Anti-Trafficking Legislation Shouldn’t Come at a Cost to Victims, Sex Workers (Rewire)

Read the full article by Melissa Petro on Rewire.com 

Widely supported companion bills in Congress designed to fight online sex trafficking would do more harm than good, advocates say. The bills undermine the rights and safety of sex workers and trafficking victims, and in supporting them Democratic politicians are voting against their constituents' core values.

[...] But critics of this type of legislation—including individuals across the sex work spectrum—say FOSTA and SESTA will do more harm than good. Bipartisanship is great, they say, but not when that means Democratic politicians voting against their constituents’ core values. Traditionally, liberals oppose criminalization of “victimless crimes” such as sex work or drug use and acknowledge that efforts to increase policing and government surveillance hurt vulnerable communities. It’s also a core progressive principle to listen to and support marginalized communities, including women, LGBTQ folks, immigrants, people of color, and yes, sex workers. Yet this legislation directly undermines all these stated values and the rights of sex workers by putting the services designed to help both consensual sex workers and victims of trafficking in jeopardy, closing avenues sex workers across the spectrum rely on for their personal safety and economic well-being. On Twitter, the Chicago Taskforce on Violence Against Girls and Young Women said that they were “enraged” to hear that FOSTA had passed in the House. “Not only does this bill pose dangers to survivors of trafficking but also to sex workers.” SWOP Behind Bars, an organization that provides resources to sex workers who’ve been incarcerated, said that FOSTA hurts “vulnerable communities” and that “the ‘unintended consequences’ of these knee jerk policies create more stigma and thus…discrimination.”