sexual services for money or goods between consenting adults – is probably as old as human history. The United States has some of the harshest and most far-reaching criminal laws against sex work in the world, resulting in nearly 50,000 arrests each year, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Like the rest of the country except for Nevada, the District of Columbia criminalizes sex work. The LGBTQ+ rights movement should take a strong stand in favor of abolishing or substantially reforming laws that criminalize behavior by consenting adults. Similar to “sodomy” laws that criminalize oral and anal sex and target gay men, sex work criminalization laws are incompatible with our movement’s advocacy of sexual autonomy. They cause real harm, particularly for the most marginalized members of our community: lowincome transgender people and LGBTQ+ homeless youth, and especially those who are black and brown.
Sex Worker Rights
Sex Work – the exchange of
Why The LGBTQ+ Movement Should Be In The Fight!
The opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of the Capital Pride Alliance, Inc., its Board, staff members, or volunteers.
By Guillaume Bagal and Daniel Bruner
GUEST EDITORIAL:
Sex work often is a means of survival for people living in poverty. Due to systemic discrimination and stigma, LGBTQ+ people, especially those who are black and brown and/or transgender, disproportionately experience joblessness, unstable housing or homelessness, lack of education and other opportunities, making them more likely to engage in sex work and other underground economies. The National Center for Transgender Equality report, Meaningful Work: Transgender Experiences in the Sex Trade, based on a 2015 survey of more than 27,000 transgender adults across the U.S., confirmed that transgender individuals are more vulnerable to discrimination, impoverishment, unemployment, and housing instability, and more likely to trade sex for survival than cisgender people. Another important recent study, Access Denied: Washington, DC Trans Needs Assessment, based on a survey of more than 500 transgender individuals in DC, reported that nearly half of all transgender persons in D.C. earned below $10,000 a year, compared to approximately 11 percent of the District’s general population, and that 20 percent of respondents were experiencing homelessness at the time of the survey. Roughly half of respondents who were unemployed reported engaging in underground or “grey economy” work to earn income, and over a third of all respondents were currently trading sex for money, housing and/or drugs, or had done so in the past. Laws criminalizing sex work have a disproportionately negative impact on groups already facing discrimination. The enforcement of these laws occurs within a larger context of racial profiling and over-policing of low-income communities THE 2018 OFFICIAL GUIDE TO CAPITAL PRIDE
Page 97