Though the bill recently died in committee, the city’s support demonstrates the success of Boston-area sex worker rights activists.

The bill would have created a Human Trafficking Prevention Project; created a committee to study current policies impacting sex workers; and repealed the crime of “common night-walking,” an archaic law that disproportionately targets low income women of color. The bill would have also established immunity protections for sex workers and trafficked people so that they could safely report crimes and seek medical care without the fear that they themselves would be criminalized and subjected to arrest.

The resolution is not the first time the council has supported decriminalization, as it voted in 2019 to request that the Somerville Police Department not arrest or prosecute sex workers.