You Need to Know About “Decrim”
By: Max Micallef
Tags: Sex Work, LGBTQ, Bipoc, New York, Human Rights

What are the statistics?

The rights of sex workers are human rights, are civil rights, and is also a socioeconomic discussion. These are but a few of sex work’s categorizations. Here’s why:

1 in 5 police reports of sexual assault in the U.S., of urban-located emergency rooms, have been filed by victims who are sex workers. Of these victims, the majority were younger, poorer, and suffered greater injuries than victims of sexual assault who are not sex workers. Many U.S. states still exclude sex workers from the protections of rape shield laws. This includes New York State. With this, the majority of sex workers are ineligible to relieve rape victim compensation funds. U.S. rates of sexual and otherwise violence from police officers towards sex workers are incredibly high. 17% of New York City sex workers have reported sexual harassment/assault and abuse by police, including rape. In Chicago, 30% of erotic dancers and 24% of street-based sex workers who reported that they were raped identified a police officer as the rapist. In 2020, 37 known TGNCNB individuals were murdered; the highest annual rate recorded thus far. This rate is just under double the number recorded the year before. The vast majority of those victims were Black transwomen, with many of those individuals being sex workers. For many Black and Latinx transwomen, their sex work is considered “survival sex” due to sex work, for them, being the last resort as a source of income. Overall, 34% of Black transwomen in the U.S. live in poverty due to high rates of discrimination in healthcare, housing, education, incarceration, and the legal workforce. Many migrant sex workers in the U.S., especially women, face a higher risk of deportation compared to migrant people who aren’t sex workers. This risk especially present when migrant sex workers report to law enforcement that they have been a victim of sexual assault or an otherwise sexual crime. This then deters them from reporting incidents to the police, who are, as statistically stated, often the perpetrators themselves. Along with transphobia, the general homophobia/queerphobia experienced by LGBTQ+ sex workers is much higher than the queerphobia experienced by LGBTQ+ people who are not sex workers. Due to continued governmental stigmatization of sex work (as the government decides what is considered legal work), HIV-positive LGBTQ+ people face high rates of discrimination in access to quality healthcare, if they are able to access any healthcare at all.

Sources: 1,2,3,4,6 ; 5 ; 7

This is horrible. So what is “Decrim” then, and how would it aid sex workers?

“Decrim” is the name given towards all efforts being made on state and federal levels to decriminalize sex work and trade, as well as the advocacy of additional laws, protections, and rights of sex workers associated with the decriminalization of sex work. DecrimNY is currently advocating for three main bills in the NYS legislature that would greatly uplift the lives of sex workers, with attention to one of those bills in particular.

While the “Walking While Trans” bill is making great strides, and work continues to be done in passing the “Record Relief” bill, the “Stop Violence in the Sex Trades Act” is quickly ramping up in support in support in the form of coalition building. Led by progressive champion State Senator Salazar and Assemblymember Gottfried, community organizations are making sure more moderate elected officials know that this is a humanitarian issue and not a political game.

I’m personally noticing many LGBTQ+ groups across New York State increasing their advocacy towards the measure, whether they were involved in advocating for sex workers’ rights in the past or are starting to do so now.

The Act summary directly states the mission of the bill as the following:

“Decriminalizes certain prostitution offenses; amends provisions relating to [the] prosecution of such offenses and vacating judgments…. To repeal statutes that criminalize sex work between consenting adults, but keep laws relating to minors or trafficking, and to provide for criminal record relief for people convicted of crimes repealed….”

In summary, all sex workers in New York State, and therefore New York City would no longer be criminalized for their work. The criminal history of sex workers relating to the criminalization of their work would also be “expunged” from their record. Additionally, the Act’s decriminalization would in itself be nondiscrimination protections for sex workers previously excluded from particular benefits governmental entities have already been offering to those considered part of the legal workforce.

By doing this, already marginalized people would receive the safety they are due and would force an additional spotlight on the connected systemic issues that need to also be addressed from a holistic lens.

Another main part of this bill, if passed, is that sex trafficking would also be reduced. The people who commit sex trafficking-related crimes would not find a “safe haven” in the currently criminalized practice of sex work, of people within so left vulnerable.

Your moral argument is valid, but are there any other reasons to decriminalize sex work?

Yes, absolutely. Just as the human rights issues at hand are intersectional, so are the benefits from so after correcting this injustice.

It’s not a coincidence that advocacy for sex work is increasing during a pandemic. Many political theorists, economists, and peer-reviewed studies have concluded that decriminalizing sex work would actually boost our uneven and deflated economy.

Not only would decriminalization give the desperately needed COVID-19 funds to sex workers, as the majority of sex workers are ineligible to receive stimulus funds and unemployment benefits, but it would provide the financial means to mitigate the exploitation and sex trafficking that sex workers face.

As a whole, introducing a “new” industry into the legal market is always economically stimulating. Though this example is legalization rather than decriminalization, this is exactly what’s happening with the massive revenue being generated from legalizing hemp, which is a major step forward in addressing our broken criminal justice system, and our racist, transphobic/queerphobic governmental institutions.

To recap:

It is 2021. Let’s grow up.

Human rights are being violated because peoples’ access to means of living is being denied, people are being hurt, and people are dying violent deaths. Civil rights are being violated because of the lack of socioeconomic opportunity due to the discrimination of marginalized people, and the stigmatization of this type of work continues to play out in our legal code. Essentially, the criminalization of existence.

Additionally, because we are failing to challenge our preconceived notions of sex work, we are also missing out on the immense economic opportunity this could bring to New York State and our nation as a whole; during a pandemic and in general.

Sex work is work. New York especially should be keeping up with the times. Sex work needs to not only be federal decriminalized but undergo federal legalization. The injustices stated need to be fully corrected, and this industry has the ability to be fully saturated into our economy.

This is simply the right thing to do.