Category: DSW Newsletters

Advocates for the rights of sex workers and survivors of human trafficking in Vermont are partnering with organizations working on a range of issues to best meet the needs of their shared communities.

Since last spring, DSW Community Engagement Consultant Henri Bynx and The Ishtar Collective have participated in the following community initiatives:

* Launched a weekly pop-up clinic in conjunction with The Rainbow Bridge Community Center and People’s Health and Wellness Clinic. The clinic features a free store supplied with hygiene and cosmetic goods, clothing, resources to outside care, and peer support on site.

* Tabled outside the statehouse at Montpelier Pride.

* Presented at a Student Health Fair at The University of Vermont.

* Expanded their food justice program’s reach.

* Offered safer-sex supplies and information on a regular basis in downtown Montpelier.

The Ishtar Collective is a nonprofit collective of sex workers, survivors, and industry allies in Vermont who focus on intersectional social justice liberation. Our mission is to see our communities thrive as we aim for equity in race, class, gender, healthcare, housing, food, immigration, labor, (dis)ability, and LGBTQIA+ issues, with a special focus on sex workers’ rights and anti-trafficking work.

This July, FreedomFest returned to Las Vegas for its annual conference, the “ultimate summit for liberty.” FreedomFest has been convening since 2007 and Decriminalize Sex Work (DSW) has regularly attended to meet with politicians, voters, authors, academics, and industry leaders to discuss our shared interest in removing criminal penalties for consensual acts between adults.

This year’s Freedomfest featured appearances from presidential candidates, the Free & Equal Presidential Debate, and attendees eager to see candidates who advocate for freedom and liberty on the November ballot. Presidential candidates in attendance this year were Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (Independent), Chase Oliver (Libertarian Party), Dr. Jill Stein (Green Party), Dr. Cornel West (Independent), and Randall Terry (Constitution Party). Out of the five candidates in attendance, only Jill Stein and Chase Oliver have publicly addressed policies related to sex work. According to her official website, “a Jill Stein administration will repeal FOSTA/SESTA which puts sex workers at risk and decriminalize sex work.” Chase Oliver, the Libertarian Party’s candidate for president, has been a prominent supporter of decriminalization and sex worker’s rights for years. In November 2021 he tweeted, “Sex work between consenting adults ought to be 100% legal. Every time we have law enforcement crack down on consenting adults, that’s time away from investigating crimes against children or where there was a lack of consent, actual violence. Victimless ‘crime’ isn’t a crime.”

On the last day of the conference, DSW Political Director Robert Kampia joined Woodhull Freedom Foundation President & CEO Ricci Levy for a panel discussing the decriminalization of consensual adult sex work. Kampia led the Marijuana Policy Project for 23 years, successfully passing medical-marijuana and adult-use legalization laws in 32 states, before joining DSW as political director. During his portion of the panel, he drew on his extensive experience in drug policy to detail the similarities and differences between the political trajectories of marijuana policy and sex work policy. The largest takeaway from Kampia’s remarks was his assertion that when he first began working to legalize marijuana, the pervasive belief was that the work was “impossible” — however, that belief eventually shifted to marijuana legalization being “inevitable.” Kampia posited that sex work policy could see the same shift in the zeitgeist.

Ricci Levy utilized her portion of the panel to discuss America’s relentless obsession with legislating morality. Levy founded Woodhull Freedom Foundation in 2003 in order to affirm sexual freedom as a fundamental human right. Drawing on her decades of experience fighting for bodily and sexual autonomy, Levy addressed the recent age-verification bills introduced around the country and the fight to decriminalize consensual adult sex work, among other topics. The panel was well attended and included an extensive Q&A with the engaged audience. Dr. Barb Brents, a sociology professor at the University of Nevada Las Vegas and advocate for sex worker’s rights, made a guest appearance to answer an attendee's questions on the history of prostitution and prohibition in America.

In August, DSW Legal Director Melissa Sontag Broudo, DSW Staff Attorney Becca Cleary, and DSW Community Engagement Consultant Henri Bynx headed to Louisville, Kentucky for the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), the nation’s largest gathering of state legislators and legislative staff. The summit provides the opportunity for legislators to meet with public policy experts to learn about issues in preparation for the upcoming legislative session. It was a positive and productive summit for DSW staff members who met with multiple legislators and staffers interested in protecting the safety and freedom of sex workers.

While at NCSL, Melissa Sontag Broudo was interviewed by Elizabeth Nolan Brown of Reason for a piece about the legislative summit. In an excerpt from the piece, Nolan asks Broudo “When you talk about this with lawmakers or legislative staff here at the NCSL summit, what has the reaction been so far?” Broudo replied, “I find that people are surprisingly amenable to our perspective. Because when it comes down to it, we’re not [asking] for anything crazy. We’re asking for health and safety of sex workers and survivors of trafficking. So I think there might be a bit of a disconnect at first, especially with our name, but I think once we actually start talking about the bills that we’re introducing and advocating for and what our goals are, it’s actually not this big scary thing that maybe they’ve read about. And so I would say the conversations are overwhelmingly productive and positive.”

The New York Times recently published an article that sheds light on the severe impact of deepfake pornography on its victims. This form of digital abuse involves AI-generated images or videos that alter a person’s likeness to create realistic but fabricated explicit content. While deepfake pornography can target anyone, it often disproportionately affects women, particularly those in the public eye such as celebrities, politicians, and influencers. As AI technology increasingly integrates into various aspects of our lives, it raises significant ethical questions. However, the challenge legislators face is how to address AI-generated content when it crosses the line into criminality.

The New York Times piece features the stories of two female politicians in Florida who were targeted by deepfake pornography seemingly to retaliate against their policies or the fact that they were women in positions of power. Sabrina Javellana, a city commissioner in Hallandale Beach, and Democratic Florida state senator Lauren Book, were both victims of deepfake pornography. Javellana, in the wake of the abuse, felt that she had little recourse to deal with the images proliferating online. In response, Senator Book introduced Senate Bill 1798 to address pornographic deepfakes online.

According to the article, “Gov. Ron DeSantis signed S.B. 1798 into law on June 24, 2022. At the time, four other states — Virginia, Hawaii, California and Texas — had enacted laws against the dissemination of deepfakes. Floridians would be protected against deepfake abuse — ostensibly, at least. Now that circulating such images was explicitly criminalized, the F.D.L.E. and local law enforcement could investigate victims’ claims. Those who circulate deepfakes could be charged, fined and possibly jailed. Victims could now pursue civil suits as well. Legislative solutions like this are an important step toward preventing nightmares like Javellana’s; they offer victims possible financial compensation and a sense of justice, while signaling that there will be consequences for creating non-consensual sexual imagery.”

Congress has taken action to address deepfake pornography. In January, they introduced the Disrupt Explicit Forged Images and Non-Consensual Edits Act of 2024 (DEFIANCE Act), a promising piece of legislation aimed at providing victims with tangible recourse. If enacted, the bill would allow those affected to claim $150,000 in damages and seek temporary restraining orders against perpetrators. This legal step represents a crucial move towards acknowledging the severity of deepfake pornography and offering support to its victims. However, while such measures are essential, they also bring to the forefront a complex issue: the role of online platforms and their responsibilities in curbing this type of abuse.

Carrie Goldberg, Javellana’s attorney, argues that platforms won’t be incentivized to remove deepfake images unless Section 230 of the U.S. Communications Decency Act is amended to make them liable for non-consensual content posted on their sites. The Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) and Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA), signed into law in 2018, amend Section 230 by suspending its protection in cases where online platforms are perceived to be promoting prostitution. Rather than preventing the online exploitation of trafficked persons, these laws have hurt the people they intended to help, pushing sex workers and trafficking victims into more dangerous and exploitative situations. FOSTA/SESTA serves as a stark reminder of the unintended consequences that can arise from efforts to regulate online content. This outcome underscores the importance of including sex workers in the legislative process to ensure that their perspectives and needs are considered, preventing policies that inadvertently harm those they intend to protect.

Victims of deepfake pornography deserve justice and protection, and legislative measures like the DEFIANCE Act are a step in the right direction. Yet, we must also be cautious about the broader implications of altering Section 230 and the potential for increased internet censorship. The focus should be on developing targeted solutions that address the specific harm of deepfake pornography without infringing on free speech, censoring the internet, and harming sex workers in the process.

Vermont legislatures passed a bill that creates civil recourse for victims of stealthing — the nonconsensual removal or tampering with a condom during sex.

H. 40 would allow someone who has experienced stealthing to sue the perpetrator in civil court for damages. Right now, as is mostly the case around the country, there is nothing a victim of stealthing can do to hold the perpetrator accountable.

Rep. Barbara Rachelson, who sponsored the bill, modeled the bill after a similar one that passed in California in 2021.

An earlier version of the Vermont bill would have allowed officials to bring criminal charges, but legislators agreed that removing that provision made the bill more likely to pass. Additionally, this also avoids re-traumatizing survivors in a criminal case that requires a higher burden of proof.

Rep. Rachelson provided the following information in support of the bill:

House Bill 40: Nonconsensual Removal or Tampering with a Sexual Protective Device (commonly referred to as ‘stealthing’)

‘Stealthing’ is defined as the nonconsensual removal of a condom during sexual intercourse. Despite limited legal acknowledgement, stealthing is fairly common, causing physical and mental harm to its victims.

‘Stealthing’ turns consensual intercourse (i.e. sex with a condom) into nonconsensual intercourse (i.e. sex without a condom); therefore, sexual violence prevention experts often classify ‘stealthing’ as a form of sexual assault. Unprotected sex increases the risks of unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. Victims of ‘stealthing’ often report emotional distress due to feelings of being violated and anxiety related to increased risks of unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections.