Opinion: A Sex Worker Says Decriminalization Means a Safer Workplace

by | Jun 13, 2019

Opinion: A Sex Worker Says Decriminalization Means a Safer Workplace

by | Jun 13, 2019

Alexi Ashe Meyers and Rebecca Zipkin recently wrote an op-ed where they dismissed sex worker who put their lives on the line advocating for themselves and their communities. I’m one of the voices they warned readers against in their editorial, because I want decriminalization. I’m a sex worker and an undocumented immigrant from Honduras who works with Red Canary Song, an organization that works for immigrant massage parlor workers and DecrimNY, a collective that fights to decriminalize sex work in New York. I went to Albany in May with a hundred other sex workers to push for an elimination of “loitering for the purposes of prostitution” charge, and to vacate all criminal records of sex trafficking victims since they were under force.

I’m constantly told by well-connected and wealthy people that I’m erasing “marginalized women” and “slaves” by speaking, and that they alone understand the issue. There is an irony in predominately wealthy people [who have never done sex work] claiming to be experts on ending global human trafficking/slavery. They willfully ignore the reality that much of what they buy comes from some kind of exploitation, and many of their products are made in sweatshops and by child labor. This myopia occurs because we have decided that big business and profit are more important than human lives. Many Americans are aware that many overseas workers, undocumented immigrants, and prisoners work labor-intensive, low-wage jobs in dangerous conditions so that they won’t have to. Just like the fight for medical care, public housing, public transportation, and education, sex workers are told by those of means that we can wait for justice and equality. Rather than invest in these areas, we increase police spending and send the military to the border handle more “immediate” threats.

Read the rest at citylimits.org.

Our Books

Shop books published by the Libertarian Institute.

libetarian institute longsleeve shirt

Our Books

cb0cb1ef 3fcb 417d 80d8 4eef7bbd8290

Recent Articles

Recent

TGIF: More on Menger and Value

TGIF: More on Menger and Value

Consumer goods are also called finished goods. The products we buy at the supermarket and other retail stores have, in less finished form, passed through many stages (including distribution), reaching back to the original factors of production: land and labor. Land...

read more
A Federal Reserve Unbound

A Federal Reserve Unbound

For more than three decades, the Federal Reserve has steadily expanded its role in the American economy. From a relatively narrow mandate as a lender of last resort to commercial banks, to inflation and employment targeting, it now operates as a systemic backstop for...

read more
Europe Must Stop Playing Pawn to American Power

Europe Must Stop Playing Pawn to American Power

As the world experiences significant geopolitical changes, political blocs like the European Union have a unique opportunity to chart a new path. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the European Union and its twenty-seven member states have delivered...

read more

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This