Woodhull Opposes Seattle City Council’s Attempted Reinstatement of Regressive Anti-Sex Work Policies
On September 10, 2024, Seattle City Council’s Public Safety Committee voted 5-0 to advance two bills targeting people who use drugs and engage in sex work. The bills rely on a tried and failed policy approach known as “prostitution and drug-free zones” to minimize drug use and sex work within the city. One bill would create “Stay Out of Drug Area” (SODA) zones in five neighborhoods throughout the city, while the other bill would create a “Stay Out of Area of Prostitution” (SOAP) zone along Aurora Avenue. The latter bill would also reinstate “prostitution loitering” as a crime, which had previously been repealed at the city level in 2020.
During the Public Safety Committee hearing, several human rights advocates came out to oppose the bills and highlight the ways in which they will harm sex workers and people who use drugs while also impeding public safety. Councilmember Cathy Moore, who proposed the SOAP bill, argued it would help to address gun violence along one of the main sex work strolls in the city. Sex worker rights advocates alongside gun violence prevention advocates pushed back against such an assertion clarifying that the bill falsely conflates gun violence with the sex trade. They explained that instead of stopping gun violence, the Council’s regression back to punitive sex work policies does nothing to address root causes of violence which disproportionately impacts sex workers and other marginalized communities throughout Seattle.
Woodhull Freedom Foundation is alarmed by the Seattle City Council’s attempts to reinstate sex work policies that have already proven to not only be ineffective but also likely violate individual’s constitutional rights. For over a decade we have spoken out against such policies including previous “prostitution free zones” that existed for years in Washington, DC. Ultimately this policy was repealed in the nation’s capital and DC’s attorney general’s office identified them as likely unconstitutional. The experiences in DC and other jurisdictions that have enacted and subsequently repealed such misguided policies in the past teaches us that this approach is not the way forward. Restricting sex workers’ freedom of movement does not reduce crime but it does increase harm to sex workers especially those who are most frequently targets of violence, including police violence. This includes sex workers who are Black, Trans and gender expansive, as well as sex workers who use drugs and those who have been previously incarcerated.
We urge the Seattle City Council to reject these proposed bills when they come for a full Council vote on September 17, 2024. We also implore Councilmembers to heed the warnings of the local sex worker rights groups opposing these bills. This includes the Coalition for Rights and Safety which has documented how reinstatement of SOAPs and “prostitution loitering” laws will re-codify a racist and ineffective approach to the sex trade; and Strippers are Workers which has outlined the numerous harms of these bills in a sign-on letter for Seattle residents to express their opposition.
Woodhull also encourages local residents to come out and testify against the bill at next week’s Council hearing.