Sex Work Decriminalized in New York?

Brut America

Will New York become the first state to decriminalize sex work? The answer is yes — if it was up to this group of advocates, lawmakers, and sex workers fighting to push through legislation to improve the lives of people in the sex trades.

Transcript

00:00The police department cannot tell me what I need. I know what I need.

00:15Beyond decriminalization, we want to decarcerate and destigmatize the sex trades.

00:18We want people in the sex trades to have access to their basic needs.

00:22We're not looking right now to create a new industry and regulate it

00:26and start thinking about licensing and all of these things.

00:29No, we're focused on making sure that condoms are not used as evidence of sex work,

00:36that there aren't any laws that impede people from hanging out on the street.

00:43Loitering is something that we're looking to amend the penal code about.

00:59When I was 19, I was walking with my boyfriend, you know, holding hands.

01:10It was like 12 or 1 a.m., I don't remember.

01:13And two undercover cops stopped us.

01:18They searched my purse. They found condoms.

01:20And that was the, you know, the evidence to their arrest me.

01:25Even my boyfriend explained to them that we are partners.

01:29They said to him, go home or we're going to arrest you.

01:33I was arrested that night, and they put me in charge of prostitution.

01:44The pimp will have the power. The brothel owner will have the power.

01:49And we know this because we find it to be true

01:52in countries that have legalized prostitution.

02:00The idea that we should end demand for sex as a strategy to address exploitation,

02:05it's just not the way that you address exploitation in any other industry.

02:09We don't end demand for food to end trafficking in the agriculture industry.

02:14And the same goes for the sex trades.

02:17We're not going to end demand for sex to end trafficking in the sex trades.

02:21The way to end trafficking is through labor rights.

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