News

Last week an explosive article from Elizabeth Nolan Brown detailed the extent to which the government know the claims about Backpage were political myths. Prediction: Sen. Kamala Harris, who tried to prosecute the CEOs as California Attorney's General, will not comment.

Both Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren released their platforms on criminal legal reform, and while both included general reforms which would impact the lives of people who trade sex, neither mentioned sex work, either in terms of decriminalization or FOSTA/SESTA.

This week Bernie Sanders released his platform on criminal legal reform. Absent was any mention of sex work or decriminalization. Activist and DecrimNY member Jessica Raven shares some thoughts on the lack of consideration for people who trade sex in the platform.

This year's Operation Cross Country sting took the entire month of July. While the FBI announced that, because of the disparate numbers of arrests versus identification of victims they were "reconsidering" the program, they simply re-branded as Operation Independence Day, with the same results.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has weighed in on the subject of sex work decrim: "During her visit to the Elmhurst Greenmarket, [she] spoke with the Queens Eagle: “I think it’s something that I think should happen, but we have to be very careful about it,” she said about decriminalizing sex work.

The Queens, NY District Attorney race continues to trudge on between pro-decrim, former public defender Tiffany Caban and pro-real estate development candidate Melinda Katz. The results of the election were close enough to trigger a recount, which wrapped up with Katz in the lead by 60

Joe Biden continued his trend of being unsurprising by saying he doesn't support the decriminalization of sex work. Also this week, Business Insider did a great wrap up on the massive failure that is SESTA-FOSTA, including how much it has not curbed trafficking.

This week Jeffrey Epstein, a politically connected billionaire, was arrested on charges of trafficking of minors for sex. Because they were underage, the court doesn't need to prove that anyone was coerced or forced. Allegations include rape with physical force, but those aren't in the charges.

SB233 in California mirrors a similar policy already passed in San Francisco and a brand new law in Washington state. Interested in getting something like this in your city? Alix Lutnick, a brilliant researcher and author, wrote about the process of getting the policy through in San Francisco.

This last weekend was the wrap up of the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, with weekend-long celebrations in cities from San Francisco to Montgomery, Alabama to New York. The story of sex work has always been an important part of the story of LGBTQ liberation, and a recent poll found...

Add TeenVogue to the list of amazing publications talking decrim! And in a reminder that decrim is clearly the right thing to support, Don Jr. has come out against the article. In response, we should all definitely come out against his new beard.

In 2017 Layleen had been arrested on soliciting charges by an undercover. In New York, everyone facing prostitution charges goes through the "Human Trafficking Intervention Courts," and are supposed to be diverted to services - but not without the threat of punishment hanging over you...

Today, the NYC-based coalition DecrimNY will introduce the most comprehensive decriminalization bill in history into a state legislature. The bill would strike laws which criminalize selling, buying and promoting from NY penal code. While the coalition doesn't anticipate a vote this session...

Calls are coming for Pride month to remember that honoring Stonewall doesn't mean a colorful drink at Happy Hour or a rainbow version of your logo, but demanding the queer movement center the lives and needs of trans folks, queers of color, and sex workers.

This week saw AOC come out in support for Tiffany Caban, the queer Latina running for District Attorney in Queens. One of her campaign promises is to decline prosecution for low-level charges like marijuana and prostitution. She is also super crush-worthy.

The Florida State legislature just passed a trafficking bill which included a provision for a Public Registry (they're calling it a "database"... po-TAY-to, pa-TAH-to, pa-Fucking-Bullshit) for everyone arrested for solicitation of prostitution. While the media has described it...

"Sex work is a job just like any other, but its criminalization exposes sex workers to discrimination, abuse & exploitation. Talking about it is the first step to reducing the stigma, but decriminalization is the only way to implement safeguards to protect those in this industry." – Susan Sarandon

Florida's controversial "trafficking" bill heads back to the state House after Senate revision, re-including a provision to create a registry for people charged with ANY prostitution-related crime. Has there ever been a time where that kind of thing didn't go horribly fucking wrong?

A couple in Calgary is challenging third-party laws in Canada, saying they are unconstitutional, and infringe on the rights of sex workers, citing the importance for health and safety. The couple ran an escort service that was shut down in 2105 under the law.

Strippers in the UK are looking to improve their working conditions through unionization. This would expand the number of countries in the world with a union for those in the sex trade. In 2018 Spain's Labor Ministry registered OTRAS, and just last month Scotland's GMB launched a sex worker branch.

In addition to FOSTA, broader conversation about private companies trying to make decisions about content has led to the clamping down of numerous outlets. Recently, Instagram has decided that content which is sexual but not explicit is going to be downgraded in searches, but not removed.

This year is seeing a slew of state laws that impact folks who trade sex in a variety of ways, and where sex workers are showing up to champion change. In Oregon, Senate bill 596 would protect sex workers...

In South Australia (a state of Australia), an MP has introduced a decriminalization bill on sex work. Sex workers and advocates, including New Zealand’s Dame Catherine Healy, came to Parliament to urge legislators to pass the bill. This would be the second of Australia’s six states to decriminalize.

With so much going on around the issue of sex work, it's impossible to keep up. In this space, I'm going to be collecting and sharing some of the news along with some context. Hopefully once a week I can give you a smattering of how alive this movement is right now and get you as excited as I am.

LOS ANGELES—Slixa, a leading online directory for adult entertainment services, is launching its first-ever $10,000 Essay Contest that will focus on sex and adult industry workers’ personal experiences eight months after