Sex Worker Violence Prevention Rally Planned

by Staff | Dec 15, 2019 9:13 pm

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Posted to: Citizen Contributions, Opinion

A local activist group called Sex Workers and Allies Network sent in the following release. On Dec. 17, sex workers and their allies around the world will come together to recognize the International Day to End Violence against Sex Workers. Here in New Haven, the Sex Workers and Allies Network (SWAN)—which recently became an independent project of the national organization, the Sex Workers Outreach Project—will be organizing their third-annual rally and march at 5 p.m. from the parking lot at Ferry Street and Grand Avenue (coverage of their first demonstration can be found here). Beatrice Codianni, Executive Director of SWAN, founded the group in the wake of an undercover police sting in New Haven in 2016. An organization created by and for people who’ve engaged in sex work, SWAN has been critical to increasing the safety and well-being of those on the streets by doing life-saving harm reduction outreach and advocacy. SWAN has a commitment to meeting and supporting people where they are at: this means working with medical partners to provide street-based clinical care and safer use supplies; advocating for sex workers to receive voluntary, respectful and ethical services; and organizing trauma-informed, healing-based programming for members. Through this important work, SWAN knows about the reality of violence directed toward sex workers, whether by clients, police, or other community members. In recognition of the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers, SWAN now calls on all of us, including policy makers, to decrease violence against sex workers by addressing the stigma and discrimination they face. The International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers began on Dec. 17, 2003 as a memorial for victims of a notorious serial killer in Seattle, Washington who targeted sex workers. Although the sex worker community in Seattle knew about the serial killer for many years, the criminalization of sex work was a significant barrier to pursuing justice. Many refrained from talking to the police because they feared getting arrested for engaging in sex work, and even when they did talk to the police, they weren’t taken seriously. This year, SWAN’s demonstration on the International Day to End Violence against Sex Workers continues to underscore the criminalization and violence sex workers face, including in New Haven. Although the former New Haven Police Chief agreed to suspend stings of sex workers in 2016, there are still many issues exposing sex workers to violence that need to be addressed. A lack of access to housing for many sex workers means they are pushed into less safe situations on the streets. They are also criminalized for trespassing or loitering because of this lack of stable housing (though, SWAN continues to work with the New Haven Police Department to reduce over-policing and abuse). In health services, sex workers describe disrespectful experiences that prevent or dissuade them from seeking care. They also experience a variety of barriers in getting help from social services, such as shelters and warming centers, that could address the circumstances that expose them to violence. For example, shelters have limited hours of operation, forcing individuals out and back onto the street at six or seven in the morning. Shelters also often lack a sufficient number of beds for women and have burdensome participation requirements that are incompatible with the realities of working in the sex sector (e.g., strict curfews at shelters). In colder months, few warming centers operate for a sufficiently long period of time to meet the needs of people who don’t have housing, and people who try or connect to services for long-term housing solutions often experience incredibly long wait times. Ending violence against sex workers requires addressing all of these issues. Some might say we should work towards eliminating sex work to end these harms, but the predominant models for trying to stop sex work—criminalizing sex workers or their clients—only exacerbates the violence sex workers face, as we saw with the tragic beginnings of the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers. When sex workers face the threat of arrest for engaging in sex work, it becomes much harder for them to seek accountability for violence they experience. Also, when sex workers’ clients are criminalized and arrested, sex workers themselves move to more isolated areas for the sake of their targeted clients, which increases danger to themselves. In sum, trying to end sex work is not an effective way to end violence. As we think about ways to heed SWAN’s call to end violence against sex workers, we need to get at the heart of why sex workers face extreme violence. The campaigns in Washington DC and New York state to decriminalize sex work offenses are a first step in the right direction: as proven by international experience, such reforms would allow sex workers to come out of the shadows to get help from police when they experience assaults, engage in sex work in safer areas, and—contrary to what opponents say—this would not increase trafficking. With these reforms, sex workers could report incidents of trafficking to law enforcement authorities without facing arrest themselves. And so, while these campaigns to protect the health and rights of sex workers play out in other states, the question for us is what are we willing to do in Connecticut? While there is much to be done to end violence against sex workers, we can start by showing up on Dec. 17 to uplift and support the critical work of SWAN in New Haven.

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posted by: 1644 on December 16, 2019 7:55am Sexual relations between consenting adults should be a private matter. However, street vending is not private. It is public and interferes with others enjoyment of public spaces. Vending of sexual services should be regulated and zoned like other commercial activities are. The real issue here is not prostitution. It is desperate, addicted women.

posted by: Patricia Kane on December 16, 2019 10:34am Sex work is about economic survival.

The people who do it have a right to be safe and not treated like criminals because they are largely poor and desperate. Some have children; most have families. While we think of women as sex workers, there are males too, including LGBTQ people.

The addictions are a symptom of deep pain, many times childhood rape and sometimes adult violence. Many suffer from untreated PTSD.

It’s time to move past moralizing. Decriminalizing sex work is a first step. Next is to develop compassionate strategies to assist those who are able to benefit from services.

We failed to keep many of the sex workers safe when they were children.

We owe it to them to keep them safe now.

posted by: DMH464 on December 16, 2019 3:36pm While some view “sex work” as economic survival, and they do have a right to feel safe, that does not change the fact that those who have chosen it as a profession are indeed criminals, on both sides. Just because this is their choice of economic gains that does not make it right or legal. Some would then argue that drug dealing, theft or burglary is a means of economic survival, should those be decriminalized? New Haven has more than enough social programs that can assist in getting these “workers” off the street, training, educational services, job placement, addiction/psychological services and so on. While some are indeed victims of crimes as children and adults that is not a free pass to break the law regardless if you feel it’s not one you agree with. A majority of the time these “workers” refuse services that are offered so they must accept the consequences of their choices with regard to law enforcement

posted by: Patricia Kane on December 16, 2019 5:43pm @DMH464:

What society labels “criminal” is arbitrary and often capricious. Consuming alcohol was made illegal and how did that work out?

Do traumatized people “choose” a profession or are they more likely to be in survival mode? Have you actually spoken to sex workers and heard their stories, their struggles and their shame?

The criminalization of drugs was done in the 1970s by the Nixon White House with the admitted purpose of targeting activists and people of color because they voted for Dems. The damage done to individuals and families is incalculable. These laws will be repealed because it’s stupid to criminalize a health problem. An estimated 250,000 (!) opioid related deaths in the last five years and how many pill pushers are going to jail? “White” collar criminals don’t go to jail. They pay fines in the millions without admitting guilt.

As for the available services, many of the people I’ve spoken with are waiting for treatment programs, housing, jobs. We have to treat their psychological and related health issues, not demonize and punish them. Maybe Electric Boat will donate some of the $2.2 billion from their contract to make submarines to improve services for the needy.

It is true that some people refuse services. Usually they are so impaired as to have no ability to make sane choice. But still, the larger problem is the lack of services, so I take issue with your view of the current situation.

You think that because a person suffering from untreated PTSD and related health problems declines services, they should be punished by law enforcement.

Would you apply that to any category of ill people (not separating physical from mental)? Why? What would it accomplish, besides what it already has: clogging the courts with ill people who still require services and placing them where they likely won’t get them. You move the bodies around, but you don’t solve the problem.

Incentives work better than punishments.

posted by: DMH464 on December 16, 2019 7:09pm @PK Arbitrary to you because it doesn’t fit your particular narrative but I can assure you that not all shame your sentiment of what is or isn’t criminal. Have I actually spoken to sex workers, yes I have, in my former work and do traumatized people choose their profession, yes they do, all the time and not all are criminal in nature. I do believe that those who have PTSD and suffer from trauma need treatment but that does not excuse them from criminal behavior and I Eli eve that the state should have not closed down all the mental health facilities in CT but that’s another forum. I wasn’t alive when alcohol was illegal, perhap you were, so I can’t speak to that, it it’s legal now and it’s one of the most abused substances in the US and it’s a gateway drug and I speak from experience with a family member. I agree that the damage done to the victims and families of drug abuse and dealers is incalculable but no one put the “pills” in their mouths. Drugs are a choice, again speaking from experience with a family member. Incentives may work better but those that break the law even the ones you deem “arbitrary” must be prepared to face the consequences. It’s funny it seems the only people you want held accountable for their actions and choices are police.

posted by: Patricia Kane on December 16, 2019 8:22pm @DMH464:

Do you know the definition of a criminal? Some one who is charged, apprehended and convicted. There are a lot of potential criminals that the system never even attempts to go after. Sex workers and their customers are easy targets.

De-criminalizing alcohol, drugs or sex work is not an endorsement of them.

President Duterte in the Phillippines is directing the shooting of people involved or suspected of being involved in drugs.

Dr. Gabor Mate, an MD who has treated people with addiction issues, says that any treatment must find the underlying trauma that pre-dates the addictive behavior if it is to be effective. But hey, he’s just an experienced doctor.

Brain scans have disclosed a high number of brain injuries in incarcerated men and women that raises issues as to how much any of them “chose” the behavior that put them in prison or how they “choose” to function once released.

And yes, community housing was supposed to be set up for the de-institutionalized mentally ill, but wasn’t. How many people without homes are mentally ill? How many victims of trauma and untreated PTSD? How many victims of a crashed economy that sent their jobs overseas?

Don’t you think that the police would benefit from annual mental health check ups to help with any job related stress as well? Or is that just for other people?

So I’ve cited history and science to say punitive approaches have failed and will continue to fail. (Did miss out on Prohibition, but appreciated the laugh)

Show me proof that there’s a better approach and I’ll look at it.