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Though Illegal, New York Looking To Tackle Health, Privacy & Safety Issues For Sex Workers
By David Carlucci
The New York State Legislature recently began taking unprecedented steps to tackle an often-ignored issue seriously affecting the health, privacy, and safety of some of the state’s most vulnerable communities – sex work. Although there are no federal laws prohibiting sex work, commonly known as prostitution, it is illegal under New York State law. However, just because sex work is illegal does not mean it does not happen in New York.
For many sex workers, their allies, and some members of the New York State Legislature, complete criminalization of sex work erases neither the availability of services nor sex workers’ susceptibility to harm, discrimination, or unfair treatment by the police. According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New York, criminalizing sex work muffles the safety and concerns of sex workers.
With prostitution being illegal under New York state law, many sex workers are unlikely to report violence, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), or sex trafficking. In other words, criminalizing sex work blocks many New Yorkers from the resources they require due to fear of prosecution. The ACLU also reports that criminalizing sex work profoundly connects with the over-policing and surveillance of Black, Brown, LGBTQ+, and immigrant communities.
Being a state issue, the New York State Legislature has full reign over sex work, its criminality, and protecting those who engage in it. Although many prominent Democrats in the Legislature agree that they need to implement legislation protecting sex workers, it is unclear what path benefits sex workers the best and has the greatest political feasibility.
Like marijuana and sports gambling, many legislators argue that the answer is not decriminalization but regulation. Still, with the person-centered dynamics of sex work, there seems to be no one fix-all solution to address this issue. Throughout the 2023-2024 Legislative Session, members in both chambers introduced legislation protecting sex workers. Each bill takes a different approach to the criminal status of prostitution and addresses some of the most severe issues facing sex workers.
Senate Bill S4396 (Salazar) and Assembly Bill A8605 (Forrest), the Stop Violence in the Sex Trades Act, take the outermost approach to protection, decriminalizing sex work via repealing penal laws relating to prostitution. The bill also ensures that the records of those convicted of those crimes are repealed. This protects the privacy of sex workers, grants them occupational mobility, and enables them access to necessary resources like housing, health, and economic support. Both versions of this bill remain in the Senate and Assembly Committees on Codes despite obtaining over a dozen co-sponsors across the Legislature.
The Sex Trades Survivors Justice and Equality Act (Krueger/Hunter) utilizes the Equality Model, also known as the partial decriminalization of sex work, to protect those involved with sex trades. Instead of completely decriminalizing prostitution, the SJEA ensures that sex workers are given specialized services and the ability to leave the sex trade if they wish. The bill also works to debilitate the sex trafficking industry by closing a loophole that protects traffickers from being charged with the promotion of prostitution and increasing financial penalties for traffickers, pimps, and sex buyers. Like the Stop Violence in the Sex Trades Act, the Sex Trades Survivors Justice and Equality Act currently sits in both Committees on Codes.
Although the 2023-2024 Legislative Session ended with neither bill making it out of committee, the conversation is not ended. Future legislative sessions may carry nuanced approaches to protecting sex workers, whether or not prostitution becomes decriminalized or regulated as a trade.
Lawmakers in Hawaii and Vermont have also introduced measures that would decriminalize prostitution for both sex workers and their customers, while leaving in place or strengthening laws against sex trafficking. In Rhode Island lawmakers are considering measures similar to those proposed in New York, protecting sex workers and prostitution customers who report crimes. Massachusetts and Tennessee are also considering legislation that would provide limited protections for sex workers.
David Carlucci consults organizations on navigating government and securing funding. He served for ten years in the New York Senate.
