Sex Workers Protest Laws Meant to Protect Them

What’s the story?

• Sex workers gathered in Washington last week to tell legislators that a new law – the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) and Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA) - has made their lives miserable. The lobbying effort was put together by Survivors Against SESTA.
• Opponents of FOSTA-SESTA say the law doesn’t distinguish between adults who choose to work in the sex industry and those forced into sex work or minors.
• And on June 2, International Sex Workers Day, sex workers demonstrated across the country to protest the legislation. Saint James Infirmary, a health clinic that supports sex workers in California’s Bay Area, tweeted:

What did FOSTA do?

• The bill, signed into law by the president on April 11, allows state authorities to investigate and prosecute websites that facilitate sex trafficking under state sex trafficking or sexual exploitation of children laws.
• This led to the shuttering of websites like Backpage.com which had been a platform for prostitution.

Sex workers facing heightened risk of violence

• Sex workers are saying that the passage of FOSTA-SESTA has put them in harm’s way, forcing them to move from the online space to the streets.
• Once the bill was signed, many sites also shut down “bad date lists”—running lists of sex workers’ clients who were violent, abusive, or refused to pay. Now, sex workers are finding it difficult to screen clients.
• In a series of tweets, fomer sex worker Sarah Fenix wrote “Backpage helped keep me safe during one of the scariest most dangerous times of my entire life.”

Rather than “knocking on semi-truck doors,” with “Backpage, I could post my phone number, and I would actually talk to these dudes a little bit. I could weed out the worst ones.”

• Fenix ended her twitter essay writing:

What do you think?

Should Congress revisit – or revise – SESTA and FOSTA? How should the U.S. protect sex workers? Is it time to legalize – and regulate – prostitution? Hit Take Action and tell your reps, then share your thoughts below.

—Josh Herman

(Photo Credit: Survivors Against SESTA)