Sex workers in California will hold a rally to bring awareness to the need for decriminalization of prostitution in California. The rally will be held November 15th in Sacramento to ask that Governor Jerry Brown meet with the sex workers union.
“Sex workers have had enough,” the Union said in a press release.” On November 15, we will be taking a petition with more than 24,000 signatures to the State Capitol in Sacramento asking that Governor Jerry Brown meet with us to hear our views on why decriminalization is the only approach that protects sex workers’ safety and human rights, and to hear our suggestions for concrete legislative steps that would reduce stigma and discrimination against sex workers.”
Two sex worker organizations; the Erotic Service Providers Union (ESPU) and the US PROStitutes Collective from San Francisco will be organizing the event.
Why decriminalize? “Police crackdowns break up safety networks,” say the collective. “Violent men take advantage of this legal vulnerability and deliberately target sex workers. Sex workers would be entitled to improve their working conditions, get a pension, form and join trade unions. Also, prostitution convictions can bar access to other jobs and prevent sex workers from leaving prostitution. Criminal laws against sex work intrude into people’s sex lives and are a form of state control over women’s bodies. Consenting sex should not be a crime. Gay sex was decriminalized, why not consenting sex where money is exchanged.”
“New Zealand successfully decriminalized prostitution in 2003,” sites the collective. “A government review has shown positive results: no rise in prostitution; women able to report violence without fear of arrest, and sex workers more able to leave prostitution as convictions are cleared from their records.”
The rally will happen at the State Capitol building, at the intersection of L St. and 11th St., in Sacramento, CA 98514, starting at 10:30 a.m., on November 15, 2016. Masks will be provided.
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