Is it ever helpful, in policy terms, to lump together trafficking and sexual exploitation with the buying and selling of sexual services between consenting adults? This is the question in Argentina right now.
Police have made sex workers—and people they suspect of being sex workers—afraid to carry condoms by harassing them and using condoms as evidence of crimes.
Sex workers and allies demand US policy change in lead up to the International AIDS Conference.
This year’s New York State legislative session has ended, and by failing to vote on and pass the “no condoms as evidence of prostitution” bill, lawmakers missed an opportunity to be national and global leaders in ensuring that counterproductive policing and prosecuting practice does not compromise disease prevention and public health.
![Sex workers organized by Kthi Win. [img src]](http://rhrealitycheck.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/../../files/teaser-images/2012-05-22-mgbako_0-187x125.jpg)
To label and disregard sex workers as “victims” who cannot comprehend their true “enslavement” is condescending, disempowering, and untrue.
When deciding whether to charge an individual with prostitution, New York City police officers routinely consider if that person was carrying condoms. Even more disturbing, officers frequently destroy condoms in an attempt to get people not to sell sex for money. Two new reports examine the impact of this misguided law which seems to directly conflict with the city’s ongoing efforts to promote condom use.
Sex workers deserve the basic respect and protection from violence that each nation owes its citizens. But in many settings, police abuse of sex workers receives scant public attention despite its entrenched global reality.
It would seem that no one enjoys being called a “hooker,” whether you are a sex worker or not.
Louisiana’s era of forcing certain convicted sex workers to register as sex offenders appears to be over. Governor Jindall’s office announced today that he had signed into law a bill, sponsored by Louisiana State Representative Charmaine Marchand Stiaes, that effectively moves prostitution convictions back to the level of misdemeanor.
The ten most read stories on RH Reality Check this year include Christine O’Donnell’s crusade against masturbation, a look at how universities deal with sex in dorms, and early reporting of the Utah legislation that sought to criminalize miscarriage.
