New York Lawmakers Reintroduce Sex Work Decriminalization Bills

In February of last year, state legislators in New York announced plans for what would be landmark legislation to decriminalize sex work in the state, as AVN.com reported. In June, the lawmakers followed through on their pledge. They introduced a straightforward, 13-page bill that kept the issue simple—repealing laws that would abolish criminal penalties for selling and purchasing sexual services. The bill, christened the Stop Violence in the Sex Trades Act, would also roll back existing laws used to target sex workers, such as statutes against “loitering for prostitution” and similar offenses. But the bill made no progress in last lear’s legislative session.  Now the state lawmakers backing the bill are giving it a second chance, according to WTEN TV News in Albany, New York’s state capital. Backers hope that the twin bills, S6419 in the state senate and A8230 in the state assembly, will survive committee votes in the current legislative session. Last year, the bills never reached that point.  Though the bills leave laws against sex trafficking and non-consensual sexual practices in place, they still face criticism both from conservatives and progressive legislators, according to the WTEN report.  From the right, critics have suggested that decriminalization has no effect on rates of violent crime or sex trafficking of minors, WTEN reported. But from the left, the bill’s critics claim that it lacks “the nuance of adequate built-in safeguards” to help prevent exploitation of sex workers. "Our goal is to help trafficking survivors while allowing those selling sex—by circumstance or choice—to do so safely,” said Jessica Ramos, one of the New York state senators sponsoring the bill, as quoted by WNYW TV News.  In January, a new poll by the group Data for Progress found that, for the first time in any survey, a majority of Americans—52 percent—said that they support decrminalization of sex work. Photo By Beyond My Ken / Wikimedia Commons