The Senate Judiciary Committee just passed a bill out of committee that would treat consensual sex work as equivalent to sex trafficking. If we don't stop them, the House Judiciary Committee may soon follow suit!

H1683/S1116, An Act to Strengthen Justice and Support for Sex Trade Survivors, would:

• define all sex workers as "prostituted persons," erasing their agency
• increase criminalization of sex workers' clients by subjecting them to asset forfeiture, a practice which the ACLU has criticized for hurting low-income communities of color
• create a committee aimed to prevent prostitution, with no representation from sex workers

The bill does do some good things, including:

• expanding criminal vacatur and records-relief for sex workers and sex-trafficking victims
• eliminating the crimes of "common night walking" and "common street walking," which target street-based sex workers

This bill was written without the input of sex workers, and we can't let it to pass without major changes. Evidence shows that increasing criminalization of sex workers' clients leads to greater violence and reduces sex workers' incomes.

Tell the Senate Ways & Means Committee and the Joint Judiciary Committee: don't pass this bill as written!

Instead, support bills written with sex workers' input:

• H1980 - An Act to Promote the Health and Safety of People in the Sex Trade, which would decriminalize independent adult sex work
• H1747 - An Act Relative to Safe Reporting, which would enable people to report a crime without fear of arrest for sex work, drug possession, loitering, trespassing, or soliciting
• H4610 - An Act to Study the Decriminalization of Sex Work, which would create a committee to study decriminalizing sex work
• H1893/S1062 - An Act to Stop Profiling Transgender People and Low-Income Women, which would eliminate the crimes of common night walking and common street walking and enable people to report a crime without fear of arrest for sex work or drug posession