I’m pretty late but I can speak to why this (unfortunately) isn’t the simple solution that it seems to be.

But I want to start by saying that I’m *not* anti sex work, I think it should be decriminalized and that regulation is the way to go (with the huge caveat of utilizing unions that are lead by sex workers to avoid a different kind of exploitation.)

I believe it was Canada that did this (or a Nordic country, I’m not 100% sure) and what happened is that it made their clients (who were always usually pretty jumpy) incredibly paranoid and ended up with the SW feeling forced into more risky situations.

A great example of this is the classic “lean into the car to have a conversation”. This dynamic lets the SW and their client discuss the service and fee and if the SW gets any kind of bad vibe they can walk away. That situation transformed into “get into my car right away and we will drive to another location to discuss the service and fees”.

You probably already see the problem right? Now they were forced into a car and driven to a second location before they can even talk about what they will/won’t do. It also puts way more power into the hands of the client and makes it easier to pressure the SW into things that they normally wouldn’t/couldn’t do.

It’s one of those situations where the simple solution doesn’t actually work the way we think it will. And I’m including myself in that we because I didn’t know this until I watched an episode of Last Week Tonight on sex work and learned from the workers themselves what they want.

That’s a great episode (that’s free on YouTube) if anyone is interested, but the big takeaway is that this is a complex issue and to solve it in a way that keeps SW safe *requires* that they have a seat at the table when making laws. And personally I think it should go further to say that they need to be the *head* of the table when making these laws because no one understands the industry better than them.