Anti-prostitution laws do nothing but promote racism, stigma, and police brutality. The D.C. City Council has the chance now to end over a century’s worth of harm by passing The Community Safety and Health Amendment Act of 2019, which would decriminalize consensual sex work between adults. It’s time for lawmakers to listen to the brave Black and Brown sex workers who are speaking out and resisting the narratives of victimization being heaped upon them by the religious right and anti-sex work feminists, and pass this bill.

The criminalization of prostitution is inextricable from the criminalization of poverty. It has been well documented nationwide that cis and trans women of color are disproportionately impacted by anti-prostitution laws. Marginalized and facing extreme discrimination when trying to access housing, employment, and healthcare, these women often turn to sex work in order to support themselves and their families. They are not criminals. Nor are they “savages” to be forcibly rescued and civilized. We must not default to the very paternalism which has for centuries denied women bodily autonomy and reproductive agency. We must stop proselytizing a singular and narrow concept of legitimate womanhood. We must stop punishing people for doing what they need to do to survive.

As has been demonstrated by the decriminalization of homosexuality in the United States, the government has no business policing sexual activity between consenting adults. The increased racial profiling and surveillance of marginalized communities that is required to enforce such laws is not only a waste of tax-payer resources, but an abuse of police power. D.C.’s own police union has said that its officers are overworked, and, despite community objections, the D.C. City Council responded by increasing funds allocated to MPD. It is worth noting here that D.C. has the highest number of police per capita of any city in the nation. Instead of continuing to expand police presence, we ought to be reevaluating police responsibilities.

MPD’s Human Trafficking Unit is a prime example of misallocated responsibility. In 2016, the Human Trafficking Unit made 198 arrests. Only four of those arrests were for trafficking. The other 98% were adults arrested for prostitution-related charges. From 2017 to 2018, the Human Trafficking Unit more than doubled its enforcement of sex work-related laws, issuing 228 prostitution-related charges in 2017, and 551 in 2018. MPD continues to laud the “dedicated effort” of its Human Trafficking Unit, but the relative lack of human trafficking arrests begs the question: To what and to whom is the unit’s effort dedicated, exactly? Data from Counter Trafficking Data Collaborative shows that the highest percentage of female victims of trafficking can be found in the 18-20 age group; however, when MPD was asked in a Performance Oversight Review how many trafficking victims between 18-21 years of age it referred to community organizations in FY18 and FY19, to date, MPD responded that it was unaware of any cases within this age group.

Worse than the failure to find actual trafficking victims are the tactics the Human Trafficking Unit uses to make its arrest quota. Undercover officers pose as johns in sting operations during which they routinely entrap, exploit, and abuse sex workers (whom they clearly don’t distinguish from trafficking victims), who have no legal recourse against them. It is not uncommon or illegal for officers to engage in sex acts with their targets as “proof of criminality.” The numbers are consistent in cities across the country: 20% of sex workers have been threatened by a police officer to have sex with him or face arrest. A Chicago-based social justice organizing project called Young Women’s Empowerment Project (which is run exclusively by girls and transgender youth aged 12-23 who have current or past experience in the sex trade and street economy) operates a Bad Encounters tip line, which girls and youth can contact to report individual and institutional violence. According to Bad Encounters data, the most frequently reported source of institutional violence towards those in the sex trade was Police, at 30%, followed by Hospitals, at 28%, and Schools, at 24%.

It is important to remember that most people in the sex trade are not victims of sex trafficking, and most people who are victims of sex trafficking choose to exit the sex trade through their own efforts. Those few who are picked up in law enforcement raids describe the experience as terrifying and traumatic and say that they would have preferred to leave their situation in a way that did not involve police. Let us not confuse liberation of oppressed peoples with the misguided moral imperative to decide what is best for them. When it comes to identifying the needs of sex workers, listen to sex workers. They are the experts in their own lives. And they are speaking out resoundingly in support of the full decriminalization of prostitution.