After our trafficking episode, we wanted to discuss some issues related to sex work. We dive into the history of sex work, deprogramming the stigma against legal & consensual sex work, and the ways that sex workers have had their lives unjustly impacted by law enforcement. We focus on a specific law that was made with good intentions, but in reality, made it immediately more difficult to track real trafficking victims online and pushed legal sex workers out of having their own full authority over how they work & back into unsafe situations on the streets or with pimps. 

Sources

Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, Season 9 Episode 2 - Found on HBO

https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/explainers/understanding-sex-work-open-society

https://sexworkersproject.org

https://decriminalizesex.work

https://www.britannica.com/topic/prostitution

https://www.mercurynews.com/2016/07/02/oakland-police-scandal-how-often-are-cops-having-sex-with-prostitutes/

https://www.vice.com/en/article/59mbkx/police-are-allegedly-sleeping-with-sex-workers-before-arresting-them

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Enabling_Sex_Traffickers_Act

https://www.techdirt.com/2018/05/14/police-realizing-that-sesta-fosta-made-their-jobs-harder-sex-traffickers-realizing-made-their-job-easier/

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/anti-sex-trafficking-advocates-say-new-law-cripples-efforts-to-save-victims-629081/

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-report-new-york-prostitution-arrests-target-women-and-people-of-color-301483872.html

https://www.zdnet.com/article/fosta-sesta-trafficking-law-used-once-since-2018-gao-report/