Activists had asked the group Decriminalize Sex Work to kill the ballot initiative due to allegations of sexual misconduct against the group's political director and "fundamental ideological differences.”

John Locher / AP People chant in Las Vegas as they march in support of decriminalizing sex work, June 2019.

A groundbreaking campaign to make Washington, DC, the first city in the US to decriminalize sex work is foundering amid clashes between local activists and a national organization whose political director has been accused of sexual misconduct. The city looked poised to make a change as recently as last October, when a bill to remove criminal penalties for the selling and purchase of sex was set for a public hearing. Since then, those efforts have fallen apart; the bill, which was supported by local grassroots activists, was tabled. More recently, a proposal to include the measure on the November ballot, put forth by a relatively new national organization, was met with opposition from those same activists. Decriminalize Sex Work, the organization that had planned to pursue the ballot initiative, is now scrapping the project, according to a statement provided to BuzzFeed News. This comes after backlash from local DC activists who cited allegations of sexual misconduct against Decriminalize Sex Work’s political director, Rob Kampia. They also accused the organization of crowding out and whitewashing grassroots efforts. Kaytlin Bailey, communications director for Decriminalize Sex Work, told BuzzFeed News that she accepted the concerns of sex workers in DC. “Sex workers in DC asked us with one voice to get out, and we are honoring that,” she said. “Good,” said Tamika Spellman, an advocate who has been part of the grassroots movement to decriminalize sex work in DC, when BuzzFeed News contacted her about Decriminalize Sex Work’s decision to withdraw the proposal. But Spellman still felt Kampia's removal was essential. “If they care about sex workers like they said they did, number one: Remove Rob Kampia. There’s no getting around that," she said.

Portland Press Herald / Getty Images Rob Kampia, 2013.

Instead of pursuing the ballot initiative, Decriminalize Sex Work said it will now offer $100,000 as a grant to qualifying organizations in DC that want to pursue their own decriminalization efforts. “This would be us stepping back and leaving behind $100,000,” Bailey told BuzzFeed News. "We would like to work with everyone who wants to decriminalize sex work, and we’re willing to do that on their terms," Bailey added.

The ballot initiative would have given voters the opportunity to weigh in directly. But the decision to withdraw its proposal is the latest in a series of setbacks for the movement to bring sex workers out of the shadows. Initiatives in New York and elsewhere have struggled to make headway despite growing calls to rethink the way the criminal justice system approaches the sex trade. David Grosso, a member of the DC city council, introduced the Community Safety and Health Amendment Act last June with the support of activists like Spellman and other local groups. The bill also won support from numerous LGBTQ rights and civil liberties organizations — but it was criticized by members of the anti–sex trafficking movement, who argued it would enable exploitation of people in the sex trade. After a contentious 14-hour public hearing, lawmakers in DC declined to bring the bill to a vote.

Decriminalize Sex Work said its now-canned proposal was inspired by Grosso’s bill, though it differs on a few points. After the bill failed to make progress, the group said it decided to pursue the ballot initiative on the basis of polling that showed widespread support for such a vote. According to the organization, 55% of DC voters would have supported the proposed initiative. At the time that the bill was tabled, Grosso said he thought the initiative should be brought to the ballot box. But he recently told the Washington Blade that he would not support Decriminalize Sex Work’s proposal for a ballot initiative without buy-in from the local coalition. “Their voice is the most important to me in DC, not the national movement,” he said. Bailey and a Decriminalize Sex Work staffer involved in the effort told BuzzFeed News that initial conversations with local activists had been largely positive, but the staffer said he was confronted by members of the Sex Worker Advocates Coalition (SWAC) on a conference call in January. Despite the coalition's request that Decriminalize Sex Work end its efforts, the organization proceeded to file paperwork for the initiative, saying it had hoped to salvage the project before a looming deadline. The whole thing exploded into public view in mid-February after the local coalition issued a statement accusing Decriminalize Sex Work of breaking a promise to step back.

In March 2019, sex worker rights activists and organizers demanded accountability for the predatory behavior of Rob Kampia via @DecrimSex and were met with silence. Months later @DecrimSex has tried to AstroTurf our local movement. Read our statement https://t.co/6n9krvIOyB