NEW YORK — The New York Times’ Opinion section, which under editor Kathleen Kingsbury has routinely foregrounded the voices of anti-porn activists, SWERFs and assorted sex-work deniers, yesterday published a rare op-ed penned by a sex worker.
The op-ed, titled “This Is What Will Make Sex Work in New York Safer,” was written by Cecilia Gentili, founder of Transgender Equity Consulting, director of gender inclusion at CAI Global and Stonewall Community Foundation board member.
The Argentine-American sex worker and activist described how she has spent the last decade of her life fighting for the decriminalization of sex work for adults, to “heal all of those times [she has] been harassed, beaten and raped — not by clients but by law enforcement officials.”
Gentili focused her piece on two competing bills “purporting" to decriminalize sex work in the New York state legislature.
“But while both attempt to address the very valid concerns about sex trafficking,” Gentili noted, “only one meets the needs of sex workers.”
Gentili urged New Yorkers to support the “Stop the Violence in the Sex Trades” bill sponsored by State Senator Julia Salazar.
“This bill aims to decriminalize the industry — including sex workers, clients and managers — though carefully continuing to protect minors and trafficked people,” she wrote. “The origin of this bill dates back three years, to ideas promoted by a group I helped found, Decrim NY. Our lobbying led to the overturning of a criminal statute against loitering that law enforcement had long used as a pretext to harass trans women regardless of their involvement in the sex trade.”
“We knew that the best way to help sex workers was not to decriminalize only their actions but also those of their clients,” she added. “The legal pressure that clients face is absorbed by sex workers: A smaller client base means lower wages and poorer working conditions, with clients who are more likely to act in ways that make sex workers’ lives more difficult.”
Writing in support of Salazar’s bill, Gentili affirmed that “criminalization of either side of the sex trade does not help protect sex workers but rather merely perpetuates the social stigma that treats sex work as an inherently harmful activity — a stigma that I have long worked to eradicate.”
The competing bill — endorsing the so-called “Nordic model” — is the Sex Trade Survivors Justice and Equality Act, aka the “Survivors Bill.” Sponsored by State Senator Liz Krueger, this bill is “threatening to derail the Salazar bill for total decriminalization” by decriminalizing “only sex workers but not their clients or their managers,” Gentili pointed out.
“Partial decriminalization doesn’t work, and we have evidence,” the activist noted.
To read “This Is What Will Make Sex Work in New York Safer,” click here.
