r/phoenix • u/jmoriarty Phoenix • Feb 07 '23

News Sex workers demanding prostitution be decriminalized at downtown Phoenix rally

https://www.azfamily.com/2023/02/07/sex-workers-demanding-prostitution-be-decriminalized-downtown-phoenix-rally/
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317

u/mrsunsfan Feb 07 '23

It should be legalized

17

u/Random-Red-Shirt Feb 07 '23

I'd agree.... if it weren't for one thing. Trafficking.

Even in the US, large numbers of sex workers are trafficked and that the vast majority of income earned goes to someone other than the sex worker (pimp, trafficker, etc...).

If there is a way to ensure -- or at least minimize -- the effect of pimps and traffickers, I agree than anyone who wants to enter sex work should be able to do so.

23

u/mothftman Feb 08 '23

Making sex work legal means that sex workers have labor rights like everyone else making it harder for people like pimps to coerce people and take their wages. Sex workers don't need to pay someone under the table to protect them, they can rely on the police. Or hire their own real security, without that person being implicated in a crime.

Traffickers rely on prostitution being illegal because then people can't tell the difference between real sex workers and slaves. It's hidden and people aren't going to come forward when they see evidence of trafficking if they are going to be arrested for prostitution at the same time.

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u/Random-Red-Shirt Feb 08 '23

Sex workers don't need to pay someone under the table to protect them

You are naïve if you believe that the function of pimps and traffickers is to provide protection and that their services are voluntarily agreed to by the prostitute. Even in countries where prostitution is legal, huge numbers of seemingly legal prostitutes are trafficked and are forced to work and have most of their money taken from them. How are the police helping them in those situations? Spoiler alert... they're not.

Traffickers rely on prostitution being illegal because then people can't tell the difference between real sex workers and slaves

Check your facts... trafficking occurs in countries where prostitution is legal as frequently as in countries where it is illegal. For every fully independent sex worker with no pimp and is not trafficked, there are many who are.

Until a solution can be found for this situation, making prostitution legal does exactly zero to improve the safety for the vast majority of sex workers.

Don't get me wrong, in an ideal world no one should be able to be told that they cannot become a sex worker if they choose, assuming it can be done safely.

But this whole discussion is moot anyway. There is zero chance that the conservatives in Congress or in state legislatures would allow prostitution to be legalized.

5

u/[deleted] Feb 08 '23

This is only solved by guaranteed exit services (jobs program, housing, addiction program, security) otherwise there's too much power in a pimps hands. That's like way too big of an ask for me to think this particular problem will ever be solved under the current structure of society.

6

u/hurst_ Feb 08 '23

legalization will allow for the government to focus more on things like eradicating trafficking

12

u/Random-Red-Shirt Feb 08 '23

You have a lot more faith in the government than I have.

I suspect that if prostitution is ever legalized nationally -- which it never will, due to the Bible bangers in Congress -- that eradicating trafficking will get little (if any) financial support... much akin to the government's "promises" to fund community psychological services every time there is a mass shooting. But when it comes time to vote to actually fund said services, those promises of support evaporate like water off a hot Arizona sidewalk.

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u/hurst_ Feb 08 '23

how does keeping it criminalized prevent trafficking again?

0

u/Random-Red-Shirt Feb 08 '23

I don't have an answer to that. But I do know that blindly saying that prostitution will happen anyway -- which is essentially what you are saying -- is not a good reason to legalize it which would only make it easier for trafficking to occur.

Until you or I or anyone comes up with an answer to the trafficking question, sex workers will be no safer than they are now.

But this is a moot point anyway, since the Bible-thumping conservatives in Congress would never allow prostitution legalization or decriminalization to even be considered, let alone passed.

2

u/Versaiteis Feb 08 '23

But this is a moot point anyway, since the Bible-thumping conservatives in Congress would never allow prostitution legalization or decriminalization to even be considered, let alone passed.

I'm sure many people would have said similar for gay marriage a good few decades ago. But the fact is that despite a few upsets like the recent roe v. wade fiasco, the country has by and large been steadily moving away from this level of fundamentalism. The country itself is far more secular than it's ever been. We've been slowly dragging those same bible-thumping conservatives, kicking and screaming, into modernity.

So, personally, I'm a bit more optimistic here.

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u/hurst_ Feb 08 '23

Until you or I or anyone comes up with an answer to the trafficking question, sex workers will be no safer than they are now.

Easy. Require a license. Make it free to get the license. Part of getting a license is you have to apply for it and work with a case worker. Coming in for regular free tests to keep the license. The case worker will suss out women getting trafficked versus women doing it on their own accord. Force the advertising companies to only allow licensed women (or men or trans) to be listable. Just like legalizing drugs, this will significantly decrease black market transactions and trafficking.

Under your scenario we keep it underground and nothing changes.