How is it that in progressive Seattle, somebody equates promoting a joint with promoting an individual, and equates regulating pot outlets with regulating the individuals who purchase and promote people? We’re responding to that proposition, revealed in these pages [“Legalizing pot worked; let’s legalize sex work in WA, too,” March 15, Opinion].
The intercourse commerce is advanced and multifaceted. Understanding it requires that survivors be included and take a number one function in reshaping the dialog. As survivor leaders and members of WASE Ahead — a coalition working to forestall the industrial sexual exploitation of susceptible individuals in Washington — we all know that prostitution shouldn’t be a victimless crime. It’s a system that exploits gender and race inequalities. Subsequently, after we discuss concerning the intercourse commerce, we should acknowledge the inextricable hyperlink between human trafficking and prostitution.
Statistics present that the intercourse commerce disproportionately impacts susceptible and marginalized communities. In keeping with the Polaris Venture, the typical age of entry into the intercourse commerce is 12 to 14 years outdated. Subsequently, a big share of exploited adults had been coerced or induced into the intercourse commerce as kids.
In 2003, our Legislature enacted the primary anti-human trafficking legislation within the nation to handle this challenge. Washington acknowledged that human trafficking is a human rights violation impacting our communities and that traffickers use drive, fraud and coercion to use individuals into the intercourse commerce.
Following the enactment of this legislation, penalties for trafficking and solicitation (shopping for intercourse) have been prioritized whereas the variety of fees for prostitution dropped to zero in King County.
The query was posed. Ought to we legalize the intercourse commerce like we did marijuana?
Emphatically, no.
Marijuana is a commodity that’s grown, bought and used as soon as. An individual will be purchased and bought for intercourse repeatedly. Organized legal teams have expanded their operations from promoting medicine to promoting people as a result of they don’t have to interchange the “product” as soon as it’s “used.”
Sure, the intercourse commerce has been round for “eons,” pushed by the greed of exploiters and patrons to regulate ladies and the susceptible, and by racism, misogyny and an absence of financial safety. It was an integral a part of the idea of slavery, of the spoils of battle, going again centuries worldwide. None of that makes it inevitable or proper.
The intercourse commerce is inherently violent. The bodily, psychological and emotional hurt is well-documented. Survivors of trafficking have PTSD similar to survivors of battle.
Legalizing the intercourse commerce won’t create a safer atmosphere. It is going to do the alternative. It is going to enhance the demand to purchase intercourse, simply as legalization elevated the demand for marijuana. It is going to enhance the provision of people who find themselves bought for intercourse to satisfy the rising demand, because it has in nations which have legalized prostitution.
Legalizing marijuana gave Washington a vested monetary curiosity in promoting and amassing the tax income. If we legalized and taxed the intercourse commerce, Washington would have a vested monetary curiosity in persevering with and fostering sexual exploitation. This quantities to state-sanctioned trauma.
Some individuals say they’ve chosen to interact within the intercourse commerce. As survivors who work every day with exploited individuals, we all know these persons are within the minority of these within the intercourse commerce. Figuring out our tales and theirs, and understanding the info, we don’t consider turning 18 modifications one’s skill to knowingly consent to being purchased and bought.
The creator of the March op-ed stated he could be “keen to guess” that if the ladies Gary L. Ridgway, aka the Inexperienced River Killer, murdered “had been training their career in licensed brothels and never on the road” they might not have been murdered. He’s apparently unaware that of Ridgway’s 49 recognized victims, 20 had been kids below the age of 18. Solely 5 had been older than 24.
As we collectively proceed to check new insurance policies, options should be multifaceted.
We urge the Washington Legislature to keep up its function as a pioneer in defending our most susceptible populations and to reinforce assist providers to survivors of sexual exploitation and the intercourse commerce.
