Category: DSW Newsletter #32 (January 2022)

Decriminalize Sex Work; Fight Human Trafficking

January 11, 2022

Human trafficking, in any labor sector and at the hands of any perpetrator, is an abhorrent human rights violation and abuse of power. DSW fights to decriminalize sex work because we know it will combat trafficking and exploitation and we proudly join other anti-trafficking organizations around the country in commemorating January as Human Trafficking Awareness Month. Our organization has taken critical action to combat exploitation of all kinds this calendar year:

• DSW helped pass Good Samaritan bills in Vermont and New Hampshire. These laws will allow sex workers who experience or witness crimes while engaging in prostitution to report them to law enforcement without fear of arrest or prosecution;

• DSW’s Legal Director Melissa Broudo served on the first-ever Human Rights Commission for Sex Workers in Portland Oregon in July of 2021;

• Longtime members of the New York Anti-Trafficking Network (NYATN), Melissa Broudo and Crystal DeBoise of DSW helped get the Survivors of Trafficking Attaining Relief Together (START) Act enacted into law in New York State. The bill expands vacatur eligibility for survivors of human trafficking. Whereas previously only prostitution convictions could be vacated, now courts have the option to vacate any conviction a survivor obtained as a result of being trafficked; and,

• DSW’s J. Leigh Oshiro-Brantly, Frances Steele, Crystal DeBoise, and Melissa Broudo published a research paper in the Charleston Law Review on the link between regressive sexual education and human trafficking.

Human trafficking is a nuanced issue, but the laws around it often discount this complexity. This nation’s first comprehensive anti-trafficking legislation, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), was not passed until 2000. The Department of Homeland security defines trafficking as an act which “involves the use of force, fraud, or coercion to obtain some type of labor or commercial sex act.” In 2012, the International Labor Organization (ILO) found that about 22% of trafficking cases involved commercial sex, while 10% were state-imposed labor, and 68% were forced labor exploitation, including agricultural, domestic, construction work, and more. But because policies and rhetoric often conflate consensual sex work and human trafficking, advocates have noted that when labor trafficking cases are reported to U.S. law enforcement, they often fail to investigate or prosecute.¹ Research shows that up to 96% of anti-trafficking resources in the United States are used to combat trafficking in commercial sex, to the vast detriment of the survivors suffering exploitation in other labor sectors.

Further, as a result of conflation, a significant portion of the resources devoted to combatting trafficking in commercial sex are actually used to target consensual sex workers. New York’s Human Trafficking Intervention Courts exclusively see defendants charged with prostitution-related crimes, without differentiating between those participating in sex work consensually and those who have been coerced. Anti-trafficking raids on massage parlors around the country, like the one that led to the arrest of Robert Kraft in Palm Beach, Florida, employ monitoring and harassment techniques on immigrant women, arresting sex workers in a misguided effort to “save” them from exploitation. In the Palm Beach case, as in many others, no trafficking was ever proven but the massage workers faced jail time, court fees, and immigration consequences as a result. None of the spa’s clients were prosecuted.

An issue as serious as human trafficking warrants concerted, effective policy responses. Our current approaches waste resources and allow trafficking to proliferate. Evidence shows that one of the best things we can do to prevent trafficking in commercial sex is to decriminalize consensual adult sex work. Decriminalization would divert the resources being used to criminalize sex workers towards trafficking prevention. It would also allow sex workers and clients, those in the best position to identify when abuse is taking place, to report crimes committed against others and themselves. In New Zealand, which decriminalized sex work in 2013, there have been no cases of trafficking in commercial sex among decriminalized populations.

DSW’s briefing paper and informational video on how decriminalizing sex work helps prevent trafficking can be viewed on our website here. We will continue to shine a light on the misguided laws and assumptions that allow trafficking to proliferate and work to pass laws that will end exploitation and abuse.

The Woodhull Freedom Foundation’s Human Rights Commissions (WHRC) investigate, promote, and protect human rights. An upcoming WHRC on February 10th will center on sex work, with a focus on the human rights violations that result from false rhetoric around sex trafficking at the Super Bowl. The commission will bring together criminal justice reform advocates, impacted sex workers, labor rights activists, health care experts, and researchers to engage in strategic conversations about what policies, legislation, and programs will provide better working conditions for adult consensual sex workers, as well as proposed mechanisms to address labor exploitation.

Register for the virtual summit here.

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1 Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, “Trafficking in Persons Report,” 516-17.

Too many violent criminals have admitted to targeting sex workers because it was less likely that the disappearances or deaths of individuals selling sex would be noticed or reported. Even in the case that they were, because of the stigma surrounding sex work, law enforcement often handles crimes committed against sex workers differently than they would otherwise. In the words of Gary Ridgeway, also known as the Green River Killer, “I picked prostitutes because I thought I could kill as many of them as I wanted without getting caught.”

Ridgeway’s assumption is chilling, made even more so by the fact that it’s true. A 2014 study found that between 45-75% of sex workers will experience physical and sexual violence while working, with little recourse as reporting the crime would mean risking arrest and prosecution. Criminalization also exposes sex workers to abuse and exploitation by law enforcement. Human Rights Watch found that sex workers in South Africa do not report rape or armed robbery to police for fear of being arrested, profiled, harassed, or laughed at and not taken seriously. “No Humans Involved” or NHI is a designation that has historically been used by ​​police, politicians, and judges when looking at crimes committed against sex workers and other marginalized individuals, an acceptance of the continued violence against these communities and the belief that they are unworthy of human rights. In some cases, laws do not even define violence against sex workers as a criminal act.

Taking into account this history of disproportionate victimization, a Good Samaritan bill was recently proposed in New York State. S2233A/A225 would provide immunity from prosecution for individuals engaged in prostitution who are victims of or witnesses to a crime and either report it or assist in the investigation or prosecution. If enacted, the bill will be a critical step in protecting the rights of sex workers in New York State. Similar laws have already been enacted in Vermont, New Hampshire, Oregon, Montana, and Utah.

The proposal of S2233A comes at an interesting time. Suffolk County’s newly elected Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison recently pledged to re-open the case of the Gilgo Beach serial killer in the Long Island area. Most of the Gilgo Beach Killer’s victims were sex workers who had advertised in the area on Craigslist. In a press conference on December 31, 2021, Harrison stated that the department was “in a great place to solve” the case and cited new leads.

The case had been cold for a decade. In May of 2010, Shannan Gilbert, a 23-year-old from the south shore of Long Island, disappeared mysteriously. The search for her uncovered ten bodies scattered along the beach highway. Later that year, the remains of four more women were found near Gilgo Beach. Discoveries continued, among them, the body of a toddler and a woman believed to be her mother. In all, there were ten bodies officially linked to what has been dubbed the Long Island Serial Killer (LISK) Case and seven others who are likely connected.

We will never know for sure if an immunity law might have saved the lives of any of the victims in the Gilgo Beach case. What we do know is that as it currently stands, sex workers are put in danger because of criminalization and then left unprotected from any number of crimes including armed robbery, assault, and murder. Peter Sutcliffe (the Yorkshire Ripper), Jack the Ripper, Robert Hansen, Robert Pickton, Joel Rifken, Steve Wright, Benjamin Atkins, Donald Murphy, and Richard Cottington are all serial murderers who have admitted to targetting sex workers either because they believed it would make them harder to catch, or because they believed sex workers were expendable, a notion that our society continues to perpetuate. A recent spate of murders in St. Louis is thought to have been carried out by a single individual targeting sex workers. A 2011 study out of Indiana University found that between 1970-2009, 22 percent of confirmed serial murders were of known sex workers and prostitutes. These numbers increased throughout the study, reaching a high of 69% from 2000-2009.

It is because of this violence, fueled by stigmatization, ignorance, and criminalization, that human rights organizations like Amnesty International, the World Health Organization, the American Civil Liberties Union, and more support the decriminalization of sex work, as well as more incremental measures such as Good Samaritan laws to save lives and protect the rights of sex workers and communities. The impact of criminalization and victimization falls most heavily on sex workers with intersectional vulnerabilities: immigrants, BIPOC individuals, transgender, and non-binary folks, the gay and lesbian communities, those who are unhoused, and people living in poverty. Everyone deserves protection and recourse from crime, and we cannot stand by and allow marginalized communities to be excluded from this right.

Coos County covers a rural stretch of Oregon’s coastline about 200 miles south of Portland, Oregon. The area is markedly conservative. In 2018, the community came to the defense of a public high school principal who had been sued by the American Civil Liberties Union for discriminating against LGBTQ students and forcing them to read the Bible. It is also home to Southwestern Oregon Community College (SWOCC), one of the largest employers in the county. SWOCC was recently sued by Nicole Gilliland for discrimination on the basis of having engaged in sex work. Gilliland alleged that her instructors treated her differently, ignored her in class, marked her down on assignments, or gave her extra work, because of her history working in the porn industry.

In December of 2021, Federal Judge Mustafa T. Kasubhai ruled in Gilliland’s favor, marking the first time that Title IX has been invoked by a student to fight discrimination based on a history of doing sex work. Judge Kasubhai found that the evidence Gilliland presented to prove discrimination was directly connected to her work history. He also found that the actions of the professors constituted sex discrimination as they made comments that advanced a stereotype of the kind of woman “appropriate for the nursing profession,” deeming Gilliland unfit.

It began with a single professor. While Gilliland was recovering from illness, Melissa Sperry gave Gilliland an extra assignment that no one else in the class was assigned. Three days later when Gilliland turned it in, Sperry refused to grade it. Later, Sperry docked Gilliland’s grades on tests she had taken late as a result of her illness. When Gilliland questioned this, Sperry replied “unclassy women shouldn’t be nurses, Nicole.” Sperry then changed passing grades on assignments Gilliland had previously turned in to fail her and alleged that Gilliland had plagiarized them. At a hearing to clear up the plagiarism accusation, the head of the nursing program testified that Gilliland was an angry person and unsafe around her patients.

Gilliland was confused at first. She was on the Dean’s List (before beginning to fail her classes inexplicably) and she had received rave reviews from the nurse overseeing her practicum placement. Suddenly it all clicked. Gilliland realized she wasn’t being penalized for underperforming in school, but rather because of her history as an adult-film performer. Other students refused to speak to her on campus out of fear of the same treatment from professors. It became clear to Gilliland that she wasn’t going to pass the semester.

In an interview with Vice, a classmate of Gilliland’s said that she was not surprised that she faced discrimination as a result of her history in porn. “The instructors decided that she was not right for the program and singled her out — the first step was the bogus assignment, then they landed on plagiarism. It was a total shit show. SWOCC’s nursing school has a reputation for having bullies.” Other students at SWOCC reported similar patterns of discrimination based on their accents or because of their age. But they were always able to graduate. However, in  Gilliland’s case, the stigma around being a sex worker was too great for Coos County.

Gilliland’s lawsuit is based on a claim, not only of individual discrimination but also that SWOCC engaged in a pattern of behavior that targets and excludes female students. While it’s difficult to determine the exact demographics of people doing sex work, statistics tend to report that a majority are women. 66% of prostitution arrests in the United States in 2014 were of women. Derek Demeri, a 2020 graduate of Rutgers law school, authored an article in Rutgers University Law Review outlining how and why discrimination against sex workers violates Title IX. Now, the federal court’s ruling confirms it. “It’s not just about Title IX — getting a court to recognize that discrimination against sex workers is sex discrimination could bring a sweeping movement across the country,” Demeri said of the lawsuit.

The road to victory has not been easy for Gilliland. Treatment by her professors and the school administration drove her to a suicide attempt in 2019, which caused her to lose custody of her children. Her younger daughter was sent to live with the very family members who had told the Coos County community about her history with sex work. She was then fired from her food service job because of her “legal troubles” and kicked out of her apartment for “stirring up trouble” with the lawsuit. “At first I thought, how in the hell do you think you’ll get away with this?” Gililland told Vice. “But now I see that they really could. We have one whore taking on all of these noble people.”

After submitting for a psychological evaluation and acquiring 12 letters of character support from friends and acquaintances, Gilliland finally gained back custody of her children. After bouncing between a homeless shelter and a shed in someone’s backyard that cost $200/month, she was put in touch with Alex Andrews, long-time sex worker rights advocate who started a GoFundMe for the family and found them a new place to live.

Despite all the setbacks, Gilliland bravely pushed forward with her lawsuit. “Gililland is using her privilege to achieve good for everyone else,” says Andrews. “That is a remarkable thing to do. There are a lot of people doing sex work who can’t be out about it because the consequences they would face are way too great.”

Her experience in the legal system inspired Gilliland to change careers. She now plans to attend law school to continue fighting against discrimination. As intended, her fight is sure to empower sex workers and other marginalized individuals who experience similar rejection and stigmatization. Going forward, Gilliland will not shy away from her history with sex work but own it proudly. Hiding, she says, only “empowered people who shouldn’t have had power over me.”