LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Intercourse work advocates from throughout the nation gathered at UNLV on Friday to push for modifications relating to each state insurance policies and preconceptions of the sphere.
The symposium, with varied visitor audio system, mentioned attainable avenues so as to add additional protections for these staff, reminiscent of by payments like Nevada Meeting Invoice 209, which was launched in February of this 12 months and would shield intercourse staff from prison legal responsibility.
“The general argument we see against why these networks shouldn’t exist is ‘where sex work exists, trafficking can prosper, ’” Kimberly Fuentes with the Intercourse Employee Outreach Challenge in Los Angeles stated. “If anything, it’s made things more safe for people who are choosing to do things out of reasons like poverty.”
“What we see time and time again is this judicial unwillingness to take claims of victimization seriously by folks who are engaged in sex work at any level,” Courtney Cross with the Survivor Illustration and Advocacy Clinic stated. “We want them to be immune from arrest ranging from sex work to drug possession.”
UNLV professor of Sociology Barb Brents researched this space for practically 40 years and stated criminalizing intercourse work is counterproductive to the objective of serving to hold intercourse staff secure, in addition to serving to those that need to get out accomplish that.
“The problem is that research says sex workers don’t trust the police. They don’t trust even medical professionals,” she stated. “The best policy could be made if we listen to sex workers and include them in the policy-making process.”
