On today's Deep Dive, Melissa and Dorian take an in-depth look at sex work and how it's been criminalized in the United States, starting off with journalist and former sex worker Melissa Gira Grant, who discusses the history of criminalizing sex work in the U.S.

Then Cecilia Gentili, principal consultant and founder of Trans Equity Consulting, and LaLa B. Holston-Zannell, trans justice campaign manager in the National Advocacy Department at the ACLU, explain the idea of sex work as work and why some advocates are calling for full decriminalization.

Yasmin Vafa, executive director of Rights 4 Girls, discusses concerns that sex work increases opportunities for sex trafficking, particularly the trafficking of children.  

RJ Thompson, managing director of the Sex Workers Project at the Urban Justice Center, helps break down some of the stigma surrounding sex work as well as how and why male sex workers are often left out of conversations around sex work.

And finally Elexus Jionde, author, content creator and founder of Intelexual Media, explores how technology, digital communication and the “realites” of the virtual world will continue to shape the future of sex work.

Some of the music on this podcast was made by Touque (https://davidaaron4.bandcamp.com/album/soho-sessions), Hannis Brown (https://www.hannisbrown.com/), James Perry, and j. cowit (https://jcowit.bandcamp.com/)