Sex workers are advocating for the reduction of criminal penalties for prostitution and the expansion of sex worker rights in at least a dozen states, including here in D.C., on local and national levels.
Last year, both New York and California voted to stop arresting people for “loitering for the purposes of prostitution” and citizens in Burlington, Vt., and Seattle, voted to remove laws criminalizing sex work.
Today, legislators in Vermont, Washington, Hawaii, New York, and Oregon are all considering bills that would decriminalize adult, consensual, sex work.
This is an emergent issue. It’s tempting to compare the legalization of marijuana in dozens of states across the country with the accelerating effort to decriminalize sex work.