trafficking Archives - Page 15 of 30 - Decriminalize Sex Work

A Constitutional Right to Sex Work

In a recent Boston Review article, theorist and associate professor at Yale University Joseph Fischel explores whether there is a constitutional right to sex work. He heads off naysayers by noting that, though it may sound absurd to some readers, given recent cultural and legislative shifts towards the recognition of sex worker rights, the idea that commerical sex might be protected under the constitutional right to an “erotic life free of state control” is not at all farfetched. Perhaps only about as far-fetched as the right to same-sex marriage was in 1972.

Some sex worker rights organizations have already challenged criminalization in lower courts, using Lawrence v. Texas (2003) to argue that the constitutional protections of same-sex sexual intercourse should extend to sex work as well. Fischel argues that the logic of this argument holds and that the courts’ track record of rejecting these claims stems not from logic, but from a culturally imbued prejudice that views sex workers either as moral degenerates, or trafficked victims. Ultimately, the advocacy and cultural change that led to the recognition of LGBTQ rights under the Constitution is no different.

In past constitutional challenges, lower courts have ruled that commercial sex extends beyond Lawrence’s jurisdiction. The characterization of the plaintiffs in Lawrence was as “two adults who, with full and mutual consent from each other, engaged in sexual practices common to a homosexual lifestyle.” Fischel notes that Justice Anthony Kennedy observed that you cannot create parameters around consensual sexual freedom so easily. If Lawrence’s liberty extends to a right to non-marital sex, so long as consent is fully present, why is sex work any different? Here, Fischel argues, textual interpretation is guided by “[j]udges’ stereotypes about prostitution on the one hand (nonintimate, emotionless, dangerous) and noncommercial sex on the other (intimate, enduring, consensual, non-abusive, marital), enable[ing] courts to hastily write off prostitution as outside the ambit of constitutionally protected sexual liberty.”

The article goes on to detail how lower courts have either addressed or evaded the question of whether sexual freedom includes commercial sex, noting just how closely some of these dismissals parallel previous judicial rejection of rights that have since been recognized.

The three main reasons courts have rejected the belief that sex work is protected under Lawrence are the parameters that (a) Lawrence only protects sexual intimacy, not sexual freedom (assuming sex work is not intimate), (b) Lawrence only covers private sexual activity (assuming sex work is not private), and (c) that governments have a valid and vested interest in prohibiting sex work that does not apply to same-sex sex. With adept legal and logical reasoning, Fischel easily makes the case that the first two points are spurious. Sex work can easily be intimate, and sex work is no more or less private than the myriad of other decisions we make about our bodies.

Lastly, the righteousness of sex work criminalization is blatantly false. Time and time again we have seen that the legal prohibition of sex work “makes [sex workers’] lives harder, more dangerous, more violent, and more precarious. When prostitution is criminalized, as in most of the US, sex workers are raped by johns, and by the police, with impunity”. Our disparate opinions of sex work and those who engage in same-sex sex, says Fischel, is a product of “a hierarchy of moral worth, a stratification of respectability that frames how we understand sexual rights and who we think are entitled to them.”

This begs the question: as we challenge this hierarchy, is the decriminalization of sex work inevitable? Fischel neglects to speculate. But “queers and sex workers—evidently, not discrete populations—share or ought to share a political project: to build a world in which sex practices, gender identities, and gender expressions are policed a whole lot less,” he says in conclusion. “The fight for sexual freedom should not be artificially cabined by sexual identity, whether on the streets, in statehouses, or in the courts.”

Read the entirety of the piece on the Boston Review website.

DSW Releases Groundbreaking Report on Sex Work and Human Trafficking in New York State

February 15, 2022 Decriminalize Sex Work (DSW) released a historic report which examines arrest and conviction data for prostitution and human trafficking-related offenses using legal, socio-political, and historical context. In “By the Numbers: New York’s Treatment of...

The EARN IT Act Threatens Free Speech and Sex Worker Rights

February 11, 2022 A dangerous bill was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee, reigniting a fiery debate around online sexual content regulation and freedom of speech. S3538 was introduced by Senator Lindsay Graham late last month. The...

A Constitutional Right to Sex Work

February 1, 2022 In a recent Boston Review article, theorist and associate professor at Yale University Joseph Fischel explores whether there is a constitutional right to sex work. He heads off naysayers by noting that, though it...

Victoria Becomes Australia’s Third State to Decriminalize Sex Work

February 10, 2022 After a multi-year effort to decriminalize consensual, adult sex work in Victoria, the Sex Work Decriminalisation Act 2021 passed the upper house by 24 votes to 10, clearing its final hurdle to becoming law....

Chilling Effects: Amnesty International reports on Ireland’s 2017 End Demand Law

January 24, 2022 Amnesty International released a report reviewing Part 4 of the Irish Criminal Law (Sexual Offenses) Act, enacted in 2017. The provision introduced amendments to the previous sexual offenses law, passed in 1993, criminalizing the...

Maya Angelou, Sex Worker and Hero

February 23, 2022 For many, Maya Angelou needs no introduction. Born Marguerite Annie Johnson in St. Louis, MO in 1928, Angelou became a household name in the 1970s, after publishing I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,...

DSW Newsletter Archive

Vermont Voters Support the Decriminalization of Sex Work

NEWS RELEASE | FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | PDF

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

Montpelier, VT (January 31, 2022) — A recent statewide survey shows Vermonters support the decriminalization of sex work by more than 13% compared to those that think sex work should remain a crime (46–33). 21% of those surveyed remain undecided. The poll found that Democrats are far more supportive (50–24) of decriminalization than Republicans (30–57). Individuals over the age of 65 are least in favor of reform, while those between the ages of 18 and 45 are most supportive of decriminalization followed by those between the ages of 46 and 65. These results closely reflect national trends.

Evidence supporting the numerous benefits of decriminalization continues to surface. Sex workers, academics, human-rights activists, and public-health experts are increasingly calling on legislators to consider the facts around decriminalization, which demonstrate increases in public health and safety and decreases in exploitation.

On January 14, 2022, Representatives Colburn of Burlington and Kornheiser of Brattleboro, along with eleven other legislators, introduced H.630, an act relating to voluntary engagement in sex work. The bill, citing research and evidence proving the many deleterious effects of criminalization, cultural changes in the century since laws prohibiting prostitution were enacted, and “Vermont’s commitment to personal and bodily autonomy” proposes to decriminalize consensual adult prostitution while reinforcing laws against human trafficking.

The survey also asked voters whether they would support decriminalizing the sale of sex, while keeping the purchase of sex illegal. Only 13% support this model of prohibiting prostitution, while 61% oppose it, and 26% are unsure. Bills proposing this “entrapment model” — also called the “Nordic model” or “equality model” — have been introduced in the New York, Massachusetts, and Maine state legislatures. Lawmakers market this legislation as a means of curtailing prostitution and combatting trafficking, while evidence shows it does neither. Countries that have implemented the entrapment model continue to see violence and exploitation perpetrated against sex workers.

Most individuals involved in selling and buying sex are consenting adults. Sex work is not inherently dangerous or exploitative, but criminalization puts sex workers at risk and creates conditions that allow for trafficking to proliferate. “The decriminalization of sex work has reduced exploitation where and when it has been implemented,” said J. Leigh Oshiro-Brantly, co-founder of The Ishtar Collective, Vermont’s only organization run by and for sex workers and survivors of trafficking and research and project manager at Decriminalize Sex Work. “Unambiguous data from around the world shows a clear correlation between laws like the equality or entrapment model and an increase in violence and exploitation within the sex trade,” they continued.

The decriminalization of consensual adult sex work, a critical component of criminal legal-justice reform, has gained considerable traction amid a nationwide reckoning with the dangers of over-policing, a ballooning prison population, and cries for immediate changes to the criminal justice system.

The poll, which surveyed 616 registered voters in Vermont, was conducted by Public Policy Polling on January 17 and 18, 2022.

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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.

Chilling Effects: Amnesty International reports on Ireland’s 2017 End Demand Law

Amnesty International released a report reviewing Part 4 of the Irish Criminal Law (Sexual Offenses) Act, enacted in 2017. The provision introduced amendments to the previous sexual offenses law, passed in 1993, criminalizing the purchase of sex, living on the earnings of prostitution, and brothel-keeping, significantly increasing the penalties for the latter. Through interviews with 30 different Irish sex workers, and 13 civil service representatives, academics, and practicing medical doctors, Amnesty’s report examines the repercussions of the criminalization of sex work in Ireland, even after the sale of sex has been nominally decriminalized.

The report finds that sex workers in Ireland still fear for their safety due to the indirect criminalization of activities associated with sex work, stigmatization, and a lack of access to critical resources such as housing. Amnesty has determined that the conditions of sex workers under the 2017 law violate the Istanbul Convention, which Ireland joined in 2019. The convention requires member states to “effectively protect everyone’s, in particular women’s, right to be free from violence without discrimination, through, among other things, ‘abolishing laws and practices which discriminate against women.’” Amnesty’s research demonstrates that Ireland’s law criminalizing the purchase of sex, and increasing penalties for brothel-keeping and living off the earnings of sex work, has severely compromised the safety of sex workers, particularly for those with intersecting vulnerabilities including race, gender, drug use, homelessness, and migrant status.

Ireland’s law follows the increasingly popular, but misguided belief that decriminalizing the sale but not the purchase of commercial sex and thus seemingly “targeting buyers” will “end demand” for commerical sex, putting an end to sex work. Proponents of this model, often called “End Demand,” the “Nordic/Swedish Model,” the “Equality Model” or the “Entrapment Model,” claim that the same health and safety benefits that are realized under the full decriminalization of sex work can be achieved while maintaining criminal penalties for buyers, though this is untrue.

As has been observed in Sweden, Norway, Canada, and other countries where this model has been implemented, Amnesty’s report demonstrates the harms of “End Demand.” Under this policy, Irish sex workers are still subject to violence and discrimination when seeking resources. They see the Irish police force, the An Garda Síochána, as a threat rather than a resource, even though they are not technically committing a crime. The criminalization of prostitution-related crimes like brothel-keeping has a “chilling effect”¹ on sex workers’ ability to exercise their human rights and operate safely, as sex workers still fear arrest if they work together, though this is one of the main ways to protect their safety. Sex workers routinely reported that they had been forced to engage in riskier practices since the law passed and 23 out of 30 interviewees had experienced multiple forms of violence. Interviewees’ experiences included physical attacks and threats; sexual assault, including rape; robberies; stalking; verbal abuse and harassment, including online.

Sex workers also face extreme challenges in acquiring and maintaining housing. According to a 2021 report by the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, concerns about the lack of available and affordable housing, including social and emergency housing in Ireland have been growing in recent years. Provisions criminalizing “living off the earnings of prostitution” allow landlords to be fined and prosecuted for renting to sex workers. Given the scarcity of housing, this dynamic contributes to increasingly stringent and dangerous living conditions for many sex workers.

These risks are not distributed equally. Sex workers face intense stigma, combined with an adversarial relationship with the Gardai, leading to impunity for anyone who might wish to harm them. Interviewees routinely cited deeply entrenched negative and patriarchal societal attitudes and prejudice directed at sex workers. These attitudes were intensified by intersecting forms of discrimination based on race, gender and gender identity, socio-economic circumstances, migration status, and/or drug use.

Sex workers and service providers agreed that decriminalization is necessary to protect the safety and health of Ireland’s sex workers, particularly those with intersecting vulnerabilities. The report highlights that people engage in sex work for many different reasons, under a variety of circumstances. Many are either receiving government aid or working in other sectors and turn to sex work to supplement their income and support their families. For migrants, transgender individuals, or others who might face discrimination in other labor sectors, sex work might be one of their only viable work options. Decriminalization is the only legal model that has been shown to reduce rates of violence against women, instances of STIs, exploitation in the sex trade, and increase access to critical resources, all of which Ireland’s current model has failed to do.

“Equality Model” bills have been proposed in various states across the United States in the 2022 legislative session, including Hawaii, New York, and Massachusetts. Though these laws may seem well-intentioned, they do not benefit sex workers and make sex work dangerous. For the sake of those who are the most vulnerable to violence and abuse, we must adopt decriminalization and make laws based on evidence rather than ideology.

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1 For the purposes of international human rights law, a “chilling effect” is defined as “the negative effect any state action has on natural and/or legal persons, and which results in preemptively dissuading them from exercising their rights or fulfilling their professional obligations, for fear of being subject to formal state proceedings which could lead to sanctions or informal consequences such as threats, attacks or smear campaigns.”

DSW Releases Groundbreaking Report on Sex Work and Human Trafficking in New York State

The EARN IT Act Threatens Free Speech and Sex Worker Rights

A Constitutional Right to Sex Work

Victoria Becomes Australia’s Third State to Decriminalize Sex Work

Chilling Effects: Amnesty International reports on Ireland’s 2017 End Demand Law

Maya Angelou, Sex Worker and Hero

DSW Newsletter Archive

January Is Human Trafficking Awareness Month

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.

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

State Bills to Watch in 2022

January 1, 2022 Bills to decriminalize sex work are being considered in New York (S3075/A849), Massachusetts (H1867), Vermont (H630), and Missouri (H2388). Several other pieces of legislation to improve the health, safety, and human rights of sex...

January Is Human Trafficking Awareness Month

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...

Federal Courts Rule, Title IX Protects Sex Workers from Discrimination

December 3, 2021 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...

2022 Bills That Endanger Sex Workers

January 1, 2022 Although legislators are increasingly recognizing the harms of criminalizing sex work, as this year’s legislative session opens, lawmakers continue to propose bills that endanger the rights, health, and safety of sex workers across the...

NY District Attorney Bragg Includes Landmark Sex Work Reform in Policy Statement

January 3, 2022 Newly elected Manhattan District Attorney (DA) Alvin Bragg, the first African American to be elected DA in New York City, knows that limiting incarceration to a last resort, one reserved for violent crime, will...

The Legacy of Gilgo Beach: Protect Sex Workers

December 13, 2021 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...

DSW Newsletter Archive

NY District Attorney Bragg Includes Landmark Sex Work Reform in Policy Statement

Newly elected Manhattan District Attorney (DA) Alvin Bragg, the first African American to be elected DA in New York City, knows that limiting incarceration to a last resort, one reserved for violent crime, will make our communities safer. Bragg’s recently released policy statement, which lays out the goals and guiding principles for his tenure as district attorney included Prostitution (PL § 230.00) among the charges that the office will no longer prosecute. In a historic move, Bragg has also stipulated that supervisory approval will be required to prosecute Patronizing a Person for Prostitution (PL § 230.04), so long as no signs of coercive practices or money laundering are present.

Bragg’s initiatives center on data-driven policies that have been proven to increase safety and equity as well as his own experiences growing up in a New York plagued by racism and inequality. Decades of research have shown that decriminalizing consensual adult sex work increases public health outcomes by allowing sex workers to access adequate healthcare and other critical resources and also increasing worker agency to engage in safe workplace practices. Decriminalization also hinders trafficking and other violent crime in the sex trade as workers and clients are able to report crimes committed against them, and others to law enforcement without fear of arrest. Soon, we may have the opportunity to see this playing out across New York City.

Over the last decade, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office has taken critical steps to recognize sex worker rights. Just last April, former DA Cyrus Vance announced that his office would no longer prosecute prostitution or unlicensed massage, a statute used largely to arrest East Asian immigrants working in the massage business. New York county was also the first to stop prosecuting Loitering for the Purposes of Engaging in Prostitution (PL 240.37) due to its vague and discriminatory nature, used overwhelmingly to profile and harass transgender women of color. The statute was repealed last year.

This most recent announcement is by far the most groundbreaking reform on this issue. Too often law and policymakers conflate prostitution and human trafficking with commercial sex. Policies and rhetoric treat sex workers as victims and their clients as exploitative criminals, ignoring the fact that trying to “save” sex workers by criminalizing their livelihoods only makes their work more dangerous. DSW is grateful that DA Bragg is acknowledging the difference between sex work and human trafficking and making a concerted effort to combat exploitation while increasing the safety and health of our communities. We can only hope that New York County will provide a roadmap for other jurisdictions to follow suit.

State Bills to Watch in 2022

January Is Human Trafficking Awareness Month

Federal Courts Rule, Title IX Protects Sex Workers from Discrimination

2022 Bills That Endanger Sex Workers

NY District Attorney Bragg Includes Landmark Sex Work Reform in Policy Statement

The Legacy of Gilgo Beach: Protect Sex Workers

DSW Newsletter Archive

2022 Bills That Endanger Sex Workers

Although legislators are increasingly recognizing the harms of criminalizing sex work, as this year’s legislative session opens, lawmakers continue to propose bills that endanger the rights, health, and safety of sex workers across the country. These laws increase criminal penalties, present new criminal categories around commercial sex, increase surveillance, or propose to decriminalize the sale, but not the purchase of sex work. Below is an explanation of several pieces of legislation which, if passed, would have a significant impact on sex workers’ ability to survive.

There are currently three different state bills that propose to decriminalize the sale of sex but maintain penalties for purchasing sexual services. S940/H1761 in Massachusetts, S6040/A7069 in New York, and S771 in Rhode Island propose this model known as the “Entrapment Model,” the “End Demand Model,” or the “Swedish Model” of criminalization. The bill introduced in Rhode Island is slightly different in that it does not remove all criminal penalties from prostitution but rather makes it a civil offense with fines attached.¹ This mode of criminalization promotes the belief that sex work is inherently exploitative, painting all sex workers as victims and all clients and third parties as abusers. Not only is this a false and dangerous assumption, but the policy is ineffective. By focusing on demand, the model aims to abolish commercial sex altogether. While it may seem appealing to those who object to prostitution, in reality, the entrapment model does nothing to impact demand. Where and when it has been implemented, sex workers experience an increased risk of violence and assault and heightened stigmatization and unease.

In Wisconsin, SB836 is a bill proposed to regulate adult-entertainment establishments. In effect, the bill prevents trafficking survivors and sex workers from working at or owning such establishments by prohibiting people who have been convicted of certain offenses (including prostitution-related crimes) from owning or working at strip clubs. The bill also prohibits adult-entertainment establishments from having employees who have been the victim of certain trafficking offenses. It requires establishments to post a human trafficking poster created by the Department of Justice in a prominent location for employees to view. The bill also mandates that these businesses furnish a list of their employees, operators, and owners to local law enforcement officials upon request. This law not only violates the privacy of employees but it infringes upon the rights of survivors of trafficking and sex workers and their ability to earn a living.

AB139/SB26 was also proposed in Wisconsin. The bill is a penalty increase for individuals convicted of patronizing or soliciting a prostitute, pandering, or keeping a place of prostitution. Under the proposed law, a $5,000 surcharge would be imposed to be used for treatment and services for sex-trafficking victims and for investigative operations relating to internet crimes against children. Most state crime fees in Wisconsin are $67 per count for misdemeanors and $92 per count for felonies. While the creation of resources for survivors of sexual exploitation seems positive, the method of collecting these funds creates complications. The bill imposes a disproportionately high charge on misdemeanor crimes which would have a deleterious impact on the lives of indigent offenders, putting many in debt to the court system. It is also clear from the language of the bill that it conflates consensual adult sex work and human trafficking, meaning that many of the funds created to service the needs of human trafficking survivors might in reality be used to create mandatory programming for sex workers who have been convicted of prostitution. This not only wastes resources, but the criminalization of poverty in the United States perpetuates cycles of criminalization and victimization.

Another bill that increases penalties for crimes related to commercial sex was introduced in Florida. HB521/S760 provides criminal penalties for receiving value from human trafficking, using labor or services, or commercial sexual activity of an adult. The law also prohibits facilitating or enabling prostitution, lewdness, or facilitating or enabling any person to remain in a location for such purposes and increases criminal penalties for specified prohibited acts relating to prostitution, lewdness, or assignation. While on its face, the legislation is an anti-trafficking bill, in reality, its motives are prohibitionist. The law aims to discourage prostitution by increasing the criminal penalties for many common third-party activities used by sex workers to make their work safer, thus putting them at risk.

Many of these bills are proposed with the intention of helping survivors of human trafficking escape exploitation and rebuild their lives. However, because of the deep-rooted conflation between human trafficking in commercial sex and consensual adult sex work, these laws create unintended harm for both sex workers and survivors. If you are a resident of any of these states and want to protect the rights of sex workers and related communities, please reach out to your representative and ask them to oppose these bills.

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1 One positive attribute of the Rhode Island bill is that it repeals the authority to detain a defendant in the event they test positive for venereal disease.

State Bills to Watch in 2022

January Is Human Trafficking Awareness Month

Federal Courts Rule, Title IX Protects Sex Workers from Discrimination

2022 Bills That Endanger Sex Workers

NY District Attorney Bragg Includes Landmark Sex Work Reform in Policy Statement

The Legacy of Gilgo Beach: Protect Sex Workers

DSW Newsletter Archive

State Bills to Watch in 2022

Bills to decriminalize sex work are being considered in New York (S3075/A849), Massachusetts (H1867), Vermont (H630), and Missouri (H2388). Several other pieces of legislation to improve the health, safety, and human rights of sex workers and related communities have been introduced around the country.

Massachusetts also saw the introduction of S947, proposed by Senator Sonia Chang-Diaz. The bill would support survivors of trafficking and abuse by increasing eligibility for expungement and the sealing of records. If passed, survivors would be eligible for expungement for all crimes they were compelled to commit as a result of their exploitation. This bill is similar to the Survivors of Trafficking Attaining Relief Together (START) Act, enacted in New York last year. The New Jersey Senate also recently passed S3433 which would similarly provide a process to vacate and expunge the convictions of human trafficking survivors. The governor signed the bill into law this month.

New York and Rhode Island have both proposed Good Samaritan Bills [also known as immunity]. These laws are critical to the health and safety of sex workers and broader communities. Because of criminalization, sex workers often do not report crimes committed against them for fear of arrest and prosecution. Good Samaritan laws, as proposed, provide limited immunity from prosecution for individuals engaged in prostitution who are victims of or witnesses to a crime, allowing them to come forward without risking prosecution.

Rhode Island has two other important bills that have been introduced this session to protect sex workers’ rights. The first, H6049/S249, criminalizes custodial sexual assault of defendants in the custody of a peace officer. An offense under this law would be subject to imprisonment for up to three years. There is a pattern of sexual abuse of sex workers at the hands of law enforcement across the United States. Vice divisions have used criminalization to coerce sexual favors from sex workers. A 2019 Johns Hopkins University study also found that abusive police interactions with sex workers increase the likelihood of violence at the hands of clients. These findings are reflective of the general stigmatization directed at sex workers, encouraging tacit acceptance, and sometimes even perpetuation, of violence against them by law enforcement.

H5464, also introduced in Rhode Island, would establish non-discrimination standards for healthcare providers in the state. The bill mandates that any patient seeking services “shall not be denied appropriate care on the basis of age, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, marital status, familial status, disability, religion, national origin, source of income, source of payment, or profession.” Sex workers are commonly subjected to discrimination and stigma when seeking healthcare which results in inadequate care and nondisclosure. Discrimination may stop sex workers from seeking services at all. If passed, this bill will create important protections for sex workers and other marginalized communities when accessing life-saving care.

In New York, A8281 was recently introduced in the State Assembly to remove unauthorized or unlicensed practice of massage therapy, and aiding or abetting unauthorized or unlicensed practice of massage therapy, from the criminal statute of unauthorized practice. This legislation is intended to put an end to the routine harassment and abuse of the largely immigrant population working in massage parlors in certain counties by NYPD’s vice division. Vice routinely conducts stings at massage parlors in certain neighborhoods under the guise of “rescuing” women from trafficking rings. Undercover officers request sex acts at the end of an appointment. If the masseuse agrees, they are arrested for prostitution, and if they say no, the officer can still charge them with unlicensed massage under the Unauthorized Practice of a Profession statute (ED 6512). Immigrant women of Asian descent have been disproportionately targeted for these arrests. Between 2015 and 2019, 93.3% of unlicensed practice of a profession arrests were of Asian-identified individuals, increasing by 2700%. 91 percent of the 2016 cases were against non-citizens.

The Gender Identity Respect, Dignity, and Safety Act (S6677/A7001), also introduced in New York, would amend the state’s corrections law. The bill “requires that incarcerated people in state and local correctional facilities who have a gender identity different from the person's assigned sex at birth be addressed and have access to commissary items, clothing, and other materials that are consistent with the person's gender identity.” It also mandates that individuals be placed in correctional facilities with people of the gender that they most closely align with, with the freedom to change their placement. This bill creates essential protections for transgender, non-conforming, and non-binary (TGNC/NB) community members. When TGNC/NB are placed in the wrong prison or jail, many are subjected to violence, harassment, psychological distress, or blocked from medical care.

DSW will continue monitoring and reporting on bills, such as these, which are important to the rights of sex workers and related communities. We urge readers who are residents of states with active legislation to reach out to their representatives and ask them to support these bills.

Visit https://decriminalizesex.work/advocacy/take-action-your-state/ to send letters in support of decriminalization to your legislators.

State Bills to Watch in 2022

January Is Human Trafficking Awareness Month

Federal Courts Rule, Title IX Protects Sex Workers from Discrimination

2022 Bills That Endanger Sex Workers

NY District Attorney Bragg Includes Landmark Sex Work Reform in Policy Statement

The Legacy of Gilgo Beach: Protect Sex Workers

DSW Newsletter Archive

Hero of the Month: Joaquin Remora

After more than a decade of commitment to harm reduction in transgender, sex worker, and housing rights spaces, Joaquin Remora has never lost his sense of curiosity about his community. “I understood very early … that these dynamics, people living on the streets, are entirely misunderstood. To do this work I needed to have curiosity rather than an opinion. Like, hey, what’s your story? What do you need?” Now the Director of Our Trans Home SF, a coalition of organizations addressing housing instability for Transgender, Gender Variant, and Intersex (TGI) people in the Bay Area, Remora has channeled his open-minded, dynamic nature into building the city’s first transitional housing program for homeless Transgender and Gender-Nonconforming (TGNC) adults.

Remora initially moved to San Francisco from Vancouver, Canada, looking for a community in which he would feel comfortable transitioning. He joined St. James Infirmary, the first occupational health and safety organization for sex workers in the country, and a parent organization of Our Trans Home, as a participant. Remora’s care for his community and expertise was quickly recognized and he was asked to join St. James’s board of directors. Our Trans Home was founded in January of 2020 and Remora began to volunteer. When it became apparent that the program needed strong trans leadership to succeed, he stepped in as director.

Navigating enormous obstacles, of which COVID-19 has only been one, Our Trans Home has flourished with the support of Remora and other transgender leaders, now serving about 150 participants. But this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to need. Remora had previously worked at a housing navigation center, gaining expertise on the risks and challenges posed by housing programs, particularly for TGI community members. The San Francisco shelter system is built on a temporary housing model, ill-equipped to provide any kind of long-term resources to the communities they serve. Many unhoused trans folks end up leaving the system because they don’t feel safe. Funding, says Remora, is the biggest challenge.

Born on the western peninsula of Mexico, Remora was raised near Vancouver, BC. He was drawn to the richness and diversity of the culture in San Francisco, something that he felt was missing in Vancouver. Remora describes growing up “in a very specific way that made the bigger picture very clear. Whereas maybe if I had been raised in a more progressive home or my parents had been liberals, or if I wasn’t mixed-race, maybe anything like this would have not made everything stand out so stark[ly] to me.” He also points to the different cultural cues he received from his father’s spiritual indigenous family and his mother’s more material white one providing a great deal of insight about his own journey: “Understanding the systems and the way they impact people emotionally and spiritually, and seeing that you can have a lot of very dysfunctional behaviors due to the trauma that you deal with. But you can be more in touch with your humanity that way [than] someone who is aligned with the system and has access to more resources and yet there is so much more suffering and detachment.”

While living in Vancouver, Remora began doing harm reduction with the unhoused population there. He was also working at the BC Compassion Club Society, the oldest and largest medical cannabis dispensary in Canada which is completely consensus-based and run by indigenous women. Vancouver is also home to North America’s first safe injection and needle exchange facility and a lot of harm reduction policy innovations. After working as a service provider for so long, Remora took an enormous risk, moving to San Francisco without documentation, money, or permission to work legally. He was dealing with his own substance use and beginning to transition and relied a lot on St. James for resources and community until his life stabilized and he once again became a provider.

In part because of his full-circle perspective, Remora doesn't identify as an activist, but rather an advocate or a friend to community and sex workers. While his advocacy has blossomed into a career, for Remora that was never the point. “I don't want to identify the work as separate from my own path. … For me, this is just how life should be. These things are a part of my story and therefore this is just what comes with showing up to that story and telling [it] so that things can improve for anyone in that situation. I want to normalize it.”

Remora sees relationship-building as central to his work: getting to know people, understanding their unique stories, struggles, and trauma, and helping them achieve their goals with appropriate support. It’s far from perfect, but seeing people build up their self-esteem and become more and more themselves every day, simply by having access to basic resources is incredibly rewarding to him. “There is so much gratitude,” Remora says. “I don’t ask for any gratitude because housing is a human right. But … when you go from having nothing to feeling like a normal part of the world, that is a really generous place of gratitude.”

Reflecting on the most significant challenges he has faced, Remora pauses. “There is still so much that society at large doesn’t understand about trans people — the city doesn’t understand that they are not going to stay in their resources because it’s not safe for them.” Remora says he too is learning every day, about transmisogyny and other invisibilized forms of violence. When asked if he ever feels like he’s trying to put a band-aid on a bullet hole, Remora laughs. “Definitely. But I’m lucky that I have some really radical mentors that are like, ‘We can’t really put too much weight on this because it’s kind of shoveling water.’”

Remora also reframes the work — away from solving the problems themselves, and towards setting up systems and solutions that allow people with lived experience to lead. “There are little ways in which I’m not looking at this as a solution. I’m just saying let’s just put those problems in the right hands, more than anything.” He feels fortunate to have strong mentors who are uncompromising in their dedication to taking action based on consensus and setting up strong boundaries.

Looking forward, Remora hopes that the success of Our Trans Home will be a jumping-off point for other programming. He is optimistic that the city will agree to help fund a navigation center for a specifically trans and TGNC shelter system focused on serving people of color. He also hopes to budget for trans and TGNC staff, who already donate so much of their time to this work. Again the need is enormous: they need services for people living on the street who aren't yet ready to transition to permanent housing, better mental health services, access to healthcare, and employment development. “Right now we just need to demonstrate to funders how well our program is working and how much more it needs to grow to make a difference in the larger population.” He also hopes that the organization can develop direct referrals for asylum seekers and programs supporting migrant sex workers in order to get trans people out of detention centers faster, referencing a detention center in New Mexico with 60 trans women from Central America seeking asylum.

Remora is forever staying attuned to how the movement can heal its own trauma, build solidarity, and take collective action to challenge systemic violence. “It requires everyone to do a lot of healing and self-exploration, deprogramming from the things that keep us separate, and being curious about each other’s cultures. Because that’s what’s going to help us be stronger together.” He sees what they are up against as rooted in centuries-old systems of oppression. “To look at another person and say ‘you’re not human,’ that comes from a very injured place. Transphobia and whorephobia are the same thing … to me, it’s a spiritual disease that’s the issue and how do we help each other do that healing and that deprogramming?”

For Remora the answer is simple — through, curiosity, and love. “There’s a lot of things that cause harm to the movement … understanding what love really is and what it isn’t. This work comes from a place of love but if you are confused about what love means we’re not going to be able to make the right moves. To me, the lesson is really defining one’s philosophy of what love is, love for the community, love for all humans. That’s always the thing that re-centers me. Because that’s love, Instead of saying, well I suffered, now I’m gonna get my piece of the pie, no I’m gonna remember that I suffered so other people don’t have to.”

Burlington, VT City Council Votes To Remove Language on Sex Work From Its City Charter

December 13, 2021 In a historic move, the Burlington, VT City Council unanimously supported a resolution to remove harmful, stigmatizing, and archaic language around prostitution from its city charter. Burlington voters will now have the opportunity to...

Johns Hopkins University Hosts Panel on Decriminalization

December 2, 2021 The Oregon Sex Workers’ Committee (OSWC) collaborated with Woodhull Freedom Foundation to present a discussion on decriminalization and marginalized communities. The panel was hosted by the Johns Hopkins Center for Public Health and Human...

Honoring International Day To End Violence Against Sex Workers

December 17, 2021 Each year, International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers (D17) brings together community members, advocates, and allies from around the world to honor the lives of those who have been lost to violence...

Hero of the Month: Joaquin Remora

December 21, 2021 After more than a decade of commitment to harm reduction in transgender, sex worker, and housing rights spaces, Joaquin Remora has never lost his sense of curiosity about his community. “I understood very early...

DSW Newsletter Archive

Honoring International Day To End Violence Against Sex Workers

Each year, International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers (D17) brings together community members, advocates, and allies from around the world to honor the lives of those who have been lost to violence and abuse and to renew their commitment to promoting rights, health, safety, and visibility for sex workers and related communities.

This annual event was first recognized in 2003 when community members in Seattle, Washington, came together to remember the victims of the Green River Killer. That year, Gary Ridgeway pled guilty to 48 counts of murder, though he is suspected of having nearly 80 victims, most of them sex workers or runaways. In an interview, Ridgeway describes having targeted prostitutes because they were easy to pick up discreetly and he “knew they would not be reported missing right away and might never be reported missing. I picked prostitutes because I thought I could kill as many of them as I wanted without getting caught.”

Ridgeway was not alone, nor was his logic incorrect. 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 for their crimes either because they believed it would make them harder to catch, or because they believed sex workers were immoral and expendable. 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 known sex workers and prostitutes. These numbers increased throughout the study, reaching a high of 69% from 2000-2009.

These heartbreaking statistics are backed up by antipathy on the part of law enforcement. “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, a tacit acceptance of the continued violence against these communities and the belief that they are unworthy of human rights.

Importantly, D17 is also a day to recognize the hard work and dedication to justice and human rights of so many organizations and individuals promoting rights for sex workers, survivors of human trafficking, LGBTQIA individuals, racial justice, immigration reform, and more. It is a celebration of solidarity in the face of oppression and systematic inequality. During the week leading up to D17, sex worker communities and social justice organizations around the world stage actions and vigils to raise awareness about violence and marginalization, and how to combat them.

This year, Gays and Lesbians Living in a Transgender Society (GLITS) was hoping to host an event at Nowadays in Brooklyn, NY, on the evening of December 16. Titled “Whore Dynasty,” it would have featured Barbara Tucker, an award-winning recording artist. Unfortunately, the night was canceled due to the increasingly high rate of COVID-19 infections.

Other organizations hosted their own events and honored lives lost in a variety of ways. NYTAG hosted the third annual Marsha P. Johnson Community Leader Awards remotely on the afternoon of December 17, honoring the work of six intersectional community leaders who have made critical contributions to the rights of sex workers, transgender, and gender-nonconforming communities. The honorees spoke on the significance of D17, sex workers’ rights, the legacy of Marsha P. Johnson, and their visions and strategies for the future. The Colectivo Intercultural TRANSgrediendo screened “CAER,” a feature-length documentary on trans female migrant sex workers.

To read the names of sex workers who have lost their lives to violence and criminalization this year, see the SWOP USA D17 webpage.

Burlington, VT City Council Votes To Remove Language on Sex Work From Its City Charter

Johns Hopkins University Hosts Panel on Decriminalization

Honoring International Day To End Violence Against Sex Workers

Hero of the Month: Joaquin Remora

DSW Newsletter Archive

The Legacy of Gilgo Beach: Protect Sex Workers

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.

February 1, 2022

(Wikimedia, 2022)

DSW Newsletter #33 (February 2022)

NEWS RELEASE | FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | PDF

January 24, 2022

(Amnesty International, 2022)

DSW Newsletter #33 (February 2022)

Decriminalize Sex Work; Fight Human Trafficking

January 11, 2022

(Bark, 2020)

DSW Newsletter #32 (January 2022)

January 3, 2022

Civil Rights Lawyer and former Federal Prosecutor Alvin Bragg has been elected as Manhattan’s first African American District Attorney. (Reuters, 2021)

DSW Newsletter #32 (January 2022)

January 1, 2022

(DSW, 2021)

DSW Newsletter #32 (January 2022)

January 1, 2022

(SWARM Collective, 2013)

DSW Newsletter #32 (January 2022)

December 21, 2021

(Courtesy of Joaquin Remora, 2021)

DSW Newsletter #31 (December 2021)

December 17, 2021

(GLITS, 2021)

(New York Transgender Advocacy Group, 2021)

(The Colectivo Intercultural TRANSgrediendo, 2021)

DSW Newsletter #31 (December 2021)

December 13, 2021

The New Suffolk County Police Comissioner, Rodney Harris, has pledged to reopen and solve the Gilgo Beach Murders. (CBS, 2021)

DSW Newsletter #32 (January 2022)