DSW Challenges Constitutionality of Federal Law That Criminalizes Free Speech

Decriminalize Sex Work (DSW), joined by eleven other organizations working to ensure the health, safety, wellbeing, and human rights of sex workers and survivors of trafficking, filed a new Amicus brief supporting the appellants in a federal case challenging the criminalization of protected speech. The Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers and Fight Online Sex Trafficking Acts (SESTA/‍FOSTA), which became law in 2018, damage the longstanding “safe harbor” rule provided by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects freedom of speech on the internet. Individuals depend on this freedom to work, socialize, and exchange ideas online.

Woodhull Freedom Foundation et al. v. United States argues that SESTA/FOSTA is an unconstitutional violation of the First and Fifth Amendments. The case, filed in 2018, has again reached the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. DSW’s Amicus brief details the historical and political contexts that have bred misguided anti-trafficking policies and laws built on the conflation of sex work and trafficking. The law’s failure to differentiate between the two has injured sex workers and survivors. “Both qualitative and quantitative evidence show that SESTA/FOSTA has caused immense harm to already marginalized and vulnerable communities, without advancing its purpose to combat trafficking. It must be repealed,” said Rebecca Cleary, DSW staff attorney, and attorney for Amici Curiae.

The brief also discusses the recently reintroduced SAFE SEX Workers Study Act (SSWSA), a bill proposed in U.S. Congress to study the harmful effects of SESTA/FOSTA. The introduction of this legislation demonstrates that lawmakers recognize the damage caused by SESTA/FOSTA, including many legislators who initially voted in favor of that bill. Amici also detail the ways in which SESTA/FOSTA’s restrictions on free speech limit advocacy efforts to advance the SSWSA, a critical and unconstitutional impediment to the democratic process.

Proponents of the law argue that fighting human trafficking, a heinous and violent crime, is worth broad internet censorship. However, the law, as written, fails to punish traffickers. Three years after it was enacted, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that it was an abject failure. Free speech, internet rights advocates, and law enforcement officials have protested the law. Instead of combating trafficking, SESTA/FOSTA:

* Endangers trafficking survivors and sex workers

* Impedes law enforcement’s efforts to find victims and prosecute traffickers

* Censors free speech on the internet and endangers the livelihoods of informal service sector workers

The brief concludes, “SESTA/FOSTA is the shining example of what happens when policymakers conflate sex work and human trafficking: trafficking numbers remain the same, victims get left behind, and those facing the greatest consequences are not traffickers but already marginalized communities.” Amici curiae include DSW, The Sex Workers Project of the Urban Justice Center, Freedom Network, Brooklyn Defender Services, The Erotic Laborers Alliance of New England, Old Pros, National Coalition for Sexual Freedom, New York Transgender Advocacy Group, Free Speech Coalition, Sex Workers Outreach Project Brooklyn, Gays and Lesbians Living in a Transgender Society (GLITS), and St. James Infirmary.

Elizabeth Nolan Brown covers the developments in the case, including DSW’s amicus brief in Reason here: There’s No Way FOSTA Isn’t a First Amendment Violation, Says Lawsuit.

DSW Challenges Constitutionality of Federal Law That Criminalizes Free Speech

September 15, 2022 Decriminalize Sex Work (DSW), joined by eleven other organizations working to ensure the health, safety, wellbeing, and human rights of sex workers and survivors of trafficking, filed a new Amicus brief supporting the appellants...

8 Reasons There’s Nothing Equal About the Equality Model

September 27, 2022 The Equality Model is a harmful policy for governing sex work that functions by criminalizing the act of purchasing sex, but not selling it. Also known as the Nordic Model, the End Demand Model,...

Red Umbrella Campaign

September 1, 2022 UCLA’s Global Lab for Research in Action, in collaboration with a coalition of advocacy organizations including Decriminalize Sex Work, activists, and researchers, has launched the Red Umbrella Campaign. The Red Umbrella Campaign will advocate...

DSW Welcomes New Communications Manager

September 19, 2022 Decriminalize Sex Work (DSW) is pleased to welcome the newest member of our team, Cecilia Otero. As communications manager, she hopes to use her position to support the safety, autonomy, and freedom of both...

International Survey: Sex Work and Unwanted Contact

September 20, 2022 This survey is part of a major international study in the United States of America, England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Aotearoa-New Zealand. The researchers are asking about in-person sex workers’ experience of unwanted...

DSW Newsletter Archive

Sex Worker Rights Organizations Challenge Constitutionality of Federal Law That Criminalizes Free Speech

NEWS RELEASE | FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | PDF

Media Contact:
Ariela Moscowitz, director of communications
[email protected] | (212) 368-7874

Sex Worker Rights Organizations Challenge Constitutionality of Federal Law That Criminalizes Free Speech

Washington, DC (September 15, 2022) — Decriminalize Sex Work (DSW), joined by eleven other organizations working to ensure the health, safety, wellbeing, and human rights of sex workers and survivors of trafficking, filed a new Amicus brief supporting the appellants in a federal case challenging the criminalization of protected speech. The Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers and Fight Online Sex Trafficking Acts (SESTA/‍FOSTA), which became law in 2018, damage the longstanding “safe harbor” rule provided by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects freedom of speech on the internet. Individuals depend on this freedom to work, socialize, and exchange ideas online.

Woodhull Freedom Foundation et al. v. United States argues that SESTA/FOSTA is an unconstitutional violation of the First and Fifth Amendments. The case, filed in 2018, has again reached the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. DSW’s Amicus brief details the historical and political contexts that have bred misguided anti-trafficking policies and laws built on the conflation of sex work and trafficking. The law’s failure to differentiate between the two has injured sex workers and survivors. “Both qualitative and quantitative evidence show that SESTA/FOSTA has caused immense harm to already marginalized and vulnerable communities, without advancing its purpose to combat trafficking. It must be repealed,” said Rebecca Cleary, DSW staff attorney and attorney for Amici Curiae.

Proponents of the law argue that fighting human trafficking, a heinous and violent crime, is worth broad internet censorship. However, the law, as written, fails to punish traffickers. Three years after it was enacted, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that it was an abject failure. Free speech, internet rights advocates, and law-enforcement officials have protested the law. Instead of combating trafficking, SESTA/FOSTA:

* Endangers trafficking survivors and sex workers
* Impedes law enforcement’s efforts to find victims and prosecute traffickers
* Censors free speech on the internet and endangers the livelihoods of informal service sector workers

###

Decriminalize Sex Work (DSW) is a national organization pursuing a state-by-state strategy to end the prohibition of consensual adult prostitution in the United States. DSW works with local organizations, advocates, and lobbyists to build community support and convince legislators to stop prostitution-related arrests. Evidence shows that decriminalizing sex work will help end human trafficking, improve public health, and promote community safety.

Red Umbrella Campaign

UCLA’s Global Lab for Research in Action, in collaboration with a coalition of advocacy organizations including Decriminalize Sex Work, activists, and researchers, has launched the Red Umbrella Campaign.

The Red Umbrella Campaign will advocate for #SaferSexWork, addressing the stigma that sex workers face through a data driven national social awareness campaign. Research has shown that sex workers have a 45% to 75% chance of experiencing workplace violence. It is not only physical and sexual violence that prevents sex workers from being safe, but lack of access to housing, healthcare, and other basic human rights can contribute to unsafe workig conditions. Everyone deserves to be safe at work, including sex workers.

“Decades of research from around the world shows that the criminalization of sex work is what makes the work fundamentally unsafe - and impacts the safety of the wider community too,” says Janine N’jie David, co-founder and Deputy Director of UCLA’s Global Lab for Research in Action. “Sex work tends to be a taboo subject, despite being one of the oldest professions in the world, and public knowledge is understandably limited. But we shouldn’t allow our lack of understanding — or quite frankly, discomfort — prevent us from tackling challenging issues.”

The Red Umbrella Campaign will amplify voices of individuals with lived experience in sex work in tandem with data collected from researchers across the country to inform the public on the dangers sex workers face due to criminalization on a daily basis, while also addressing stigma. “When I began sex work at age 18, it became apparent to me that the dangers I faced were perpetuated by criminalization and stigma more than the work itself,” says Savannah Sly, a Global Lab Board Member. “Violent predators target sex workers because we work in isolation to avoid arrest and discrimination. The dangers are unnecessary and must be addressed.”

The “Red Umbrella Campaign” will launch in the fall and culminate on International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers on December 17th. We will use data and storytelling as the primary teaching tools. In the meantime, register here to learn more and find out how to get involved!

The UCLA Global Lab for Research in Action, a DSW grantee, pursues evidence-based solutions to critical health, education, and economic issues faced by hard-to-reach populations around the world. The Global Lab’s work extends beyond research as they translate and amplify findings to inform policy, improve programs across the global South and North, and shift the public conversation. Manisha Shah, Ph.D., a development economist, professor of public policy, and one of the leading researchers on sex markets and health, founded and leads The Global Lab, along with Janine N’jai David, M.P.P.

DSW Challenges Constitutionality of Federal Law That Criminalizes Free Speech

8 Reasons There’s Nothing Equal About the Equality Model

Red Umbrella Campaign

DSW Welcomes New Communications Manager

International Survey: Sex Work and Unwanted Contact

DSW Newsletter Archive

Montpelier, VT Repeals Prostitution Ordinance

Montpelier has become the second city in Vermont to repeal its antiquated prostitution ordinance in the past year. Last summer, the Burlington City Council voted to repeal that city’s prostitution ordinance and voters subsequently chose to strike discriminatory and archaic language on sex work from the city charter.

Montpelier’s Police Review Committee recommended that the ordinance be repealed as its stigmatizing and discriminatory language was harmful to both consensual adult sex workers and individuals experiencing exploitation. They suggested that law enforcement should concentrate on combating human trafficking, instead of on prohibiting consensual acts between adults. The committee also noted that most municipalities in Vermont do not have ordinances banning prostitution and that repealing the language would bring Montpelier in line with the rest of the state. Though bills proposing to decriminalize prostitution were introduced during the past two legislative sessions, they did not advance and prostitution remains criminalized at the state level.

The Montpelier City Council held two public hearings on the proposal to repeal the ordinance before unanimously voting in favor of striking it. Both hearings were well attended and individuals in favor of and against repealing the ordinance testified passionately. Members of The Ishtar Collective, Vermont’s only organization run by and for sex workers and survivors of exploitation or trafficking, asked the City Council and their neighbors to recognize them as equals deserving of dignity. They said the immensely dehumanizing language of the ordinance, which did nothing to support the health and wellbeing of residents, perpetuated stigma around sex work, and made them feel unwelcome in the place they call home. Henri Bynx, co-founder of The Ishtar Collective, reminded council members and others in attendance that sex workers are vital and integral members of the community.

Opponents of the repeal were mostly from out of state. Morally opposed to consensual adult sex work, they urged the council to keep or replace the ordinance with even more punitive language. Their attempts at fear mongering — and admonishments that repealing the ordinance would lead to individuals having sex in public and an increase in trafficking, particularly of minors — perpetuated dangerous and misguided tropes around sex work. Dr. Stephany Powell, with the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, said, “You are inviting more crime into your area, and you are also allowing the ability of sex workers to roam freely in your community. … I’m telling you: you don’t want that.” J. Leigh Oshiro-Brantly, a sex worker who co-founded The Ishtar Collective with Bynx, responded to Powell’s derogatory remarks during their statement. “We’re already ‘roaming’ and that … metaphor of roaming like cattle is really part of that dehumanizing language. This is the stigma we’re talking about,” Oshiro-Brantly said. “I’ve heard things (tonight) like ‘demeaning,’ ‘immoral,’ ‘just plain wrong.’ All of these things are moral judgments that no person has a right to make for any other person’s life.”

Just prior to their vote, council members, including Mayor Anne Watson, reminded everyone in attendance that they are committed to ending exploitation and trafficking in all labor sectors. They then voted unanimously to repeal the discriminatory language, affirming that sex workers are deserving of their dignity, humanity, and bodily autonomy.

Operation Cross Country: The FBI’s Annual Anti-Trafficking Performance

August 15, 2022 The FBI announced that Operation Cross Country, which it organizes annually to focus on “identifying and locating victims of sex trafficking and investigating and arresting individuals and criminal enterprises involved in both child sex...

Montpelier, VT Repeals Prostitution Ordinance

August 24, 2022 Montpelier has become the second city in Vermont to repeal its antiquated prostitution ordinance in the past year. Last summer, the Burlington City Council voted to repeal that city’s prostitution ordinance and voters subsequently...

Possessing Condoms Shouldn’t Be a Crime

August 17, 2022 Criminalization and policing practices greatly impede sex workers’ ability to protect themselves and their clients from the transmission of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs). These practices negatively impact individuals working of their own volition and...

DSW Staff Attend Key Conferences Around the World

August 12, 2022 It was a busy and productive summer for DSW staff as they traveled to multiple influential conferences to discuss the critical need to decriminalize consensual adult sex work. Staff had the opportunity to participate...

DSW Newsletter Archive

Possessing Condoms Shouldn’t Be a Crime

Criminalization and policing practices greatly impede sex workers’ ability to protect themselves and their clients from the transmission of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs). These practices negatively impact individuals working of their own volition and those who are being trafficked. The possession of condoms is often used by law enforcement as evidence that an individual has the intent to engage in or has engaged in prostitution. According to the ACLU, “Research indicates that certain police practices related to enforcement of sex work criminalization may put sex workers and their clients at greater health risk. Interviews with sex workers in Sacramento Valley, California, revealed that the threat and incidence of detention increased if sex workers had condoms in their possession.” No one should have to choose between carrying condoms and arrest; however, the practice of using condoms as evidence to charge an individual with prostitution forces many sex workers to make this impossible choice.

Police regularly cite condom possession as probable cause for the detention or arrest of individuals they suspect are engaged in sex work. They may also confiscate or destroy condoms either because they hope to disssuade someone from engaging in sex work or as a form of harassment. Sex workers in a New York City study reported that police took their condoms, even outside the context of arrests. A number of these workers stated they carry fewer condoms due to their fear of harrassment and arrest, though many shared that this did not deter them from exercising their human right to practice safe sex.

Where sex work is criminalized, sex workers have less agency and are more likely to engage in risky behaviors such as having unprotected sex. Numerous public health agencies, including the World Health Organization, UNAIDS, and the Global Commission on HIV and the Law, support the decriminalization of sex work as an essential step in the global fight against HIV, AIDS, and other STIs. Research shows the decriminalization of sex work would reduce HIV transmissions by 33 to 46% worldwide. Until decriminalization can be achieved, incremental measures such as laws prohibiting the use of condoms as evidence, will greatly improve health outcomes for sex workers and communities as a whole. Some states, including California, have passed laws that prohibit law enforcement from using condoms as evidence, but the practice persists around the country.

Numerous research articles and reports issued by public health and human rights organizations recommend that municipalities adopt the below recommendations to combat police harassment and abuse of sex workers and to promote safe sex through the use of condoms:

* Lawmakers should pass legislation decriminalizing consensual adult sex work.

* Pending the decriminalization of sex work, national and/or local lawmakers should pass legislation that prohibits condoms from being used by police or prosecutors as evidence of prostitution. Corresponding guidelines should be issued to judges instructing them to deem condom possession inadmissible as evidence of a person’s engagement in or intention to engage in sex work.

* Law enforcement officials should instruct officers not to confiscate condoms from sex workers or anyone else, and they should discipline violators of this policy.

* Health officials should work with police and other relevant agencies to train police officers and to ensure that law enforcement policies do not interfere with internationally recognized best practices to stop the spread of STIs including HIV.

* Police officers who rape or assault sex workers in any manner and who abuse their power by sexually exploiting or extorting sex workers should be prosecuted.

Operation Cross Country: The FBI’s Annual Anti-Trafficking Performance

Montpelier, VT Repeals Prostitution Ordinance

Possessing Condoms Shouldn’t Be a Crime

DSW Staff Attend Key Conferences Around the World

DSW Newsletter Archive

Operation Cross Country: The FBI’s Annual Anti-Trafficking Performance

The FBI announced that Operation Cross Country, which it organizes annually to focus on “identifying and locating victims of sex trafficking and investigating and arresting individuals and criminal enterprises involved in both child sex and human trafficking,” was a profound success though an examination beyond the headlines finds the operation missed its mark. The FBI reported that the operation, which took place during the first two weeks of August, found 37 missing minors, identified “more than 200 victims,” and led to the “identification or arrest” of 85 suspects; however, they also stated that “the result was three arrests: one of an unregistered sex offender (which will become a federal case) and two state arrests.” The lack of details regarding what the operation actually entails, the circumstances of the victims, and the charges faced by the majority of those arrested mirrors past years’ announcements.

It is hard to disagree with the operation’s stated objectives, which are to assist victims and bring abusers to justice, but it appears that this is yet another example of law enforcement boasting that it has arrested numerous traffickers when the details do not support that claim. Law-enforcement agencies routinely announce that they have “busted a human trafficking ring” and “rescued sex slaves,” catchphrases that the media is quick to print as headlines. A cursory glance of the subsequent article or details of the arrests often reveals that those arrested were consensual adult sex workers and their clients, for prostitution or soliciting prostitution, and for petty offenses such as driving without a license or drug possession. Victims may not have been trafficked or exploited and may have been victimized in another sense.

Very few people are actually charged with “sex trafficking” during law enforcement “sting operations” aimed at combatting this offense. Arrests of adults engaged in consensual sex work reported in conjunction with data related to human trafficking grossly inflate the perceived rate of sex trafficking, denying resources to the vast majority of victims who are trafficked into other industries. Eighty percent of trafficking victims worldwide are exploited into service, agriculture, and other labor sectors outside of sex work, yet advocates have noted that when labor trafficking cases are reported to U.S. law enforcement, they often fail to investigate or prosecute. Nearly 90% of the federal government’s $24 million “trafficking prevention” budget was used to arrest consensual adult sex workers rather than to detect traffickers or assist victims. In 2020, prostitution-related offenses outnumbered those related to trafficking in the sex trade 38 to 1.

The hyper emphasis on “sex trafficking” by law enforcement and the public leads to misdirected resources and the arrest and stigmatization of consensual adult sex workers. Ironically, these arrests, among other law-enforcement practices, make it harder for actual victims of trafficking to seek services.

Elizabeth Nolan Brown exposed Operation Cross Country’s flaws and the harmful ramifications of inflating sex trafficking statistics in this piece, printed in Reason magazine in 2017.

Operation Cross Country: The FBI’s Annual Anti-Trafficking Performance

Montpelier, VT Repeals Prostitution Ordinance

Possessing Condoms Shouldn’t Be a Crime

DSW Staff Attend Key Conferences Around the World

DSW Newsletter Archive

DSW Staff Attend Key Conferences Around the World

It was a busy and productive summer for DSW staff as they traveled to multiple influential conferences to discuss the critical need to decriminalize consensual adult sex work. Staff had the opportunity to participate in panel discussions, to present their work, and to engage with legislators and academics among others.

Staff Attorney Becca Cleary and Communications Director Ariela Moscowitz traveled to Denver, CO, for the Annual Legislative Summit of the National Conference of State Legislatures. They met with numerous legislators from around the country to discuss decriminalization and incremental measures states can take to improve the health and safety of sex workers and the community and to combat trafficking. These incremental measures include immunity laws that would allow individuals to seek medical attention and report crimes without fear of their own arrest and study commissions focused on evaluating prostitution laws, addressing trafficking concerns, and identifying better ways to create support systems for both sex workers and trafficked people.

Legal Director Melissa Broudo, Research and Project Manager J. Leigh Oshiro-Brantly, and Cleary took part in the Woodhull Freedom Foundation’s Sexual Freedom Summit. Broudo moderated “Lawyering for Sex Workers,” which focused on the legal issues surrounding sex work, human trafficking, sexual freedom, and human rights. She also joined Oshiro-Brantly to present “The Role of Inclusive Sexual Education in Promoting Human Rights and Trafficking Prevention.” DSW volunteer attorney Allison Kolins moderated while Broudo and Oshiro-Brantly discussed the findings of their paper published in the 2021 edition of the Charleston Law Review. The paper examined sex negativity and gendered, homophobic, and transphobic ideas, particularly in the context of school and community based learning, as contributing factors to exploitation risk on a continuum of sexual abuse, including trafficking, throughout an individual’s life course. Cleary shared her presentation, “Strategies to Advance the Human Rights of Sex Workers,” which focused on much-needed policy reforms.

Crystal DeBoise, director of strategic partnerships, Political Director Rob Kampia, and Oshiro-Brantly attended the Global Meeting of the Law and Society Association in Lisbon, Portugal. This year’s theme “Rage, Reckoning, and Remedy” highlighted issues of race and colonialism and the extent to which historical legacies impact current realities. Oshiro-Brantly presented their paper, “Continuum of Exploitation: The Role of Inclusive Sexual Health Education in Preventing Human Trafficking of Minors” as part of the “Vulnerable Gender: Protection Against Legal Inequality, Social Exclusion, and Sexual Exploitation” track. DeBoise presented on decriminizalizing sex work with a panel of international experts.

Operation Cross Country: The FBI’s Annual Anti-Trafficking Performance

Montpelier, VT Repeals Prostitution Ordinance

Possessing Condoms Shouldn’t Be a Crime

DSW Staff Attend Key Conferences Around the World

DSW Newsletter Archive

Disability Pride Month

Although not yet officially recognized by the U.S., cities across the country and countries around the world celebrate Disability Pride in July. July was chosen because the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed on July 26, 1990. The ADA prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities, including in employment, transportation, public accommodations, communications, and in relation to access to state and local government services.

Disability Pride Month is commemorated to shed light on the inherent dignity and worth of individuals with disabilities and their important contributions to society, while also recognizing the challenges and barriers they face. It is an opportunity to promote their visibility, to honor their inalienable human rights, and to recommit to fighting for disability rights. There is so much more work to be done to live in a truly inclusive world. Laken Brooks, a graduate student at the University of Florida, writer, and digital storyteller recently wrote, “Disability Pride is an event that celebrates people with disabilities. Now, some people may balk at that second word, pride. But Disability Pride is not about appropriating LGBTQIA+ Pride. In fact, the disabled and the LGBTQIA+ communities have long been intertwined and have long survived under similar systems of oppression. Disability Pride, much like LGBTQIA+ Pride, is all about celebrating and reclaiming our visibility in public because people with disabilities have historically been pushed out of public spaces.”

Sex workers also face exclusion from many communities and public spaces. Individuals may engage in sex work afer being pushed out of the traditional labor force due to discrimination, and sex work is sometimes the most viable form of employment for individuals with disabilities because of the autonomy that it offers. Decriminalizing sex work would allow those with disabilities engaging in the sex trade to work for themselves, according to their personal choices, without fear of arrest. Just as sex workers are experts on sexual consent, people with disabilities are experts on their own bodies and may face stereotypes around their sexual agency. While most people have the potential for sexual gratification, non-monetary sexual relationships can be inaccessible to or challenging for those with disabilities. Professional sex workers are experts in navigating consensual sexual relationships. A just and compassionate society would allow anyone — including those with disabilities — to make their own decisions regarding the consensual buying and selling of sexual services.

Click here for our briefing paper, Disability and Sex Work Decriminalization, along with a short video.

Former Sex Worker Prevails in Discrimination Lawsuit

July 9, 2022 Nicole Gilliland was awarded $1.7 million in damages after a jury found that she had in fact been discriminated against by Southwestern Oregon Community College (SWOCC) because of her past work in pornographic films....

Sex Workers’ Freedom Impacts Us All

June 24, 2022 DSW organized “To Brothel or Not To Brothel? Why the Freedom of Sex Workers Impacts Us All” at this year’s FreedomFest in Las Vegas. DSW’s communications director, Ariela Moscowitz, was joined by a senior...

Disability Pride Month

July 26, 2022 Although not yet officially recognized by the U.S., cities across the country and countries around the world celebrate Disability Pride in July. July was chosen because the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed on...

LinkedIn Profile Goes Viral After Woman Lists Sex Work as Professional Experience

July 14, 2022 Arielle Egozi, a branding and creative consultant, added her experience as a sex worker to her resume on LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional networking site. This addition did not go unnoticed and sparked debates...

DSW Newsletter Archive

LinkedIn Profile Goes Viral After Woman Lists Sex Work as Professional Experience

Arielle Egozi, a branding and creative consultant, added her experience as a sex worker to her resume on LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional networking site. This addition did not go unnoticed and sparked debates and news articles around the world. Egozi listed just a few simple words: “Sex Work, Self Employed, September 2020 - Present” in between other professional roles. The responses to this were mixed — some hailed her bravery and candor, some used her post as an opportunity to debate the “morality” of sex work, while others stated that they value the business and negotation skills a sex worker likely has and would find her experience to be an asset in almost any setting.

DSW applauds Egozi for taking this step to normalize sex work and to destigmatize it. Many individuals are unable to disclose their involvement in sex work due to fear of ostracization from their families or other communties and loss of other forms of income. Egozi’s post also serves to reiterate that sex workers are not a monolith, nor are they separate or different. Sex work is a form of work that all sorts of people choose to engage in for various reasons and their choice should not be criminalized or denigrated by others.

Here’s what Egozi had to say about the reaction to her post:

i left an in-house job with fancy benefits two weeks ago and the reason i could do that was sex work.

i had just enough saved from selling and engaging my image that i could ask myself if i was happy. i wasn’t.

yeah, the few grand i’d stashed up over time helped, but the biggest reason i could walk away is because sex work shows me what my power can do when i own it intentionally.

i charge exorbitant amounts.

i have no problem taking rejections from those that don’t want to pay it, because i charge what emotional labor is required right into the fee.

i set and hold boundaries, and engage only in ways that are safe, playful, and abundant for me. i don’t waste my time with anything less.

i stopped pitching and negotiating. i have nothing to prove. i’ve done the work up front to make my value evident.

why is this different than any other client work?

the answer i come to, again and again, is that it isn’t.

so it's now up on my linkedin.

because not only is my new standard for incoming creative clients that they be at least half as respectful, generous, and grateful as the John Does online —

but that anyone who i partner with celebrates and accepts every experience as one i will inevitably bring with me into a project.

they don’t have to understand it, but they better respect the hell out of it.

Former Sex Worker Prevails in Discrimination Lawsuit

Sex Workers’ Freedom Impacts Us All

Disability Pride Month

LinkedIn Profile Goes Viral After Woman Lists Sex Work as Professional Experience

DSW Newsletter Archive

Former Sex Worker Prevails in Discrimination Lawsuit

Nicole Gilliland was awarded $1.7 million in damages after a jury found that she had in fact been discriminated against by Southwestern Oregon Community College (SWOCC) because of her past work in pornographic films. Gililland filed suit against SWOCC, in Coos Bay, Oregon, for both breach of contract and for violating Title IX, which prohibits schools that receive federal funding from discriminating on the basis of sex. Though the judge in her case concurred that Gilliland had a Title IX claim based on some of the comments made to her by professors, the jury rejected it; however, they did find that SWOCC had breached its tuition contract with Gilliland by violating its discrimination and unlawful harassment policies, among others.

In December of 2021, U.S. Magistrate 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 Kasuubhai found that the evidence Gilliland presented to prove discrimination was directly connected to her work history. Judge Kasubhai 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” and deemed Gilliland unfit.

It began with a single professor. While Gilliland was recovering from illness, Professor Melissa Sperry gave Gilliland additional work that had not been assigned to other students. Three days later when Gilliland turned it in, Sperry refused to grade it. Later, Sperry lowered 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, causing her to fail, and alleged that Gilliland had plagiarized them. At a hearing on the plagiarism accusation, the head of the nursing program testified that Gilliland was an angry person and unsafe around her patients. Hospital staff immediately disputed those claims.

Gilliland was confused at first. She had been on the Dean’s List before beginning to fail her classes inexplicably and had received rave reviews from the nurse overseeing her practicum placement. Suddenly, it all clicked for her. Gilliland realized that her grades were low not because she was underperforming in school, but because of her history as an adult-film performer. It became clear to Gilliland that she wasn’t going to pass the semester.

Other students refused to speak to her on campus because they feared similar treatment from professors.

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 SWOCC.

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 is difficult to determine the exact demographics of people doing sex work, statistics tend to report that a majority are women. Sixty-six percent 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 Gililland’s lawsuit in a 2020 Vice interview.

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 regained custody of her children. After bouncing between a homeless shelter and a shed, 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 to fight back. 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.”

September 15, 2022

DSW Newsletter #40 (September 2022)

NEWS RELEASE | FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | PDF

Sex Worker Rights Organizations Challenge Constitutionality of Federal Law That Criminalizes Free Speech

September 1, 2022

DSW Newsletter #40 (September 2022)

August 24, 2022

A sign at the August 24 Montpelier City Council Meeting. Courtesy of The Ishtar Collective.

DSW Newsletter #39 (August 2022)

August 17, 2022

Designed by Rachel Schreiber. Courtesy of St. James Infirmary.

“They locked me up … because I had a condom. I wasn’t even prostituting. They took the condom.”

DSW Newsletter #39 (August 2022)

August 15, 2022

“Federal officials insist child sex trafficking is an American epidemic, with domestic victims numbering in the hundreds of thousands. None of the stings have yielded evidence of anything like a problem on that scale.”

— Elizabeth Nolan Brown, Reason, 2017

DSW Newsletter #39 (August 2022)

August 12, 2022

Rebecca Cleary and Ariela Moscowitz at the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Melissa Broudo, Becca Cleary, and DSW volunteer Allison Kolins at the Sexual Freedom Summit.

Crystal DeBoise, Rob Kampia, and J. Leigh Oshiro-Brantly in Lisbon for the Global Meeting on Law and Society.

J Leigh Oshiro-Brantly presenting at the Global Meeting on Law and Society.

DSW Newsletter #39 (August 2022)

July 26, 2022

The Disability Pride Flag.

DSW Newsletter #38 (July 2022)

July 14, 2022

Arielle Egozi (LinkedIn).

DSW Newsletter #38 (July 2022)

July 9, 2022

Nicole Gililland is pictured with her daughters. (WWeek, 2019)

DSW Newsletter #38 (July 2022)