I/O
One Bad Law Is Ruining Progressive Efforts to Decriminalize Sex Work
Online platforms won’t be able to support the people new bills are meant to protect
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On June 10, a group of New York state legislators made history, introducing a sweeping bill to decriminalize sex work and improve the safety of New Yorkers working in the sex trade. Developed in partnership with DecrimNY, a coalition of sex workers’ rights advocates, the bill would repeal the ban on sex work and amend a number of statutes that have encouraged the harassment and abuse of sex workers across the state. The legislation offers a vision of what our laws might look like if sex work — which currently carries a number of criminal penalties that can even be applied to people who work alongside sex workers, like the cleaning staff in massage parlors — were recognized as just another job.
Although the decriminalization bill was not passed during this legislative session — and is unlikely to pass any time soon given that its supporters in Albany currently number in the single digits — it still represents a major victory for sex workers’ rights activists. After decades of being talked about rather than talked to, sex workers are now an active part of the conversation in Albany, lobbying and working with legislators directly.
What’s happening in New York state’s government is part of a larger shift in the national conversation around sex work. Around the country, an increasing number of political candidates are signaling a new sense of openmindedness toward the issues faced by sex workers; nationally, presidential candidates are being asked their opinion on decriminalization, something that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.
Yet as powerful as decriminalization would be for sex workers, it’s still an incomplete solution — particularly for those in the industry who have long relied on the internet for advertising, screening services, and safety information. Sex work may become decriminalized at the state level, but federal law still has the power to upend and derail sex workers’ careers and put their lives at risk.
In particular, the federal Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA) casts a long shadow over the lives of sex…
