NEWS RELEASE | FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact:
Ariela Moscowitz
media@safesexworkvt.org
(802) 739-0833

Montpelier, VT (March 16, 2023) — Elected officials, law enforcement officials, sex workers, and anti-trafficking and sex workers rights advocates gathered to announce the introduction of S.125, an act related to voluntary engagement in sex work, and its companion bill in the House of Representatives, H.372. Lead Senate Sponsor, Senator Becca White, D-Windsor, was joined by nine co-sponsors and 13 other representatives signed on with Lead House Sponsor, Representative Taylor Small, P/D-Winooski. Each bill, which would repeal the state’s archaic prostitution laws, has been referred to its chamber’s Judiciary Committee.

Evidence supporting the numerous benefits of decriminalization continues to surface. Sex workers, academics, human-rights activists, and public-health experts are increasingly calling on legislators to consider the facts around decriminalization, which demonstrate increases in public health and safety and decreases in exploitation and trafficking. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, UNAIDS, the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, the World Health Organization, and many other human rights groups have come out in support of the decriminalization of consensual adult sex work in order to address human trafficking worldwide.

“Regardless of how one feels about prostitution personally, I hope we can all agree that criminalizing it is wrong for so many reasons. Our laws should be rooted in reality anddata, instead of ideology. This bill reflects Vermont’s commitment to personal and bodily autonomy and individual liberty,” said Senator Becca White, D-Windsor.

“Criminalization compromises access to resources, endangers public health, and allows violence against sex workers to go unchecked. Criminalization also fails to protect trafficking survivors.  Decriminalization is a well-researched, practical, and simple step we can take in the fight against trafficking, while we work to address the nuanced causes of trafficking and invest in meaningful resources that support victims,” said Representative Taylor Small, P/D-Winooski.

“We all share a common goal of protecting our most vulnerable residents from trafficking, violence, and exploitation and it’s clear that criminalizing and stigmatizing the sex trade does not do this. Those of us trusted with the power to make, change, and enforce laws have a duty to pay attention to evidence that shows us when we can do better. Modernizing our prostitution laws only reinforces our commitment to fighting trafficking and exploitation,” said Windsor County State’s Attorney, Ward Goodenough.

“Through the decriminalization of consensual adult sex work, Vermont has a powerful opportunity to put its values into action. Those values are autonomy, community safety, and the recognition of the inherent dignity and humanity of all individuals.  The best way to keep somebody trapped in a system of oppression is to keep them in a cycle of criminality and stigma. I want to get old, and I want to see my friends get old. I want us to live and thrive not under scrutiny, but in mutual respect and real community care,” said Henri Bynx, co-founder of The Ishtar Collective, Vermont’s only organization run by and for consensual adult sex workers and survivors of human trafficking.

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Safe Sex Work VT is a group of individuals and organizations deeply concerned about the health and safety of not only sex workers, but all Vermonters. Safe Sex Work VT aims to protect the dignity, autonomy, and safety of consensual adult sex workers. The prohibition of sex work increases the risk of exploitation for sex workers and others. Evidence unequivocally shows that where sex work has been decriminalized, human trafficking decreases and public health and safety increases.