Elizabeth Warren LGBTQ Rights Plan Omits Decriminalized Sex Work

With three potentially landmark cases argued before the United States Supreme Court this week that could result in a serious rollback of hard-won gains in LGBTQ rights—specifically, the right to hold a job without getting fired due to sexual or gender identity—2020 Democratic presidential candidate on Thursday Elizabeth Warren released a 12-page plan for protecting LGBTQ Americans.

But despite the wide ranging nature of her plan, which includes a section on “ending the criminalization of LGBTQ+ people,” Warren fails to include two legislative initiatives that experts say would make strides in guarding LGBTQ safety. 

Nowhere in the plan does Warren call for the repeal of last year’s FOSTA/SESTA law, a bill supposedly aimed at curbing use of the internet for sex trafficking—but which has led to increased on-the-job danger for sex workers, and LGBTQ sex workers in particular, according to a Vox.com report

Warren also fails to propose the decriminalization of sex work, which could also help ensure the safety of LGBTQ sex workers—though in the plan, Warren says that she is “open” to sex work decriminalization, a claim she has made earlier, as AVN.com reported

“Sex workers, like all workers, deserve autonomy and are particularly vulnerable to physical and financial abuse and hardship,” Warren says in the document posted online Thursday.

In three separate cases argued at the Supreme Court this week, the Donald Trump administration has argued that firing workers because they are gay, lesbian or trans should be permissible, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing the plaintiffs in the cases.  

Warren voted in favor of FOSTA/SESTA in the Senate last year, as AVN.com reported, as did all of the Democratic candidates who were serving in Congress during 2018.

By forcing sex workers to take their business offline, the bill “put sex workers at further risk by shutting down resources that allowed them to safely screen clients,” according to OUT Magazine. https://www.out.com/election/2019/10/10/breaking-elizabeth-warren-unveils-plan-lgbtq-equality

Despite the plan’s omissions, “Warren’s LGBTQ+ agenda remains among the most extensive and broad-ranging to date,” OUT notes, pointing out that other than former Texas congressional rep Beto O’Rourke, and New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand—who has since dropped out of the race—no other candidate had yet published policy proposals for protecting LGBTQ rights.

On Thursday, South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg—the only openly gay candidate—also issued a policy proposal for guarding LGBTQ rights, https://peteforamerica.com/policies/lgbtq/ but the Buttigieg plan, too, left out repeal of FOSTA/SESTA and decriminalizing sex work.

Photo By Lorie Shaull / Wikimedia Commons