SAN FRANCISCO—In the wake of the Democratic presidential debates, during which not a single question was asked regarding sex work, the Erotic Service Providers Union (ESPU) and other sex worker organizations have called on the current presidential candidates—most notably Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump and others—to clarify their positions on the decriminalization of sex work.
The Erotic Service Providers Union (ESPU) has observed several journalists asking the 2020 presidential candidates about their positions on decriminalization of sex workers (which were appreciated). However these articles and the journalists who wrote them failed to recognize that prostitution is criminalized at the state level, not the federal level. Therefore many of these presidential candidates have gotten away with giving apparently positive soundbites in order to sound relevant, but in truth their positions belie their anti-sex work votes for the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) and the Stop Enabling Sex Trafficking Act (SESTA) in 2018.
Since prostitution is not criminalized at the federal level and is adjudicated on a state-by-state basis with the exception of a few rural counties in Nevada, the sex worker organizations demand to know if presidential candidates like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders intend to remove all criminal actions they have incentivized via the passing of federal anti-trafficking initiatives they’ve voted for? Senators Sanders, Warren, Harris, Gabbard, Booker, Gillibrand, Klobuchar and current and former House of Representatives Delaney, O’Rourke and Swalwell all voted to pass FOSTA and SESTA, which became federal law just over one year ago.
Since FOSTA/SESTA did not differentiate between sex work and forced labor (trafficking) in the sex industry, many adult websites including webcams, dating sites and social networks like Instagram are being banned in addition to negatively impacting legal forms of sex work.
"The results have been disastrous for the health, safety, and rights of all types erotic laborers everywhere,” said sex worker activist Maxine Doogan. “Not only did these presidential candidates votes to pass this bad FOSTA/SESTA law which put our lives in reduced circumstance and increased risk, but workers have been pushed from relatively safe online spaces where clients can be vetted and preventive information exchanged, to more dangerous street work spaces where they are paradoxically more at risk for forced labor! The media should ask the right questions about these candidates' previous votes instead of giving them feel-good soundbites".
“Sex workers are voters too,” said Claire Alwyne of the Erotic Service Providers Union. “We want to know what the candidates' positions are on issues that directly affect our constitutional and human rights. We are encouraged that the candidates are being forced by the media to take a position on decriminalization, but it's unclear if their positions include the decriminalization of our clients or of our support staff, which is important to us.”
"Hand in hand with these candidates, journalists have been responsible for years in the forwarding of false narratives which served to conflate our professions with trafficking," noted Domina Elle, also a member of the Erotic Service Providers Union. "Both journalists and candidates owe erotic service providers their due diligence and to clarify exactly what they mean when they use the word 'decriminalization.' We have already called out Kamala Harris for her duplicity in her talking points, the difference of which seems to have gone over the media’s head but not ours.”
ESPU sent questionnaires to the 2016 presidential candidates asking them to make public their positions on a range of issues facing the sex worker community, such as discrimination in housing, discrimination in employment, child custody and access to financial institutions.
Since then, many of these same presidential candidates, in their capacities as US Senators and Representatives, voted to strip our marginalized community of access to the social compact under the guise of rescuing sex trafficking victims.
Sex workers demand nothing less than the decriminalization of our labor, our clients and our chosen support staff. Decriminalization of sex work is supported by Amnesty International, the World Health Organization, the Lancet, Human Rights Watch, and the UN Global Commission on HIV and the Law.
For more information regarding the definitions pertaining to erotic laborers, ESPU asks that those interested refer to its sister organization ESPLERP, the Erotic Service Provider Legal Education And Research Project.
Pictured: Maxine Doogan
