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
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.
