On Tuesday, Kamala Harris became the first mainstream U.S. presidential candidate to publicly state she supports the decriminalization of sex work. And while tentative, Harris’s words could propel an overdue national conversation about sex work into the presidential campaign spotlight. In 2008, Harris opposed Proposition K, a San Francisco ballot measure brought by sex workers to end prostitution arrests in the city. As sex workers had predicted, the law led websites to refuse sex workers’ ads and other content, including discussions of workplace safety and political organizing. Despite supporters’ claims that such policies decriminalize sex workers, they don’t permit any legal way to engage in sex work.

Source: Washington Post March 02, 2019 22:30 UTC