demand reduction disrupts worker organizing & safety

"Well if sex workers can organize for safety and to root out exploitation in commercial sex, why haven't they?"

They're trying! The sad reality is that most worker practices to try to foster safety are explicitly targeted by demand reduction approaches.

• Workers who have experienced stigma or violence with prior housemates may choose to be roommates so they can live with someone who "gets it." They run the risk of being charged with brothel-keeping.
• Workers in relationships with romantic partners run the risk of their partners or housemates being charged with trafficking or pimping.
• Workers often meet vulnerable people (including homeless youth who have been failed by systems) in their work. These workers may fear letting vulnerable folks crash with them for a while for fear of being charged with trafficking.
• Workers may feel safer with a known person driving them to and from appointments or helping them screen clients. This is criminalized under most demand reduction models.

Even worker organizing for collective safety has been disrupted by demand reduction approaches.

In 2003, in response to pressure and advocacy by "anti-trafficking" groups, a condition was placed upon those receiving federal funds for anti-violence and HIV/AIDS work that requires them to actively oppose prostitution. This requirement that organizations will not "promote the practice or legalization of prostitution" or sex trafficking has been leveraged against organizations that try to help people who are already engaged in commercial sex learn how to do so more safely.

This approach of helping people learn from others with similar experiences about how to engage in commercial sex more safely is called "harm reduction," and it is a proven public health strategy. Harm reduction requires radical nonjudgment, and you can learn more about it here: Principles of Healing-Centered Harm Reduction. Harm reduction is also a critical component of public health approaches to substance use and HIV/AIDS, and the anti-prostitution pledge has impacted these other fields' ability to do their work based on what the evidence supports. Because trafficking survivors may also have substance use disorders or be at increased risk for HIV/AIDS, limiting harm reduction programs reduces survivors' access to health and wellbeing.