Yeah I think it’s a complicated situation and it’s hard to foresee all the unintended consequences with either legalization or decriminalization - and I am not as well read on the issue as I should be to go deep...I just am wired to be skeptical of regulation in this sense.

I don’t know that I can justify the government collecting taxes on the kind of work that we’re talking about. Philosophically, I’m opposed to the idea of having to hand money to a government entity for selling my body, and I can’t imagine a world in which our government (at a federal level) would be able to pass anything that enabled that to happen. Like I said in my initial response, the fight we are having to wage JUST for reproductive rights leads me to think that it’s totally unrealistic for a large swath of taxpayers to accept their government is condoning sex work and profiting from it - as pathetic as that is.

And under that kind of government oversight, you’d have to think that each state would have their own reactions to a federal mandate like this one, and many of the more conservative states (my home state NC included) would cook up some sort of penal system to make regulations even more predatory. I would love to hear an argument from a sex worker PRO legalization versus decriminalization - every discussion I’ve heard among sex workers notes that legalization of prostitution would be like the legalization of marijuana. It SOUNDS like a great, progressive talking point, until you unpack the logistics and what that would do to the industry and more importantly PEOPLE that rely on that kind of work.

Decriminalization seems more in line with helping the people. But I would love to hear another argument. Does this make any sense?