Anti-Immigration
Anti-Black Racism
Failing Infrastructure
Trafficking Hysteria
Racial & IMMIGRATION justice
Youth JUSTICE
disability justice
Housing Insecurity
Sex work criminalization
Lack of Employment
How does this affect communities and movements?
HOUSING & economic justice
LGBTQIA2S Justice
Financial Discrimination
Violence & Fatality
health access and justice
Housing Discrimination
Employment Discrimination
STI & HIV Vulenerability
Healthcare Discrimination
Housing Discrimination
Access barriers to instability
Sex workers face disproportionate amount of housing discrimination, harassment, and even violence from various sources including landlords, hotels, shelters, and short-stay rentals leading to high rates of housing insecurity. Police are also known to facilitate obstructive raids in sex worers' homes and places of employment (which are sometimes the same place).
In some cases, sex workers are unable to acquire housing due to lack of documentation such as identification, citizenship, tax documents, and employee or housing references leading to hosuing denials.
(Global Network of Sex Work Projects, 2024)
A Ten-city study report
Trafficking Hysteria
- Eighty-four percent (84%) of those who engaged in the sex trade without being forced by a third party pointed to economic factors as the primary reason for doing so
- Sixty-eight percent (68%) of the youth who had engaged in sexual labor had done so while homeless
- In contrast to mainstream media, many traffickers or "pimps" come from intimate partners, peers, and even familial relationships.
There is a complicated relationship with youth engaged in the sex trade, largely due to the idea of consent and autonomy being only relative to adults. However, many youth -- particularly those with marginalized identities -- engage it in for multitude of reasons, often economic. Even still, these circumstances don't necessarily remove consent. Indeed, some youth trade sex by choice and do not identitfy as victims of trafficking. In fact, they have found it to be empowering as a means to changing their circumstances.
Read more
- According to the World Health Organization, the decriminalization of sex work could lead to the reduction of HIV infections by 46% having a significant impact of a worldwide health epidemic.
- While sex workers were 30 times more likely to contract HIV infections, police have historically used condoms as evidence to arrest sex workers, citing the Commstock Act.
- As a result, many sex workers -- as high as 52 percent in the United States, according to Open Society Foundations’ Criminalizing Condoms -- opted to not carry condoms while working to avoid police harassment or detention, increasing their exposure to HIV and other STI’s.
Commstock
- Sex worker organizations receive less than 1% of funding, overstating a significant gap between other social justice organizations.
- Back in 2003, The United States President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the global health funding to combat HIV/AIDS infections required all recipients to sign an anti-prostitution pledge, alienating sex workers as a population to receive life-saving care.
- Additionally, it doesn’t fund needle-exchange programs, perpetuating the increase of HIV infections and other infectious disease.
- There is currently no evidence of their financial backing of sex worker organizations.
PEPFAR
While Black people make up only 12% of the U.S. population-- and sex workers being much less than that-- 40% of Black sex workers were arrested for prostitution in 2015
Decrim is racial justice
Black history includes sex work
according to rights4girls
There is rich history between sex work and Black women, especially in Chicago. Following the Great Migration, there was a rise of prostitution among Black women due to limited economic access and survival. They were eventually pushed to the “Black Belt” of Chicago-- now known as Bronzeville-- after the closure of the Levee, concentrating vice into Black neighborhoods and communities.
- Women account for 62% of adult prostitution arrests.
- Black people account for approximately 42% of adult prostitution arrests —more than any other
racial group
- Girls account for approximately 71% of juvenile prostitution arrests.
- Black children account for nearly 51% of all juvenile prostitution arrests—more than any other
racial group.
Houselessness Crisis of LGBTQIA2S youth
According to Missed Opportunities: LGBTQ Youth Homelessness in America, research shows that LGBTQ youth are disproportionately represented among the nearly 4.2 million youth and young adults in America who experienced some form of homelessness during a 12-month period. In fact, LGBTQ youth are twice as likely to be homeless in contrast to their cishetero counterparts nd twice as likely to be impacted by health adversities and even fatality. This statistsic is higher among Black and Brown LGBTQ youth.
SESTA/FOSTA compunds these issues by criminalizing elders who choose to provide shelter, safety, or community to queer and trans youth sex workers facing homelessness.
Many people living with disabilities also engage in sex work as a means for viable income they otherwise cannot get. Sex work allows for people living with disabilities to live sustainable lives.
"No worker left behind"
Sex work is often the most viable and accessible source of employment for the transgender community. Genderqueer and transgender people frequently face discrimination in formal economy jobs, limiting their access to sustainable income and healthcare.
- According to a report by Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law, 70% of transgender employees reported experiencing at least one form of employment discrimination (including being fired, not hired, or not promoted).
- That same report reflected that 60% of transgender employees are making less than $50,000 which is 63% less than the median average to live comfortably in the United States ($96,500).
Stigma & Non-Disclosure
An analysis on culturally competent care
Sex workers are in desperate need of culturally sensitive healthcare services, as they face much serious barriers in receiving proper care. In 2017, the United Nations of Public Fund in collaboration with STAR-STAR, a North Macedonia sex worker advocacy organization, published an article citing that a quarter of young sex workers have been denied health services in their lifetime upon the disclosure of their occupation. Additionally, more than 63 percent stated that due to fear and distrust, they have needed someone to accompany them while receiving care.
Not disclosing involvement in the sex trade to health-care professionals impact delivery of care. Healthcare discrimination should not be a barrier to delivering effective care.
"State defined" ableism
The qualifications for identifying a disability are restrictive thus do not account for the nuanced ways in which visible and invisible disabilities have and can be discriminated against. The average disability payment benefits are between $800 to $4018 per month, falling within the federal poverty limits. Any additional income that’s detected could be disqualify benefits.
Migrant sex workers face anti-sex work, immigrantion, and trafficking rheoric and violence
Historically, the pervasive racism in the sex trade is exacerbated by immigration laws that either police immigrant peoples’ sexuality or remove their autonomy by seeing them as victims which is typically seen in sex trafficking discourse. The conflation of sex work and trafficking is a known strategy to continue the criminalization of sex work, especially for migrants. One of the first enactments of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA) codified human trafficking into prostitution by the UN TIP Protocol, an anti-trafficking protocol enacted by the United Nations; however, it is almost always universally applied to cases of voluntary, migrant sex workers. In order to grant their security in America via T-Visa, they must comply with law enforcement and state they are trafficking victims, even if they are not. This perpetuates the notion that migrant sex workers are either hypersexualized victims or criminals through the conflation of sex trafficking with consenting sex work.
The first law to criminalize sex work was the Page Act of 1875, which prohibited Chinese women and girls from immigrating to the United States as they were seen as a threat to white families.
Sex work is a queer and trans issue
Sex work decriminalization is trans liberation
The history between the genderqueer and trans community and sex work are deeply intertwined, particularly trans sex workers of color. From Marsha P. Johnson to Cecilia Gentili, the LGBTIA2S movement is fortified within the sex work decriminalization movement. Pinnacle events such as the Stonewall Riots in New York City and the Compton's Cafeteria riot in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco, historically point to trans women of color as the leaders and agitators for sparking change.
According to a 2015 survey by the National Center for Transgender Equality found that about 1 in 5 transgender adults had participated in the sex trade at some point in their lives.
Employers oftentimes perpetuate these barriers by creating job responsibilities that would immediately disqualify a disabled person, label requested accommodations as “unreasonable”, or restructure jobs to ensure that employees with disabilities cannot complete specific duties creating cause to terminate employment.
People with disabilities are less likely to be employed, more likely to only receive part-time work with no health benefits, and less likely to be offered leadership positions.
While employment rates have increased signifivantly due to the access of remote work, a 2024 report found that 1 in 3 workers with disabilities experienced workplace discrimination with some reporting it even during interview processes.
"But what about the children?"
Where are youth advocates for young sex workers
Youth within the sex trade face unique systemic barriers within the industry, especially those that identify as LGBTQIA2S. Legislation is historically infamous for removing the autonomy of young people, but this proves even more difficult for those involved in the sex trade. SESTA/FOSTA's conflated language between consent and coercion, and further clarified that knowingly assisting, facilitating, or supporting sex trafficking is illegal under U.S. sex trafficking law. This language will later inform abortion trafficking laws.
Young people are often left out of discourse involving policy that impacts them; from social welfare programs, careceral engagement, and housing insecurity, young people participating in the sex trade are a subdemographic that is often left behind.
Did you know...
Operation Chokepoint caused the crusade of payment processors and financial institutions attacking sex workers? In fact, a recent report conducted by the Free Speech Coalition in colaboration with Sex Work CEO, revealed that nearly 2 out of 3 people who earn money in the adult industry have lost a bank account or financial tool, and nearly 40% have had an account closed in the past year. From crypto to PayPal and Mastercard, even with its repeal, sex workers still navigate these systems with viglance.
Read more
Lorem ipsum dolor
Decriminalization efforts could minimize the risk of a healthcare crisis.
housing and economic justice
Surviving Precarity
A large number of sex workers live in poverty, with almost 73% below the poverty line and high levels of homelessness (58%). While housing and healthcare is universally recognized as a human right, criminalization, discrimination and stigmatization against the sex worker community leaves them vulnerable to housing instability and health risks.
Decrim is racial justice
The criminalization of sex work is directly tied to the oppression of Black, Brown, Indigenous people, and people of color.
The normalization of violence against queer & trans sex workers
- Queer and trans sex workers make up for 94% of the homicides (89% non-Hispanic Black) according to the National Violent Death Reporting System, 2012–2020.
- Many police reports identify sex workers, especially those who are transgender, as “no human involved (NHI)”, further dehumanizing sex workers and removing their access to justice or dignity.
- According the Red Umbrella Project, 40% of Black and Black-Multiracial transgender people experienced intense harassment, violence, and arrest by police
In addition to harassment, negligence of protection, and violence, Black transgender sex workers are more likely to receive harsher sentences for prostitution:
- Over 80% more likely to be incarcerated between 6-12 months
- Over 102% more likely to be incarcerated between 1-3 years
- Almost 172% more likely to serve a 5-10 year sentence compared to their white counterparts.
Web of Criminalization
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Transcript
Anti-Immigration
Anti-Black Racism
Failing Infrastructure
Trafficking Hysteria
Racial & IMMIGRATION justice
Youth JUSTICE
disability justice
Housing Insecurity
Sex work criminalization
Lack of Employment
How does this affect communities and movements?
HOUSING & economic justice
LGBTQIA2S Justice
Financial Discrimination
Violence & Fatality
health access and justice
Housing Discrimination
Employment Discrimination
STI & HIV Vulenerability
Healthcare Discrimination
Housing Discrimination
Access barriers to instability
Sex workers face disproportionate amount of housing discrimination, harassment, and even violence from various sources including landlords, hotels, shelters, and short-stay rentals leading to high rates of housing insecurity. Police are also known to facilitate obstructive raids in sex worers' homes and places of employment (which are sometimes the same place).
In some cases, sex workers are unable to acquire housing due to lack of documentation such as identification, citizenship, tax documents, and employee or housing references leading to hosuing denials.
(Global Network of Sex Work Projects, 2024)
A Ten-city study report
Trafficking Hysteria
There is a complicated relationship with youth engaged in the sex trade, largely due to the idea of consent and autonomy being only relative to adults. However, many youth -- particularly those with marginalized identities -- engage it in for multitude of reasons, often economic. Even still, these circumstances don't necessarily remove consent. Indeed, some youth trade sex by choice and do not identitfy as victims of trafficking. In fact, they have found it to be empowering as a means to changing their circumstances.
Read more
Commstock
PEPFAR
While Black people make up only 12% of the U.S. population-- and sex workers being much less than that-- 40% of Black sex workers were arrested for prostitution in 2015
Decrim is racial justice
Black history includes sex work
according to rights4girls
There is rich history between sex work and Black women, especially in Chicago. Following the Great Migration, there was a rise of prostitution among Black women due to limited economic access and survival. They were eventually pushed to the “Black Belt” of Chicago-- now known as Bronzeville-- after the closure of the Levee, concentrating vice into Black neighborhoods and communities.
Houselessness Crisis of LGBTQIA2S youth
According to Missed Opportunities: LGBTQ Youth Homelessness in America, research shows that LGBTQ youth are disproportionately represented among the nearly 4.2 million youth and young adults in America who experienced some form of homelessness during a 12-month period. In fact, LGBTQ youth are twice as likely to be homeless in contrast to their cishetero counterparts nd twice as likely to be impacted by health adversities and even fatality. This statistsic is higher among Black and Brown LGBTQ youth.
SESTA/FOSTA compunds these issues by criminalizing elders who choose to provide shelter, safety, or community to queer and trans youth sex workers facing homelessness.
Many people living with disabilities also engage in sex work as a means for viable income they otherwise cannot get. Sex work allows for people living with disabilities to live sustainable lives.
"No worker left behind"
Sex work is often the most viable and accessible source of employment for the transgender community. Genderqueer and transgender people frequently face discrimination in formal economy jobs, limiting their access to sustainable income and healthcare.
Stigma & Non-Disclosure
An analysis on culturally competent care
Sex workers are in desperate need of culturally sensitive healthcare services, as they face much serious barriers in receiving proper care. In 2017, the United Nations of Public Fund in collaboration with STAR-STAR, a North Macedonia sex worker advocacy organization, published an article citing that a quarter of young sex workers have been denied health services in their lifetime upon the disclosure of their occupation. Additionally, more than 63 percent stated that due to fear and distrust, they have needed someone to accompany them while receiving care.
Not disclosing involvement in the sex trade to health-care professionals impact delivery of care. Healthcare discrimination should not be a barrier to delivering effective care.
"State defined" ableism
The qualifications for identifying a disability are restrictive thus do not account for the nuanced ways in which visible and invisible disabilities have and can be discriminated against. The average disability payment benefits are between $800 to $4018 per month, falling within the federal poverty limits. Any additional income that’s detected could be disqualify benefits.
Migrant sex workers face anti-sex work, immigrantion, and trafficking rheoric and violence
Historically, the pervasive racism in the sex trade is exacerbated by immigration laws that either police immigrant peoples’ sexuality or remove their autonomy by seeing them as victims which is typically seen in sex trafficking discourse. The conflation of sex work and trafficking is a known strategy to continue the criminalization of sex work, especially for migrants. One of the first enactments of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA) codified human trafficking into prostitution by the UN TIP Protocol, an anti-trafficking protocol enacted by the United Nations; however, it is almost always universally applied to cases of voluntary, migrant sex workers. In order to grant their security in America via T-Visa, they must comply with law enforcement and state they are trafficking victims, even if they are not. This perpetuates the notion that migrant sex workers are either hypersexualized victims or criminals through the conflation of sex trafficking with consenting sex work.
The first law to criminalize sex work was the Page Act of 1875, which prohibited Chinese women and girls from immigrating to the United States as they were seen as a threat to white families.
Sex work is a queer and trans issue
Sex work decriminalization is trans liberation
The history between the genderqueer and trans community and sex work are deeply intertwined, particularly trans sex workers of color. From Marsha P. Johnson to Cecilia Gentili, the LGBTIA2S movement is fortified within the sex work decriminalization movement. Pinnacle events such as the Stonewall Riots in New York City and the Compton's Cafeteria riot in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco, historically point to trans women of color as the leaders and agitators for sparking change.
According to a 2015 survey by the National Center for Transgender Equality found that about 1 in 5 transgender adults had participated in the sex trade at some point in their lives.
Employers oftentimes perpetuate these barriers by creating job responsibilities that would immediately disqualify a disabled person, label requested accommodations as “unreasonable”, or restructure jobs to ensure that employees with disabilities cannot complete specific duties creating cause to terminate employment.
People with disabilities are less likely to be employed, more likely to only receive part-time work with no health benefits, and less likely to be offered leadership positions.
While employment rates have increased signifivantly due to the access of remote work, a 2024 report found that 1 in 3 workers with disabilities experienced workplace discrimination with some reporting it even during interview processes.
"But what about the children?"
Where are youth advocates for young sex workers
Youth within the sex trade face unique systemic barriers within the industry, especially those that identify as LGBTQIA2S. Legislation is historically infamous for removing the autonomy of young people, but this proves even more difficult for those involved in the sex trade. SESTA/FOSTA's conflated language between consent and coercion, and further clarified that knowingly assisting, facilitating, or supporting sex trafficking is illegal under U.S. sex trafficking law. This language will later inform abortion trafficking laws.
Young people are often left out of discourse involving policy that impacts them; from social welfare programs, careceral engagement, and housing insecurity, young people participating in the sex trade are a subdemographic that is often left behind.
Did you know...
Operation Chokepoint caused the crusade of payment processors and financial institutions attacking sex workers? In fact, a recent report conducted by the Free Speech Coalition in colaboration with Sex Work CEO, revealed that nearly 2 out of 3 people who earn money in the adult industry have lost a bank account or financial tool, and nearly 40% have had an account closed in the past year. From crypto to PayPal and Mastercard, even with its repeal, sex workers still navigate these systems with viglance.
Read more
Lorem ipsum dolor
Decriminalization efforts could minimize the risk of a healthcare crisis.
housing and economic justice
Surviving Precarity
A large number of sex workers live in poverty, with almost 73% below the poverty line and high levels of homelessness (58%). While housing and healthcare is universally recognized as a human right, criminalization, discrimination and stigmatization against the sex worker community leaves them vulnerable to housing instability and health risks.
Decrim is racial justice
The criminalization of sex work is directly tied to the oppression of Black, Brown, Indigenous people, and people of color.
The normalization of violence against queer & trans sex workers
In addition to harassment, negligence of protection, and violence, Black transgender sex workers are more likely to receive harsher sentences for prostitution: