Anonymous
10/26/2019 10:52
Subject: Re:Decriminalized prostitution in DC: 15 hour council hearing 10/17-10/18
Anonymous wrote:This is virtue signaling of the lamest sort.
By that I mean this legislation that doesn't actually help the vulnerable. But I bet tha pimps are cheering.
Anonymous
10/24/2019 21:04
Subject: Re:Decriminalized prostitution in DC: 15 hour council hearing 10/17-10/18
This is virtue signaling of the lamest sort.
Anonymous
10/24/2019 08:04
Subject: Decriminalized prostitution in DC: 15 hour council hearing 10/17-10/18
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:D.C. police statistics related to prostitution related arrests in the city show that sex trafficking associated with minors or adults is rare. The police data show that out of a total of 2,685 prostitution related arrests made in a five-year period in D.C. between 2013 and 2017, only eight were linked to sex trafficking of any kind.
Trafficking skyrockets where prostitution is decriminalized. https://orgs.law.harvard.edu/lids/2014/06/12/does-legalized-prostitution-increase-human-trafficking/
I will need to read the paper but I suspect they use a loose definition of trafficking to inflate their numbers. This counterargument is similar to saying we shouldn't allow OTC medications because it increases the demand for black market drugs.
If you're trying to split hairs on the definition of trafficking between women who are literally kidnapped and women who are merely extremely vulnerable and exploited ... yeah, not really buying it.
Anonymous
10/24/2019 06:12
Subject: Decriminalized prostitution in DC: 15 hour council hearing 10/17-10/18
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:D.C. police statistics related to prostitution related arrests in the city show that sex trafficking associated with minors or adults is rare. The police data show that out of a total of 2,685 prostitution related arrests made in a five-year period in D.C. between 2013 and 2017, only eight were linked to sex trafficking of any kind.
Trafficking skyrockets where prostitution is decriminalized. https://orgs.law.harvard.edu/lids/2014/06/12/does-legalized-prostitution-increase-human-trafficking/
I will need to read the paper but I suspect they use a loose definition of trafficking to inflate their numbers. This counterargument is similar to saying we shouldn't allow OTC medications because it increases the demand for black market drugs.
Anonymous
10/23/2019 21:56
Subject: Re:Decriminalized prostitution in DC: 15 hour council hearing 10/17-10/18
Anonymous wrote:there is left and then there is crazy left
the woke olypmics has gone too far. We need more moderate folks on council not these extreme liberals.
If you list the names of moderate candidates i will happily vote for them next cycle. These fools make Comrade Cheh look good.
Anonymous
10/23/2019 17:39
Subject: Decriminalized prostitution in DC: 15 hour council hearing 10/17-10/18
Giving already underskilled and under-resourced women criminal records that will follow them and further harm them in the job market is awful. It traps them in a cycle of poverty.
Sex work should absolutely be decriminalized.
Sex work should absolutely be decriminalized.
Anonymous
10/23/2019 12:16
Subject: Decriminalized prostitution in DC: 15 hour council hearing 10/17-10/18
Don’t know what the discussion is for doesn’t affect any of you either way. Y’all just eager to whine about something.
Anonymous
10/23/2019 11:58
Subject: Re:Decriminalized prostitution in DC: 15 hour council hearing 10/17-10/18
there is left and then there is crazy left
the woke olypmics has gone too far. We need more moderate folks on council not these extreme liberals.
the woke olypmics has gone too far. We need more moderate folks on council not these extreme liberals.
Anonymous
10/23/2019 11:55
Subject: Decriminalized prostitution in DC: 15 hour council hearing 10/17-10/18
No vote planned for DC sex work decriminalization bill
https://www.washingtonblade.com/2019/10/23/no-vote-planned-for-dc-sex-work-decriminalization-bill/
https://www.washingtonblade.com/2019/10/23/no-vote-planned-for-dc-sex-work-decriminalization-bill/
Anonymous
10/23/2019 11:40
Subject: Decriminalized prostitution in DC: 15 hour council hearing 10/17-10/18
Anonymous wrote:Criminalization directly encourages the harms of violence, homelessness, & exploitation by further marginalizing people, saddling them w/criminal records, making them fear the gov't, and labeling them as criminal & deviant & therefore acceptable targets for violence. #DecrimNowDC
~ David Grosso
@cmdgrosso
Ok, I take this to mean that you have no ability or interest in actually engaging in a substantive discussion?
Anonymous
10/23/2019 11:38
Subject: Decriminalized prostitution in DC: 15 hour council hearing 10/17-10/18
Criminalization directly encourages the harms of violence, homelessness, & exploitation by further marginalizing people, saddling them w/criminal records, making them fear the gov't, and labeling them as criminal & deviant & therefore acceptable targets for violence. #DecrimNowDC
~ David Grosso
@cmdgrosso
~ David Grosso
@cmdgrosso
Anonymous
10/23/2019 11:28
Subject: Decriminalized prostitution in DC: 15 hour council hearing 10/17-10/18
Anonymous wrote:Sex workers’ rights advocates have long argued that criminalization of sex work makes people who are in the commercial sex industry less safe. In particular, criminalization forces sex workers to move their work or structure their work in such a way as to avoid police contact.
Avoiding police might mean sex workers need to go to more remote locations, which can be more dangerous.
Criminalization of sex work also puts sex workers at risk of police violence. In one 2008 study, nearly one in five sex workers and people profiled as sex workers said they had been asked for sex by a police officer, and one respondent said she had been “made to perform sexual favors to avoid being charged with prostitution.”
Trans women are also especially likely to be arrested on sex work charges, even if they’re not doing sex work. Trans women are routinely arrested under the law for doing nothing more than walking in public.
In addition to exposing people to police violence, sex work arrests can take a toll on workers’ ability to support themselves and their families. A lot of times the courts are imposing fines and restitution on someone that’s already impoverished. In Washington, DC, fines can be as much as $500 for a first offense.
Being convicted of sex work–related offenses also gives sex workers a criminal record, which can make it hard to find housing or non–sex work employment. This falls especially hard on trans women of color, who already face employment discrimination. In a 2015 survey by the DC Trans Coalition, more than 40 percent of trans respondents said they’d been denied a job because of their gender identity, and 55 percent of black trans respondents were unemployed.
It might be nice if you answered the actual concerns being raised on this thread, instead of copying and pasting from your white paper.
Anonymous
10/23/2019 11:25
Subject: Decriminalized prostitution in DC: 15 hour council hearing 10/17-10/18
Sex workers’ rights advocates have long argued that criminalization of sex work makes people who are in the commercial sex industry less safe. In particular, criminalization forces sex workers to move their work or structure their work in such a way as to avoid police contact.
Avoiding police might mean sex workers need to go to more remote locations, which can be more dangerous.
Criminalization of sex work also puts sex workers at risk of police violence. In one 2008 study, nearly one in five sex workers and people profiled as sex workers said they had been asked for sex by a police officer, and one respondent said she had been “made to perform sexual favors to avoid being charged with prostitution.”
Trans women are also especially likely to be arrested on sex work charges, even if they’re not doing sex work. Trans women are routinely arrested under the law for doing nothing more than walking in public.
In addition to exposing people to police violence, sex work arrests can take a toll on workers’ ability to support themselves and their families. A lot of times the courts are imposing fines and restitution on someone that’s already impoverished. In Washington, DC, fines can be as much as $500 for a first offense.
Being convicted of sex work–related offenses also gives sex workers a criminal record, which can make it hard to find housing or non–sex work employment. This falls especially hard on trans women of color, who already face employment discrimination. In a 2015 survey by the DC Trans Coalition, more than 40 percent of trans respondents said they’d been denied a job because of their gender identity, and 55 percent of black trans respondents were unemployed.
Avoiding police might mean sex workers need to go to more remote locations, which can be more dangerous.
Criminalization of sex work also puts sex workers at risk of police violence. In one 2008 study, nearly one in five sex workers and people profiled as sex workers said they had been asked for sex by a police officer, and one respondent said she had been “made to perform sexual favors to avoid being charged with prostitution.”
Trans women are also especially likely to be arrested on sex work charges, even if they’re not doing sex work. Trans women are routinely arrested under the law for doing nothing more than walking in public.
In addition to exposing people to police violence, sex work arrests can take a toll on workers’ ability to support themselves and their families. A lot of times the courts are imposing fines and restitution on someone that’s already impoverished. In Washington, DC, fines can be as much as $500 for a first offense.
Being convicted of sex work–related offenses also gives sex workers a criminal record, which can make it hard to find housing or non–sex work employment. This falls especially hard on trans women of color, who already face employment discrimination. In a 2015 survey by the DC Trans Coalition, more than 40 percent of trans respondents said they’d been denied a job because of their gender identity, and 55 percent of black trans respondents were unemployed.
Anonymous
10/23/2019 10:43
Subject: Decriminalized prostitution in DC: 15 hour council hearing 10/17-10/18
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Data shows that the enforcement of sex work laws disproportionately impacts communities of color, gay and transgender people, people with disabilities, immigrants, and people with criminal convictions.
Furthermore, a growing body of research indicates that the criminalization of sex work leads to sex workers facing extreme stigma, systematic exclusion, violence and discrimination. These challenges create an environment in which individuals trading sex have difficulty accessing health services and information, experience various human rights abuses, and decline to seek protection from the police even when in grave danger.
Sure, but data does NOT show that this bill will decrease the impact on vulnerable people. There are plenty of things a thoughtful legislator could do short of completely upending the system with absolutely unknown unintended consequences. And as a community member, at a minimum I need to know that this will not result in open street prostitution everywhere in my neighborhood.
The vulnerability of poor & marginalized people in DC is terrible; but we need to think through actual solutions, not slogans.
And PS: If the DC council sponsors actually cared about marginalized sex workers, they would set up a FULLY LEGALIZED system that is fully regulated to protect them. But that's not what this bill would do. It would cut off the single tool that DC currently has to regulate bad actors in the industry (arrests) and not put anything else in place, while creating a giant new economic activity to increase the now fully unregulated, highly risky form of work in DC.
Anonymous
10/23/2019 10:41
Subject: Decriminalized prostitution in DC: 15 hour council hearing 10/17-10/18
Anonymous wrote:Data shows that the enforcement of sex work laws disproportionately impacts communities of color, gay and transgender people, people with disabilities, immigrants, and people with criminal convictions.
Furthermore, a growing body of research indicates that the criminalization of sex work leads to sex workers facing extreme stigma, systematic exclusion, violence and discrimination. These challenges create an environment in which individuals trading sex have difficulty accessing health services and information, experience various human rights abuses, and decline to seek protection from the police even when in grave danger.
Sure, but data does NOT show that this bill will decrease the impact on vulnerable people. There are plenty of things a thoughtful legislator could do short of completely upending the system with absolutely unknown unintended consequences. And as a community member, at a minimum I need to know that this will not result in open street prostitution everywhere in my neighborhood.
The vulnerability of poor & marginalized people in DC is terrible; but we need to think through actual solutions, not slogans.