Please know the difference between decriminalization and legalization when discussing sex work. We advocate for decriminalization, which means that sex work would function the same way it is now without licensing, regulation, AND without police involvement or harassment.  

I am a very active advocate and have connections with sex worker rights groups all over the world. If you would like to learn more or show your support, please follow me on twitter.  

Thank you!  

@WiMissScarlet on twitter

Decriminalization -- means without police involvement or harassment.  Mean if a dude pay a provider $80 for sex he can't sue when she don't preform of she can't come she did A $300 thing when he only paid $80.    

It like going into a job interview high in the United States I don't see it ever being decriminalization do why the laws work. Maybe legal under special rules.

to think that any state is going to “decriminalize” prostitution, as you describe it, in the foreseeable future.  The age and trafficking prohibitions are never coming off the books. And you have to deal with the third party problem- the law just hates third party involvement,  and for good reason. “Bookers” violate the law as well as pimps.

And then you have to deal with the incall problem, or “place of prostitution” as the law calls it. The law will not tolerate a brothel without the kind of heavy regulation we see in Nevada. Owners, lessors, renters – they are all covered if they know what is going on. In your state, it is a crime simply to enter a “place of prostitution” with the intent to have sex. Think about that for  a moment. And a place of prostitution is not only a crime but is an enjoinable, lease voiding, nuisance. So you would have to knock out this statute as well.

No, there is no chance that any legislature is going to say “never mind” to all of that. I think the only possible decrim bill would be to decrim between a single adult buyer and a single adult seller on a rotating  outcall basis. But the broad approach taken by Coyote and other sex worker groups strikes me as very uninformed.

Those are issues that are separate from what consenting adults can do.

I agree that getting decriminalization is a very long shot, but all progressive social legislation starts off as a long shot and then some day, voila, we have abolition of slavery, women suffrage, civil rights, abortion rights, gay marriage, etc.

So who's to say that our day in the sun won't come?   After all, other western countries mostly allow P4P at least to some extent.

Recently someone posted an article that 4 female state reps in Vermont filed a bill to decriminalize P4P, so let's show some optimism.

While decriminalization is a nice goal, I suspect that if it were to happen, it wouldn't be long before regulation followed. It seems to be the natural order of society to set down rules and limitations for everything.  

Take a deep breath slugger. This is what everyone said in New Zealand before sex work was decriminalized in 2003. ALL consensual adult sex work should be decriminalized. Like, GASP,  What is illegal here, the money, or the sex????  

Sex work was not illegal in the US until the 1920s. We need to ALL be vocal. We need to all share our support of decriminalization.  

There are gals that are still RAPED before being arrested by cops for being a sex worker. (Legal in several states in the US, FYI).  

24,000 sex workers were arrested in 2018. 30,000 were arrested in 2017. For what? When there is no victim there is no crime.

decriminalisation doesn't mean "no regulation" though. It means that the industry is regulated through workplace laws and other general health and safety etc. Also any special regulation is worker centred rather than treating Sex Work as a moral hazard.

I think the distinction between decriminalize and legalize is somewhat of a technical one.  That is, the words are used synonymously in the general public.  You (and advocates at large) use more refined definitions.

Well this is America, capitalistic and puritanical.  I don’t think pure decriminalization is ever going to happen.  There will have to be some regulating, licensing and medical monitoring just like in the legal brothels in Nevada.

Is the path there similar to legalizing weed?  First  for medical use then full legalization with all the taxes and governmental bullshit.  I remember a long time ago I went to a screening for a movie by and about a sex surrogate that provided a medical solution for various psycho-sexual disorders.  The surrogate had a psychological degree and was licensed to practice, but It really was just some weird pasty horny dude that was basically paying for sex because his need to get laid was pathological.

To some extent I suppose thats a form of decriminalization.

 
Sexual surrogacy is a real thing that goes back to Masters and Johnson (or earlier?).  
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_surrogate
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If it is a covered expense under "Medicare for All" it could swing a lot of votes!

You need to work on your talking points. "Where there is no victim there is no crime". Theoretically, drinking and driving there is no victim, you're just drinking.  

There are varying levels and categories of sex work. For example, streetwalkers, Some are there voluntarily working for their pimp/lover in a sick twisted "love" relationship. Also, street-level sex work attracts crime; drugs, violence, trash in neighborhoods (used condoms), etc.

I also don't believe cops get to legally rape women under any circumstance. They may get away with it, but its not legal.

The number of 24,000 and 30,000 arrested means they were arrested for a crime. It is illegal immigration, not 'undocumented workers'. It is still illegal, regardless of what you say.

Prostitution is legal in certain counties in Nevada. That should be an example of overall legal and safe prostitution. You should also look into crime statistics in the Netherlands. Lower crime (including rape) in the Netherlands, which has legalized prostitution (for now).

Canada also allows prostitution.  

But, I would note, that countries with legalized prostitution, the rates women make are far lower than in the United States; FKK in Europe is 50 euro to start, same with window girls in Amsterdam. Canada is less than $200 USD.  

Just saying, illegal activity is profitable for a reason.

Do you have more specifics about those numbers? Those are initial arrests? How many had charges dismissed? How many were prosecuted? How many were found guilty / acquitted / case dismissed?  
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Did they ever do your interview? Has it been published or is it still being edited for publication (or is it to be video broadcast?)?  
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I was going to do a video interview but I insisted that they shoot my good side. That ended that when they told me I don't have a good side. ;-(

I am pretty confident and comfortable with my talking points, lol  but thanks.  

Prostitution/sex work is actually legal in one form or another in most countries around the world.  And yes, I am quite familiar with the crime statistics for most of these countries in regards to sex work.  

And by police raping sex workers, it is legal for the police to give a false name/info, have sex with the sex worker, and then give their real identity and arrest the sex worker. Still technically considered rape because the sex was consensual with the false identity, NOT the real identity of the officer.  

And the arrests stats I gave are from the FBI. And yes, there are states that arrest underage sex workers and/or those that are being sex trafficked. The majority of the arrests were done from stings that are funded by anti sex trafficking orgs that receive millions of dollars from the Fed government to "fight" sex trafficking. 98% of sex workers are consensual.  

I have worked at a brothel in NV. It is far from the perfect example of how sex work should be modeled. The brothels are a money making racket for the owners.  

Canada has the Nordic model, which is something no sex workers support or want. It is legal to sell sex work, but illegal to buy.  No sex workers want their clients arrested.  

The price of a sex worker really depends on the country as well as the sex worker. Sex work is illegal in the US right now, but you of course could find a sex worker that costs anywhere from $50 to $1,000 +.  This is true in countries where it is legal. Some areas have a base amount, but of course the sex worker can charge more if they want. I went to a brothel in France and the average price there was $400 Euros.  

Any other questions??????

These stats are from the FBI and are for initial arrests. I do not know how many were acquitted/dismissed/etc.  

 I did a "pre" interview with the gal just to go over basic talking points. She is going to contact me again to do the actual interview, which I believe is going to be video.  

I am sure you have a good side.  LOL  

I'm gonna have to reject the notion that having sex under an unofficial name is "technical rape."   Mainly because it dilutes the meaning of non-consensual.  To put it broadly, regret sex is not rape.

There is a big difference between consenting to having sex with someone who you thought was a different person and then regretting having sex with someone that you knew who they were during the act of sex.  

If I consent to having sex with Joe Schmow and then after he says well, actually I am not Joe Schmow, I am actually John Doe, then yes, I was technically just raped. I consented to having sex with Joe Schmow, NOT John Doe.  

RAPE: Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without that person's consent.

Rape does not always have to include force. You can forcibly have sex with someone as long as they consent to it. It is the consent part that is rape or not. And obviously no sex worker is going to consent to having sex with police if they know that they are LE.

END OF MESSAGE

When you start opening that door, what about the "pick up artist" who claims he's a billionaire to get into some hotties pants? Is that rape. How about the customer of a hooker who shorts the envelope? Is That rape? Or a woman gets drunk, blames the guy for getting her drunk and claims rape the morning when she wakes up in a strange bed with a hangover? Is that rape too.

 
Forcible rape is an act of violence that should be treated as such. Lying to get laid is simple NOT comparable and to try to link the two does serve to minimize forcible rape that includes violence or murder, or the threat of violence or murder.

 
Let's put it this way, if you fucked a cop not knowing he was a cop, and assuming he didn't beat you or otherwise abuse you, are you going to have nightmares over it, or wake up in a cold sweat reliving it days, weeks, months or even years later? Of course not,

so is it still rape if I book as John LaRoche but don't arrest you?

and a better understanding of the problem to be an effective advocate. The victimless crime argument has been completely debunked. Sex work is criminalized because of the social ills that invariable accompany it-significantly increased rates of STDs, trafficking, money laundering, income tax evasion, and criminal  involvement. She needs an answer for each one.

             New Zealand decriminalized at the federal level. But here the feds are going the other way, as we all know from the 2018 enactment of FOSTA. Section (a) does not even mention trafficking –it prohibits the operation of an interactive computer service that facilitates  prostitution. And the affirmative defense provided does not even apply to states where sex work is “decriminalized” but only to states where sex work is “legal.” State law decriminalization would also not  protect FOSTA violators from civil liability for damages. All it will take is one state AG civil suit for damages (see opioid litigation) against an online review platform to make them all go dark again.

              So you have to deal with FOSTA first before there is any profit in advocating decrim under state law.  Best idea is to support Senator Warren’s and Rep Khanna’s Safe Sex Workers Study Act  to study FOSTA’s effect on sex workers. If that gets passed, there will be a federal study on the question; if the study shows FOSTA makes sex work more dangerous, FOSTA may be amended and TER is safely back in business.

          But, please, don’t shine the spotlight on TER or even Twitter until this happens.

By the way, I think the practice is hypocritical.  In Minnesota massage parlor sex cases were thrown out of court when it was challenged that the cops allowed actual sex or hand jobs.  Police policy was then changed to prohibit that kind of contact.

That said, if you sell illegal narcotics to an undercover cop, good luck arguing lack of consent because of his false ID.  

On the flip side, you might have a case (at least a valid tort) if you have sex with someone who claimed not to have and STD and you end up catching an STD.  If you can show some harm that you took measures to avoid ... but not including being arrested for illegal activity.

Huh? That section does mention trafficking:
"Section 2421A - Promotion or facilitation of prostitution and reckless disregard of sex TRAFFICKING"
It prohibits the operation of an interactive computer service that facilitates or promotes the prostitution of ANOTHER PERSON...

All FOSTA has done so far is scare folks, censor online speech and motivate opportunists to sue online services such as Facebook, Mailchimp, Salesforce -- and now they're going after hotel chains as well.

When Section 2257 (another law relating to the adult biz) was first enforced, millions of porn/adult websites went dark due to fear of legal penalties -- yet, only 1 entity was prosecuted under 2257 (and then the charges were dropped).

The government just instilling fear since it can't control the internet....

 
  That study will only serve their political agendas rather than serve the people, so no support from me.No.

If TER wants to come back now during the wrath of FOSTA, then they should accept all of the potential risks that come with being visible under this new legislation.  

TER made their bed. Now, they have to lie in it.

 
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when we land on planet Libertarian Utopia. Advocate all you want, but society functions via governing. Licensing and/or regulation are necessary evils. Accept it and at least SOME who oppose you will at least take you seriously.

"Sex work is criminalized because of the social ills that invariable accompany it-significantly increased rates of STDs, trafficking, money laundering, income tax evasion, and criminal  involvement. She needs an answer for each one. "

You are less likely to catch an STI from a sex worker than a civilian in countries which have some form of legal/decrim of sex work. The other things you mention are also boosted by sex work being criminalised. If the industry is decriminalised, it can be regulated, workers have protections and access to healthcare.

Decriminalisation does allow for regulation. All legalisation means is that bosses, not workers have the power and that the vast majority of sex work is still illegal