More than a dozen critics of criminal prostitution laws, including current and former sex workers, academics and defense attorneys, challenged Rhode Island lawmakers to go where no state legislature has gone before: a frank, public discussion about commercial sex. They are urging Rhode Island lawmakers to support a legislative study on decriminalizing sex work.

PROVIDENCE — Bella Robinson, the executive director of Coyote Rhode Island, said her first prostitution arrest at 18 years old “sealed my fate into the sex industry.”

The legal and financial repercussions of entering the criminal justice system made it difficult to leave the industry. And two decades later her house was raided by the police in a prostitution sting, with a SWAT team kicking down her door.

“I felt like I was a terrorist and the military was going in,” she told lawmakers Tuesday night. “Nowadays with police splattering names and photos all over the internet, it really doesn’t matter if you get that arrest vacated later, people are going to find out, so obviously you are going to be discriminated against.”

Robinson was among more than a dozen critics of criminal prostitution laws, including current and former sex workers, academics and defense attorneys who challenged Rhode Island lawmakers to go where no state legislature has gone before: a frank, public discussion about commercial sex.

They support a proposal by Rep. Anastasia Williams, D-Providence, to create a House study commission on changing Rhode Island’s prostitution laws.

“This is a topic that needs to be talked about,” Williams said. “For some folks, it’s a squirmyish topic, sex. Now we are all laughing, but I don’t think there are enough of us bold enough, open enough, to talk about it, to have a grown folks conversation.”

Support came not only from local advocates, but a network of decriminalization advocates from as far away as New York, Texas and New Zealand hoping Rhode Island becomes a test case for a new legal approach to sex work.

According to Rob Kampia, political director for Decriminalizing Sex Work, based in Austin, Texas, New Hampshire is also considering a legislative study commission of decriminalization, but no state has created one yet. Hawaii has actual bills to amend their prostitution law, he said, although nothing has passed yet.

Rhode Island’s small size and unique history — selling sex indoors was legal between 2002 and 2009 — put it at the top of decriminalization advocates’ list of states to push for change.

They argue that current prostitution laws don’t stop the sale of sex, but hurt those providing the service and the plight of sex workers has become worse since law enforcement refocused in recent years on cracking down on sex trafficking.

The FOSTA-SESTA anti-trafficking laws passed last year closed down many online erotic listings, which sex worker advocates say has just pushed the trade out into the street and made it more dangerous.

Elana Shih is a Brown University assistant professor who has studied the sex trade.

“Time and time again we must evaluate the harms and unintended consequences that anti-trafficking policies have enacted on the communities they intend to serve,” said Shih. “Rather than ask the people who are directly affected by the sex trade what they think might help them, policing prostitution satisfies the emotional need of the people doing the rescuing.”

Shih and others advocates who testified Tuesday mentioned recent crackdowns on Asian massage parlors as examples of this approach.

What does Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha think?

“The Attorney General has real concerns about the legalization of prostitution,” spokeswoman Kristy dosReis wrote in an email. “That said, he has been asked to be a part of the study commission if this bill becomes law and is prepared to participate.”

Ms. dosReis revealed herself to be another idiot who supports the failed Nordic Model (a.k.a. the Swedish Model), which is still promoted by feminists.

“He does not believe that our law enforcement resources should be utilized to prosecute sex workers, but rather those who profit from sex trafficking as well as sex buyers. To successfully combat sex trafficking, we need to address the demand side of the equation,” she added.

LOL “address the demand side” — name one time when prohibition worked.