The War on Sex

It’s no news that the topic of sex isn’t well received in most countries across the globe. That can be seen even in cultures that were historically known to be more sexually liberated like the Native societies of America. That is linked directly to the European Colonial Period and to the beliefs and values that were then appointed to its colonies and that still subsist today.

In other words: the witch hunt has been going on for a while now.

For this reason, I'll be combining every information I was able to gather so far on how the current laws impact both sex workers and everyone else (because sex is a topic that needs to be discussed for the well-being of humanity). Throughout the article, there will be links to various sex workers, activists, and legal or medical sources and to what they have said on the subject.

Full disclaimer: although I tried to check my facts with what sex workers worldwide are saying about their job (see The Global Network of Sex Worker Projects (NSWP) and The Red Umbrella), I am not myself a sex worker and none of them proof-read this article. Moreover, many of the subjects that will be mentioned in this article are not explored more profoundly. Below, I sprinkled links to extended research from many reliable sources; you are welcomed to use them.

I am merely a young adult trying to make my close-ones aware of this situation because they are usually the only ones reading. (Love y’all <3)

Types of Sex Work Criminalisation

It is important to note that "the specific law[s] will vary from setting to setting."

• Complete Criminalisation or Prohibitionism:

Every part of the job is criminalized so selling, buying, soliciting, keeping brothels or living off the profit of someone else’s prostitution (also known as “living parasitically”) is illegal. The latter is most commonly understood as the act of “pimping” but could also apply to a sex worker simply living with a friend. Law enforcement could indeed assume that this would equal to what the Criminal Code considers as “living off the avails of prostitution.” It is also illegal for sex workers to refer clients to each other and to have “procurers” that are not always the money vampires that we imagine they are but can also be the worker’s safety providers.

This type of criminalization often comes from the mentality that it is morally wrong to have given the service of sex for money or, in most people’s words “to sell your body.” Those who see this law as a win often believe prostitutes do not respect themselves.

In countries where this legislation is applied, the “crime of prostitution” is punishable by sentences that can go from a simple fine to the death penalty.

• Partial Criminalisation: 1. Abolitionism:

Here the work is legal and so is buying the service however third parties' involvement is illegal (so having procurers, keeping brothels, etc.). Moreover, as the sex trade is considered morally wrong, soliciting is also often prohibited. That way, it doesn’t “negatively impact the public.” In that sense, some countries like India make it illegal to use hotels to meet clients.

Here, the society accepts that prostitutes would want to prostitute but ask of them to “make sure it’s done behind closed doors and all alone” as activist Juno Mac explains in “The laws that sex workers really want.”

• Partial Criminalisation: 2. Neo-Abolitionism or the Nordic-Model:

Abolitionism’s younger sibling thinks only prostitution should be legal but that everything else related shouldn’t. So: buying, soliciting, keeping brothels, living parasitically/living with a sex worker, procuring and referrals are all illegal.

To that, Canada adds a law that was created in 1892 and that still prevents anyone from working, living or simply standing in what the Criminal Code describes as a “bawdy-house,” an old synonym of "brothel" that doesn’t completely mean the same thing. Indeed, the term includes every place be it private or public that is used on a regular basis to allow prostitution. In fact, the only place where it might be legal to go to participate in the sex trade in Canada would be any place controlled by the client (as long as it isn’t used frequently, that is). (See: "Sex, work, rights" by the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network)

This form of partial criminalization is often applied because of the belief that prostitutes are victims that we need to protect. “They were forced into it,” “they are selling their bodies,” “they are traumatized; they can’t make decisions by themselves.”

Basically, this form of criminalization results from the infantilization and victimization of sex workers (and of prejudices but we’re not gonna address that just yet).

• Legalization, Regulationist or Backdoor Criminalisation:

Here, the government is the one in control of everything. Mostly, every aspect of the job is regulated through work permits, licensing, or tolerance zones depending on the countries. The level of power the authorities hold also varies from place to place.

The regulations are often expensive and difficult to access for more marginalized people.

How Each Law Affects Sex Workers

Because there is more to talk about than just the legal punishments sex workers might receive from trying to do and from doing their job.

Indeed, as capitalism is a thing, people want to make money and so, even if they might fear the consequences of legislation, sex workers decide they want to continue feeding themselves and their families.

• Criminalizing the act of selling sex as a service:

First off, it reinforces the stigma around the job which puts sex workers at risks of attacks and leads them into a circle of criminal work. Indeed, once you go to prison, it’s difficult to find a “normal” job again. Plus, the need to pay fines pushes sex workers to continue transactional sex.

Moreover, in those settings, prostitutes understandably don’t feel like they can trust police officers when they would want to report abuse. In truth, authorities will often arrest themfor their involvement in the sex trade or sometimes even go further and abuse them either with the promise of letting them go or simply for the power trip (I mean obviously both are for the power trip but at least one has the chance of having a—both are horrible, I’m not gonna finish that sentence).

Furthermore, in certain countries and cities (New York, for example), simply carrying a condom can be used against someone as evidence of prostitution which puts them at risk for sexually transmitted infections and diseases.

This creates a tense atmosphere in an activity that could/should otherwise be enjoyable for sex workers.

Imagine trying to have sex while knowing a police officer could arrive at any moment and decide he could kill you because you are “filthy.”

Not so fun, right?

• Criminalizing the act of buying sex:

This is often referred to as the “End Demand” approach.

The reason why it affects sex workers is that, as the buyers get scared of getting caught, they’ll be more reluctant when it’ll come to giving their personal information to the workers, which they often request for safety reasons. Because of this, prostitutes often meet with clients they don’t know and have no information on (which means they wouldn’t be able to report them if they were to become abusive), take less time to negotiate, lower theirprices and accept to cross some personal boundaries to appeal to a bigger audience.

• Criminalizing the act of soliciting:

Simply put: how do you want to do your job if no one knows you’re offering a service in the first place?

If they can’t advertise their services in the streets (which is often the case), they will often go to places where the risk of being seen is diminished like in forests and parks at night or choose to work alone to attract less attention.

Others will choose to work on the streets and end up needing to pay more fines if not attacked and murdered.

“But we have the internet now! They can advertise on there!” Yeah…

Continue reading.

• Criminalizing the keeping of brothels:

Brothels are legally any premise that is used for prostitution and by two or more individuals. This means that sex workers cannot work together for safety reasons and results in them being more vulnerable to abuse if they decide to work alone or not.

• Criminalizing the act of living parasitically:

This is a tricky one. As mentioned before, more than simply making procuring (pimping) illegal, this puts anyone living with a sex worker at risk of being accused of “living parasitically.” This, again, forces sex workers to operate and live alone, further marginalizes them, and rips them of their freedom of association.

Moreover, the law can't seem to properly make the difference between the image we have of a pimp: someone that exploits the sex worker; and a procurer (which can be called a pimp or a madam (sorry, my enby siblings, I didn’t find a neutral term)): someone that protects the sex worker and makes sure their clients pay. In fact, those people often simply serve as agents for the prostitutes and sometimes as front house managers of brothels.

• Criminalizing referrals:

Do I even need to explain why making it illegal for sex workers to refer clients to one another is disadvantageous for them?

With referrals, prostitutes can tell their colleagues: "hey, that person isn't dangerous and actually pays me" to one another.

*leaves the room and mumbles* I can’t believe the Nordic Model has this. Who thought that would make prostitutes safer? It’s as if protecting the sex workers wasn’t their goal. *stops*

*comes back* I remembered what this article was about.

These laws all affect sex workers’ lives by reinforcing the stigma around their job, by making it more difficult for them to find contracts and even by simply taking away some of their human rights. Indeed, those laws marginalize sex workers, labeling them as illegal or as indecent and serve as a tool to infantilize the workers. Forbidding the act of procuring and criminalizing the clients make sex workers more likely to cross personal boundaries and put themselves at risk. Lastly, the laws in place go against international human rights law by denying them from the protection of labour laws, by preventing them from accessing to proper health care and by putting them at risk for HIV and AIDS transmission, by preventing them from tending to the needs of their families, and by generally making them more vulnerable to all kinds of abuse.

I’ll be linking here a more thoroughly documented piece from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada: 10 Reasons to Fight for the Decriminalisation of Sex Work.

(We'll be addressing the topic of the decriminalization of sex work a bit later.)

SESTA/FOSTA

IF ANYTHING ELSE WASN’T DEPRESSING ENOUGH, Donald Trump happened, so here ya go:

With the passing of the new SESTA/FOSTA bills in America in February of last year, “the ability for sex workers to create communities, advertise independently, screen clients, and avoid danger has been dramatically reduced.”This applies worldwide.

Why is that? Firstly, because the bill could allow international interactive computer services to be shut down.

Indeed, the way it clarifiedsection 230 of the Communication Decency Act (CDA) makes it so that anyone can sue the companies for content one of their users has published. Furthermore, the broad wording that has been used to write the bills authorizes the platforms to be liable retroactively.

In fact, the bills have already taken down one website only a few days before its passing into the law on April 11th, 2018. Indeed, on April 6th, 2018, the Craigslist-like website named Backpage was seized by law enforcement agencies and seven of its executives received 93 charges for “crimes of conspiracy to facilitate prostitution using a facility in interstate or foreign commerce, facilitating prostitution using a facility in interstate or foreign commerce, conspiracy to commit money laundering, concealment money laundering, international promotional money laundering, and transactional money laundering” by the United States Department of Justice.

In summary, they were mostly charged for facilitating prostitution (prostitution being a criminal offense in the United States) and for tax evasion. However, State Senator of California Kamala Harris and others that helped in the seizing of the site argue that they did so to bring down "the McDonald's of trafficking" (Carol Robles-Román, the president and CEO of Legal Momentum) while that is not what is being done at all (see “WHY IS SOCIAL MEDIA REMOVING NSFW CONTENT – SESTA/FOSTA”). In fact, human trafficking (which law enforcement often confuses as sex work) continues to thrive while actual sex workers suffer from the loss of a site they used to advertise independently. So, while the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA) and Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) are supposedly only targeting human sex traffickers, due to the broad wording that was used to write it, many websites across the world risk being liable for content their users post or have posted.

EXPLAINED PLAINLY: There’s this thing in the CDA called Section 230 that originally said to providers of interactive computer services “y’all can’t be liable for the shit your users post” but, thanks to SESTA/FOSTA, providers of interactive computer services “can now be liable and due to [SESTA/FOSTA’s] broad wording, content can also be retroactively."

Secondly, the bills now passed, platforms used worldwide are forced to change their community standards to avoid any lawsuits. Indeed, in 2018 Apple reviewed its App Store Guidelines adding that in the case that an app “[was] found to facilitate human trafficking and/or the exploitation of children, appropriate authorities [would] be notified,” which falls directly in line with the new bills. Therefore, websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Youtube, and others have started changing their guidelines to, in part, allow their app to be advertised on the Apple App Store and to fit the new laws.

It is important to remind that there are other types of sex work than just prostitution. Indeed, everything that falls under “the provision of sexual services for money or goods” can be considered sex work and that can include third parties involved as well. Moreover, sexual service doesn’t need to involve sexual contact. That feels broad and vague, doesn’t it?

Well, it brings me the next point.

Sex workers that use the internet to advertise for their services don’t know how to please the laws and guidelines anymore as everything is explained too ambiguously. Obviously, the traders desire to appeal to these guidelines for if they don’t their content gets taken down or demonetized.

This rips them from their right to consensually meet with adults online and from their freedom of expression.

In such, more in more posts that include content that is deemed too explicit is being reported.

For potential sex workers reading this, I found this SESTA and FOSTA Sex Worker Technology Guide. (Thank StripperWriter, not me.)

How It Affects Our Societies

Our society believes certain people deserve to be silenced (check your privilege if you think otherwise).

But some governments are smart enough not to say that aloud and simply choose a more covert way of continuing their oppression (might I remind that criminals are often revoked the right to vote). This is why they change laws that affect directly some minorities and other more vulnerable individuals that are part of the groups they target.

For example:

• Implementing laws against sex workersimpacts greatly the transgender community (and other communities like poc, migrants, disabled people, and other members of the queer umbrella). Indeed, transgender youth, especially trans women of color, often get kicked out of their homes or denied jobs because of their identity which forces them into poverty. Then, these humans might engage in what many refer to as “survival sex.” Moreover, the stigmatization that the criminalization of sex work adds to the discrimination that these people are already facing. This makes them more vulnerable to all sorts of abuse, even from law enforcement.
• Implementing HIV-specific criminal exposure laws also impacts on sex workers (so all previously mentioned peeps too) as it can enhance their sentences if they are caught doing prostitution while being HIV-positive (the law may not consider if the viral load is detectable or not). Moreover, as the law targets people with HIV, it targets the minorities most affected by HIV such as gay and bisexual men(population most affected by it in the US and six different areas with 67% ) and African Americans and Hispanics(57% of reported cases of AIDS (State 3 HIV) in the US). (Read: Consensus Statement on the Criminalization of HIV in the United States.)
• Implementing abortion restrictions and criminalizing miscarriage obviously oppresses anyone that is not a cis man with no uterus and attacks their human and reproductive rights. This type of legislation is mainly the manifestation of a desire to control the bodies of those that can carry babies. Additionally, researches show that women of color are the most affected by these laws. Indeed, “Black women are dying at three to four times the rate of white women due to pregnancy-related issues.”New laws would only make things worse.

Moreover, it is important to point out that these laws benefit capitalism. Indeed, there is money to make from keeping people in prisons. Plus, big companies like 21st Century Fox, for example, support the passing of SESTA/FOSTA possibly because it now clarifies the section that prevented them from prosecuting platforms for copyrighted content.

So, since everyone does not have the same "sensitivity" to certain content, in December 2018, the social media Tumblr executed a ban on explicit adult content and started forbidding “female presenting nipples”as they call them. In another example, YouTube has been found guilty of the age restriction and demonetization of LGBTQ+ sexual education content and other sex ed contenteven when it was done by licensed doctors as it was deemed as “not suitable for most advertisers” or so they say. In that way, it became extremely difficult for “sex workers to create communities, advertise independently, screen clients and avoid danger” as their accounts get banned and content removed from the platforms they use. The Tumblr ban was a particularly great hit to the sex worker community as it used to be a very accepting platform known for its numerous NSFW blogs. Furthermore, the website was a place for the queer youth (and for teenagers in general) to share their experiences with gender, sexual identity, and sexuality while often living in unsafe and unwelcoming housings and environments. In fact, after the ban, the website lost 30% of its traffic. Indeed, the law is so vague that not only are sex workers’ lives and work affected but also women, women of minorities and minorities from across the globe.

(Again, I do recommend you read: "December 17th: International Day To End Violence Against Sex Workers 2018" by the Sex Worker Advocacy and Resistance Movement (SWARM) which I have linked earlier when explaining the impacts of SESTA/FOSTA on the sex working community.)

It is because they continue the oppression that has been done to many communities for years that these laws and their consequences are so grossly terrifying. They isolate the individuals, limit their encounters with people like them, and prevent them from becoming more knowledgeableby making their content inaccessible.

For those groups that have higher rates of suicides, the consequences of this can be lethal.

The Need for Proper Sex Education

Sex Education in school is often considered as a lesser subject both because it is difficult to evaluate and because it is more “taboo.” This impacts both the students’ well-being and the development of teachers’ training in the matter. Indeed, there are many sub-subjects to the wide topic of sexual education and, without the proper tools, it can be difficult and even risky to address.

But it needs to be done.

Sexual education allows the adults of tomorrow to learn about self-confidence; self-assessment; their right to give and withhold consent; their reproductive rights; their right to “health, education, information equality, and non-discrimination”; and helps them improve their self-image. Furthermore, it teaches them better communication and how to makehealthy and respectful relationships; how to have safer sex and ways to avoid sexually transmissible diseases; to understand their body and to accept that the absence or presence of desire for sexual pleasure is alright; and protects them from unintended pregnancies by informing them on different forms of barriers and of contraceptive methods. All in all, it helps the youth to understand and accept their bodies and minds as well as those of others.

Moreover, if following UNESCO’s International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education, they will be taught to recognize sexual abuse and to advocate and speak up for victims of such violence and of other forms of violence. Indeed, UNESCO affirms that “everyone has a responsibility to advocate for gender equality and speak out against human rights violations such as sexual abuse and other forms of GBV (gender-based violence).” (Not surprised that Donald Trump doesn’t want that to be thought to children *cough, cough*.)

Methods like the abstinence-only programming ones that are actually in use across the globe install fear; sexual shame; perpetuate toxic and harmful behaviours in future adults; fail to explain the diversity of sexual and gender identity; and make them vulnerable to exploitation, sexual and physical abuse, mental illnesses (that increases their likelihood of having self-harming behaviours and attempting suicide), sexual transmissible diseases, unintended pregnancies and other types of harmful outcomes.

We need to keep moving forward, but that sadly doesn’t seem to be the goal of many of our governments.

Decriminalize Sex Work

The Global Network of Sex Worker Projects (NSWP), the Red Umbrella, the World Health Organization (WHO), the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Amnesty International, the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW), and other organizations worldwide agree that we should be focusing on decriminalizing sex work (including the “End Demand” approach).

Indeed, decriminalizing sex work would decrease the stigma, discrimination, and violence around sex workers. That means higher chances of being protected by law enforcementinstead of being harassed by them, protection from further human rights violations, protection from potentially abusive clients/general public; increase their general health and safety as well as allow sex workers to leave the sex trade more easily.

Furthermore, research shows that the decriminalization of sex work wouldreduce new HIV infections cases, and help control the spread of STIs.

The GAATW even agrees that decriminalizing sex work wouldservice in anti-trafficking efforts. In fact, research has shown that sex workers are respondents to preventing, addressing and resolving cases of people coerced into the commercial sex and victims of exploitation. In fact, due to the hostile relationships the workers have with law enforcement, they are often turned down when they try to contact anti-trafficking authorities.

These organizations also“urge countries to improve sex workers’ access to health services.”

Criminalizing sex work only makes things worse for everyone (yes, that means for you too).

“Arguing for decriminalisation of sex work does not have to mean endorsement of sex work – it shows awareness of the dangers of the criminal law – criminalising won’t eradicate the industry, nor alter the set of power relations that may be associated with it. It recognises that the laws that criminalise sex work punish women and particularly women living in poverty, and women of colour most severely and create a dangerous environment for working and living.” – World AIDS Campaign

What You Can Do to Help

• Talk about the importance of decriminalizing sex work.
• Understand that sex work is real work.
• Indeed, Amnesty International affirms that the decriminalization of sex work would “[reinforce their] position that forced labor, child sexual exploitation and human trafficking are abhorrent human rights abuses requiring concerted action and which, under international law, must be criminalized in every country.”
• Support sex workers.

Buy your porn if you can (for my siblings on the asexual spectrum you don’t need to be using it, you could buy it for a friend), visit strip clubs, consume their work (whatever form it takes), support them on Patreon (if that's what they use).

Cheaper alternatives include: following them on social media, listening to what they are saying and generally showing them you care. You could simply put a porn vid on while you're cleaning your house and you might be supporting a sex worker (for those that use PornHub, they get paid for views).

• Recognize and work to fight the impact of the stigmatization of sex work has on you.

Try using more friendly language like “sex workers” when talking prostitutes.

Recognize when you are slut-shaming and stop doing it. (Sluts are often lifesavers).

• Inform yourself about what is happening specifically in your country, state, province, territory.

Remember: knowledge is power.

• Talk about what is happening.

Share this article or any information you might have learned from the other resources I have linked or that you already know.

• Donate to organizations like those mentioned above or like the Trevor Project and participate to fundraisers like the AIDS/Life Cycle.

Again, I understand I might have made faulty statements in this article so don’t quote me but do quote the organizations I based my research on. I hope to have opened your minds and given you the resources to learn even more.

This is a health and human rights issue. We need to fight against it.

Thank you for reading.

SUPPORT AND LISTEN TO SEX WORKERS.