New York Could Be First State To Decriminalize Sex Work

NEW YORK — New York lawmakers on Monday unveiled a bill Monday that would make the Empire State the nation’s first to decriminalize sex work.

The legislation, known as the Stop Violence in the Sex Trades Act, would repeal or amend more than half a dozen criminal statutes to allow the sale of sex between consenting adults while keeping prostitution illegal in cases involving minors or human trafficking.

While they admit it is not likely to pass any time soon, the bill’s supporters argue that it’s necessary to protect sex workers, some of whom turn to the underground industry to survive. The current laws discourage sex workers from reporting crimes against them for fear that they could be prosecuted themselves, advocates of the bill say.

“We want to bring sex workers out of the shadows and ensure that they’re protected,” said state Sen. Jessica Ramos, a Queens Democrat who is one of the bill’s sponsors. “When we decriminalize sex work, we will be taking a giant leap towards ending sex trafficking.”

The proposal comes after a monthslong push by DecrimNY, a coalition of current and former sex workers, activist groups and community organizations dedicated to decriminalizing sex work in the state.

Activists described the bill’s release as a watershed moment for sex workers — many of whom are LGBTQ — who often can only turn to each other for protection from abusive clients, law-enforcement officials and other threats.

“I have mourned so many peers — sex workers who were murdered by abusive partners, sex workers who died because of poor access to health care, sex workers who died by suicide, sex workers who died of drug overdoses, sex workers killed by police and sex workers murdered by clients,” said Audacia Ray, a former sex worker who co-chairs DecrimNY’s policy work group.

The bill “is really important to me and to our entire community to stop this violence through decriminalizing sex work,” Ray said.

But the bill faces a steep uphill path to becoming law. While Gov. Andrew Cuomo has not taken a public position on the issue, Mayor Bill de Blasio, City Council Speaker Corey Johnson and women’s rights groups such as the New York City chapter of the National Organization for Women have spoken out against fully decriminalizing sex work.

The bill would specifically repeal four criminal statutes that outlaw prostitution, promoting prostitution and loitering for the purposes of prostitution. It would also get rid of a ban on patronizing an adult for sex while leaving in place prohibitions on paying minors for sex and forcing someone into prostitution.

The changes would make it legal for one adult to pay another for consensual sex, allow sex workers to work together for their own safety, and ensure that people who help keep them safe won’t face prosecution, advocates say.

Existing laws give sex workers little recourse when they are the victims of crimes, activists say. Kate Zen, an activist with the Queens-based group Red Canary Song, said someone who solicited her sex-work services once duped her into traveling across state lines, beat her up, stole her property and money and forced her to have sex without a condom.

A police officer to whom she reported the incident told her that she wouldn’t be a “sympathetic” victim because she was “engaging in illegal activity,” Zen said. She said she never pursued charges against the person because she feared being charged with prostitution herself.

“Many sex workers fall prey to people who steal from us and commit violence against us because our criminal status makes it hard for us to pursue justice,” Zen said.

Supporters of the decriminalization bill acknowledged that it would not get through Albany before the current legislative session ends next week. Lawmakers said they are also still working on legislation that would more closely regulate sex work under state law.

Many opponents of fully decriminalizing sex work prefer a scheme known as the Nordic model, in which selling sex is legal but buying it is not. That means law-enforcement authorities go after johns and pimps rather than prostitutes themselves.

Supporters of the Nordic model, which is used in Canada, Sweden and other countries, argue that it can protect and support sex workers while holding accountable the people who abuse them.

“I don’t support saying that there could be no penalties involved for other individuals who are looking to purchase sex in that way, because I think if you do that you create demand, and you create a market where you could have more victims, more people exploited, more people trafficked,” Johnson, a Chelsea Democrat, told reporters last month.

But decriminalization advocates say the Nordic model does not actually help sex workers.

“How helpful can you be if you decriminalize sex work but you criminalize the people that provide me with the money to survive?” said Cecilia Gentili, another co-chair of DecrimNY’s policy work group.

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