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Sex Work & Harm Reduction

What is Sex Work?

Provision of sexual services or performances by one person (Sex Worker) for which a second person (Client or Observer) provides money or other markers of economic value. These markers of economic value may include:

  • Money
  • Drugs
  • Food
  • & More
  • Shelter

Sex Work is an Umbrella Term Inclusive of:

  • Trade Sex
  • Porn Performance
  • Dancing
  • Webcam/Internet
  • Survival-based
  • Street-based
  • Magazine
  • Film/Video
  • Out Calls / In Calls
  • BDSM
  • Phone
  • & More

What is SESTA/FOSTA?

What is it?

  • Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act / Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act
  • Bipartisan bill passed by House and Senate March 2018, signed April 2018

How does it work?

  • Makes third party sites responsible for posting ads for sex workers — legally liable for trafficking
  • Shut down Craigslist personals, Backpage, and other sites

What’s the impact?

  • Makes it more difficult for sex workers to find and screen clients
  • Pushes people out into the street again — putting sex workers of color, of trans identity, and/or of undocumented status further at risk
  • Creates more competition and more risk for sex workers who are 100% street-based (and often survival-based)
  • Puts people more at risk of being trafficked
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People Engage Sex Work

Why Do People Engage in Sex Work?

Choice

  • Julia chooses to work as a dominatrix because the work is profitable and she enjoys it. 
  • Julia chooses to do sex work.

Circumstance

  • Mark is marginally housed and engages in a relationship with Peter to have a place to sleep. 
  • Mark’s sex work is circumstantial. 

Coercion

  • Leah’s partner coerces her into trading sex with their supplier in exchange for drugs, even though she doesn’t want to. 
  • This is a human rights violation and not the same as consensual sex work. 

Sex Work is Work.

  • Everyone who engages in sex work has personal, unique reasons for doing so.
  • Sex work is one of the few trades in which someone without any formal education can provide for themselves at an equal level to someone with an advanced degree. 
  • However, sex workers who hold marginalized identities are uniquely vulnerable to racism, transphobia, xenophobia, classism, and other forms of structural violence.

Harm Reduction Interventions

  • Drop-in Center
  • Community Organizing
  • & Policy Change
  • Intra-community Skill Sharing
  • Medical & Health Services
  • Safer Drug Use & Overdose Prevention MaterialsStreet Outreach
  • Safer Sex Materials & Education
  • Anonymous Testing Services
  • Bad Date Sheet
  • Offer Hand Sanitizer, Antiseptic Wipes, Mouthwash, Makeup Remover Towelettes

Resources

St. James Infirmary:
www.stjamesinfirmary.org

Sex Worker Outreach Project: https://swopusa.org/

SWOP Behind Bars: www.swopbehindbars.org

Sex Workers Project: www.sexworkersproject.org

For more resources, visit
our Resource Center