Woodhull Urges Congress to Honor the Human Rights of Sex Workers and Pass the SAFE SEX Workers Study Act
December 17th is the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers. For over 20 years, memorials and vigils have been held on this day to honor the sex workers lost to physical and systemic violence. While this day initially started in the US to remember the victims of the Green River serial killer who targeted sex workers, it has grown into a day of action across the world for organizing against all forms of violence, including advocating for policies that protect the rights, health, and safety of sex workers.
The Woodhull Freedom Foundation calls on Congress to recognize how stigma fuels violence against sex workers, including through policies that do not respect workers’ sexual freedom and bodily autonomy. As an organization that affirms sexual freedom as a fundamental human right, we see the fight for sex workers’ rights as integral to our work to champion human rights. We have opposed legislation that harms sex workers and fuels violence, including laws and policies that intend to end human trafficking in the sex trades but ignore the rights and well-being of those working within the industry. This is exemplified by FOSTA, the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act, and the Senate bill, SESTA, the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (collectively known as SESTA/FOSTA), which Congress passed in 2018 despite urgent pleas from sex workers who warned legislators that the laws would make their work more dangerous, putting them and survivors of trafficking at increased risk of exploitation.
Since its passage, Woodhull has opposed SESTA/FOSTA for erroneously conflating consensual sex work with trafficking and interfering with more productive attempts to protect vulnerable people from harm. Woodhull has also challenged SESTA/FOSTA in the courts on the grounds that it chills online expression about sexual topics and encourages massive self-censorship by internet platforms. To inform these efforts, Woodhull funded critically needed research on the impacts of de-platforming sex workers, including the role that SESTA/FOSTA has played in barring sex workers from online spaces they use to protect themselves and their communities from violence.
While the research conducted by sex workers and sex worker rights organizations, including that supported by Woodhull, has been crucial in documenting the harms of SESTA/FOSTA, Congress must also act by passing the SAFE SEX Workers Study Act. This Act has been championed by Senator Elizabeth Warren and House Representative Ro Khanna since its original introduction in 2019. Today, Senator Warren and Representative Khanna reintroduced the bill in recognition of the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers, and the role policies play in addressing and preventing such violence.
Woodhull President and CEO Ricci Joy Levy stated, “In these last weeks of the 118th Congress, lawmakers must act swiftly to address the ongoing harms of SESTA/FOSTA.” Levy went on, “Woodhull urges members of Congress to take the opportunity presented by the SAFE SEX Workers Study Act to investigate not only the consequences of SESTA/FOSTA on the health and safety of sex workers and survivors of trafficking but also free speech more broadly. While we strongly support effective and targeted efforts to address human trafficking, we recognize that SESTA/FOSTA has not been the legislative tool needed to stop exploitation in the sex trades but has conversely increased violence against people involved in it.”
If passed, the SAFE SEX Workers Study Act would direct the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to study the impacts of SESTA/FOSTA and the resulting loss of online spaces on the health and safety of people involved in the sex trades. The study would assess, in part, the following impacts on people who trade sex:
- Changes in access to technology-related harm reduction services, including social media services.
- Changes in ability to negotiate terms with potential clients.
- Changes in interactions with law enforcement.
- Changes in experiences of exploitation and trafficking.
- Impacts on access to economic resources, including access to banking and financial technology tools.
- Impacts on housing stability.
- Impacts on mental health.
The SAFE SEX Workers Study Act would also direct the Department of Justice (DOJ) to report on the impacts of SESTA/FOSTA on human trafficking investigations and prosecutions resulting from the loss of access to online spaces that host information related to consensual sexual exchange. The report would assess, in part, the following impacts of SESTA/FOSTA:
- Impacts on access to online communication technologies, including social media services.
- Impacts on investigations into trafficking in persons.
- Impact on law enforcement’s ability to find and prosecute perpetrators of trafficking.
- Impact of changes to Section 230 of the Communication Decency Act.
Both the HHS study and DOJ report would include an analysis of the disparate impacts of SESTA/FOSTA on marginalized communities, including LGBTQIA+ individuals, people living in rural areas, racial and ethnic minorities, Tribal communities, people experiencing exploitation and trafficking, and undocumented and documented foreign nationals. HHS and DOJ would conduct their respective studies and reports in partnership with nonprofits and community-based organizations that serve people involved in the sex trade.