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Sex Workers Project 2009 Legislative Agenda for New York State

Cara

Robin from SixToedKitties forwarded me the Sex Workers Project (SWP) 2009 legislative agenda for New York State.  These issues don’t get nearly enough airtime, and I doubt that I’m the only New Yorker who cares about these issues and didn’t even know about the bills in question.

I’m going to repost the entire agenda below, since I fully agree with the importance of everything in there — with the caveat that I think (and imagine most of those pushing this current agenda would likely agree) several of these efforts are band aids and eventually need to go farther:

PLEASE ASK YOUR LEGISLATORS TO SUPPORT THESE BILLS

  • STOP PUNISHING POSSESSION OF CONDOMS!  Support the No Condoms as Evidence Bill (A3856, S1289): This bill would stop police and prosecutors from using possession of condoms as evidence that they engaged -or intended to engage- in prostitution.  Currently, police and courts use the fact that a person has or is carrying condoms to prove that they are engaging in criminal activity.  Sex workers report that they are more likely to be arrested if they carry condoms, and sex work venues are more likely to be raided if there are condoms on the premises.  Police officers regularly confiscate condoms from people they allege are engaged in prostitution to use as evidence at trial.  As a result people are hesitant to carry condoms to protect themselves and others, for fear that it will lead to arrest or be held against them in court.  Sound public health policy would encourage condom use by eliminating the fear that carrying a condom will be used against you by police or in a court of law.
  • RAPE IS RAPE – NO MATTER WHO THE VICTIM IS!  Support the Rape Shield Reform Bill (A6293, S2668): This bill would stop rape victims from being questioned about past convictions for prostitution.  Currently, sex workers – and those who are profiled as sex workers – are excluded from the protections of the “rape shield law,” which generally protects victims of rape from being interrogated about their sexual histories and practices.  Allowing for questioning of rape victims about past prostitution convictions implies that sex workers cannot be raped or should not be believed when they say they have been raped.  In reality, sex workers are raped at rates consistent with, or higher than, national averages.  Our government should protect all rape victims from being put on trial when they come forward to seek justice in the courts.
  • A FRESH START FOR TRAFFICKING VICTIMS!  Support the Vacating Convictions Bill (A7670): Unfortunately, when people are trafficked (forced, threatened, or coerced) into prostitution, they are also often arrested and convicted of prostitution-related offenses – without the police or the courts recognizing that they need help.  Even after escaping their abusers, it is hard for people who have been trafficked into sex work to start a new life with a long “rap sheet” of prostitution convictions, which have many consequences for access to housing, employment, ability to obtain professional licenses, and even parental rights.  This bill would allow victims of trafficking to clear their records and start fresh.

PLEASE ASK YOUR LEGISLATORS TO OPPOSE THESE BILLS:

  • NO BRANDING OF LEGAL SEX WORKERS!  Oppose the “Sex Performer” Registration Bill (A06476): This bill would require workers in “adult” establishments to register with government authorities in order to be able to engage in legal forms of sex work.  This would result in sex workers being branded as “sex performers” by the government – which could affect their ability to obtain government benefits, employment, or housing, and could increase their vulnerability to violence, extortion, and interference with parental rights.  Although aimed at curbing trafficking into sex work, such an initiative could actually increase vulnerability to trafficking, as it would push undocumented workers further underground and away from help by driving them into criminalized forms of sex work.  The rights of workers at strip clubs and other adult businesses need to be respected and enforced, rather than subjecting them to burdensome regulations that infringe on their rights and take away their privacy.
  • SUPPORT SAFETY FOR SEX WORKERS – Oppose the Craigslist Bills (A2598, A264, S2212): These bills would increase penalties for promoting prostitution, especially through the internet.  Many sex workers work through the internet to increase their safety and avoid street-based sex work, where they are more vulnerable to violence at the hands of police, clients, and community members.  If use of the internet for the purposes of engaging in sex work is further penalized, sex workers will have fewer avenues to work more safely.  Although these bills are intended to increase penalties for “pimps,” they would place many sex workers at risk for felony convictions.  Sex workers often seek to work more safely by working collectively, sharing referrals, clients, and safety tips, and by hiring agents, security, and support staff, all of whom could be subject to increased penalties under these bills.  The government should pursue justice against those who commit violence against sex workers under existing laws against trafficking, abuse of minors, assault, and rape, rather than increase potential penalties for sex workers trying to work more safely.
  • INCREASED PUNISHMENT DOESN’T HELP ANYONE – Oppose the Increased Penalties Bill (A381): This bill would increase penalties for people convicted of prostitution more than once.  Those most likely to be impacted are the sex workers who are most vulnerable to profiling, arrest, and violence – those who live and work on the street.  Many transgender women are profiled as sex workers and arrested scores of times – regardless of whether or not they actually engage in sex work.  Victims of trafficking are often arrested many times, until they find the power or resources to escape coercive situations.  These individuals need housing, job training, and protection from profiling and police abuse, not increased penalties which just decrease rather than increase the options available to sex workers.

The No Condoms BIll — a particularly important one — is currently before the Assembly and could be voted on as soon as today, or within the next week.  So while SWP is encouraging New York residents to write to their assembly members with regards to all of the items listed above, it’s particularly important to write or call now to voice support for A3856.  You can find your assembly member’s contact information by typing your zip code into VoteSmart.org.

Lastly, if there are sex workers reading who would like to anonymously share their experiences under current New York law with legislators, you can write to swp@urbanjustice.org.

21 thoughts on Sex Workers Project 2009 Legislative Agenda for New York State

  1. Thank you! Sex workers, and also anyone directly affected no matter how you identify. You can also share how you think the proposed laws (like the ones SWP is opposing) might affect you.

  2. good issue for spitzer to take up. he needs redemption and once you remove the hypocrisy part, he’s really no worse than Bubba. you know he’s coming back one way or another. might as well use him

  3. correction. sans hypocrisy, he’s better than bubba. no harassment or rape allegations, didn’t do it at work, abuse his power, or trash the women afterwards.

  4. Um. If Spitzer did somehow get back into politics, I somehow doubt that he’d want to actively remind people why he resigned as governor. And while opinions on this may vary, I’m also highly dubious of the notion that his support would be an asset to the cause.

  5. It’s all appalling, and I hope very much the SWP makes progress on this, but I find the condom thing particularly striking. It seems like the same abstinence-only religious right thinking that condems safer sex efforts to prevent disease and conception as worse than completely unprotected sex because you have to have planned for safer sex. I really don’t understand how they justify any of it.

  6. Call call call and write write write!!! When I called about the No Condoms as Evidence Bill, one of my assembly members was confused about what the bill was, it turned out he’d gotten a memo from SWP in support of it, but I’m pretty sure my call was the first one he got.

  7. Manju: correction. sans hypocrisy, he’s better than bubba. no harassment or rape allegations, didn’t do it at work, abuse his power,

    As far as “hypocrisy” goes, as Governor, Spitzer signed a bill which increased the penalties for New York citizens caught “patronizing a prostitute”; evidently he himself didn’t expect to get caught. And repeatedly buying the service of an exclusive “high-class” prostitute at $5000/night could be considered abuse of economic power.

    $5000 a night! You know why the American economy is chronically and unfixably f-ed up? Why the richest country in the history of humankind has tens of millions of citizens who can’t afford doctors? why college is no more affordable to a third of the hi-skool graduates than a private jet? why it’s good news that only 300,000 American jobs evaporated last month? Because every part of American economic practice is systematically warped, so that a special tiny handful of selfish rich egomaniacal swine can afford to stand in a luxurious hotel room far above the trashy workies, and blithely toss down $5000-a-night at beautiful young women, and command them to perform for them, that’s why.

  9. You know, Human Rights Watch has criticized police confiscation of condoms for evidence of prostitution as a *human rights violation* when done in countries other than the US.

    And condoms as evidence does not just happen in NY. Happens all over. But if we can get it outlawed in NY, maybe we can get it outlawed elsewhere too.

    You know, this is also a pretty fucking huge human rights violation, a prison in the US also just left a woman out in a cage for four hours in 107.5 degree heat, where she died. She was serving a sentence of about *two years* for prostitution. (Nope not Arpaio, this is a prison).

    Now can we try to steer the conversation away from assholes who think working girls don’t deserve compensation but other types of working people do (while using over-inflated figures to try to prove it)?

  10. I’d like to know what anti-trafficking advocates think about this agenda.

    Most of the initiatives seem reasonable, although I’m against the Craigslist one. Craigslist had become a virtual brothel and there was no way to tell who was running the ads and whether or not the services offered were offered by traffickers.

  11. Gayle-

    You know whats so cool about SWP? They’re sex worker rights advocates AND anti-trafficking advocates. And really you can’t be one without being the other.

    Yes, traffickers use craigslist but it makes no sense to view craigslist as the problem. Craigslist is the reason they catch a lot of these assholes because it leaves records behind.

    If you were victimized by the sex industry would you rather it happened completely underground or there was an electronic record of it?

    And craigslist also provided a minimum buffer between sex workers an clients that sex workers don’t have on the street or in brothels.

  12. I was talking more along the lines of this coalition:

    http://www.stophumantraffickingny.org/

    As to Craigslist: It absolutely would not leave an electronic trail if the ads are submitted by traffickers.

    Trafficker runs ad. Johns answer. Transactions take place. That doesn’t protect trafficked women or children in any way.

  13. Craigslist is a screening tool for ppl voluntairly invovled in sex industry.

    I never said it could protect people victimized by sex industry. My point was that it has been used to catch perps of violence against sex workers.

    Your scenario above yields two IP addresses that could be used to locate trafficker and rapist of trafficking victim. This doesn’t happen with coerced prostitution that happens offline.

    Anyways I think were talking about Craisgslist shutting down erotic services under pressure from LE more than the above bills.

    The problem with the craigslist bills just like SWP says is that they push sex workers away from screening practices that protect them from violent clients.

    The perpetrators of coerced prostituion and trafficking are guilty of many crimes and should be prosecuted for those without putting sex workers more at risk from abusive clients.

  14. FYI the last part of my last comment was about Kiernan if that was not clear.

    More later. We are all using the definition of trafficking as force, fraud, or coercion? That is what I believe Lynn means but people have different definitions, whether it has to involve migration.

  15. I’d like to know what anti-trafficking advocates think about this agenda.

    Most of the initiatives seem reasonable, although I’m against the Craigslist one. Craigslist had become a virtual brothel and there was no way to tell who was running the ads and whether or not the services offered were offered by traffickers.

    As Lynn mentioned SWP *are* anti-trafficking advocates. They are also direct service providers, providing legal and social work services to women in the sex trade whether by “choice, circumstance, or coercion.” Their clients include trafficking victims.

    I sort of doubt that you are arguing here in good faith, or a position of actually wanting to help people impacted by these laws, since you saw that legislative agenda and your first impulse was to say, “Seems mostly reasonable, but I don’t agree with _______.” Mostly reasonable? Stopping police and prosecutors from using condoms against prostitutes and people profiled as prostitutes is URGENT. Ending the rape shield exception, vacating convictions for trafficking victims, stopping an effort to make dancers etc. register with the government, fighting against increased penalties. Your reaction to all of this is that it is reasonable? Like you are skeptical, but it seems mostly okay. My fucking god. That is a reaction I might expect from a moralizing politician, not someone who actually claims to care about the people impacted by NY state prostitution laws.

  16. Yes, traffickers use craigslist but it makes no sense to view craigslist as the problem. Craigslist is the reason they catch a lot of these assholes because it leaves records behind.

    If you were victimized by the sex industry would you rather it happened completely underground or there was an electronic record of it?

    And craigslist also provided a minimum buffer between sex workers an clients that sex workers don’t have on the street or in brothels.

    I agree with this but this is why I clarified above about definitions of trafficking. I know that not all women on craigslist were independent (tho many are of course) or necessarily there willingly. When people claim that shit didn’t happen…that is not acceptable to me. What I don’t know is whether there were women there trafficked in the forced migration sense, that is just a lack of knowledge on my part, it’s possible there may have been.

    Craigslist is not the issue here tho, the internet is not the issue, the *specific venue* is not the issue. Trafficking and abuses are the issue, any other focus obscures that and allows it to continue. Pushing people who do use the internet for work away from that relative safety, often into more dangerous work, is not the answer to trafficking. Increasing the penalties for people who try to use available tools to work more safely, again pushing people into more dangerous work and/or putting them at risk for felonies, is not the answer to trafficking. Pushing traffickers and people who prey on sex workers into methods of advertizing that don’t leave electronic trails so you don’t have to see it or think about it as much, is not the answer to trafficking.

  17. I was talking more along the lines of this coalition:

    http://www.stophumantraffickingny.org/

    Funny. I look at that site and I see people protesting a fucking TV show for showing prostitution. Now THERE’S a good way to fight trafficking, oh yes . It mentions the Safe Harbor Act that was put in place to supposedly stop prosecuting minors for prostitution, but it doesn’t mention that there’s an exception for repeat offenders, who can still get prosecuted, maybe because that’s how one of the member organizations (GEMS) gets clients. I think it’s horrible and disgusting to prosecute minors for prostitution, but I think the solution is to stop prosecuting minors, including “repeat offenders” for prostitution. It ALSO asks you to contact your legislators and ask for increased funding to enforce the NY State Anti-Trafficking Law, without elaborating on where that funding goes. Guess where it goes? Raids. Guess what happens in raids? Human rights abuses and mass arrests, whether the people involved were there willingly or not. Guess where many of the prostitution arrests that trafficked people often rack up before escaping come from? You guessed it. Raids, funded by anti-trafficking money.

    Now, I look at a website that SWP and several other service providers to trafficking victims are a part of, called the NY Anti-Trafficking Network, and I see something different. I see, what do you know, people actually helping trafficking victims. I see information on the T Visa, information for legal advocates, information for social workers, some efforts toward public education. This document which gives recommendations for state legislation, notes that members of the network have provided direct services to over 400 trafficking survivors, and emphasizes effectiveness. It asks for measures like allowing public and immigration benefits to not hinge on cooperation with law enforcement, allowing vacating convictions, allowing civil suits against traffickers. And so on. Practical measures, things that would make a difference.

    Guess which network I trust more to advocate for trafficking survivors?

  19. “forced migration” in comment 17 should also read, “forced migration or migration that ends in coercive circumstances.”

  20. Damn. Thats why I should leave debunking the anti-sex worker rights disguised as anti-trafficking bullshit to the professionals 😉

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