Decriminalization of Sex Work
The ACLU has long opposed the criminalization of sex work because we believe in the right of consenting adults to engage in private, consensual sexual activity. We work to decriminalize sex work and end the criminalization of people in the sex trade in California.
The criminalization of sex work disproportionately impacts people of color, street- based sex workers and transgender people, with Black street-based sex workers bearing the brunt of harassment, policing, and violence as a result. Further, police profiling makes life more difficult for people in all these groups, whether or not they have ever engaged in sex work.
Since 2019, we have worked alongside DecrimSexWorkCA, a coalition of current and former sex workers and allies, centering the leadership of Black, Indigenous and people of color, trans and gender non-conforming workers, to promote the health, safety and dignity of all people in the sex trade.
The passage of SB 357
In its first legislative initiative, DecrimSexWorkCA worked to pass SB 357 (Wiener), the Safer Streets for All Act, which repealed California Penal Code Section 653.22, a law that criminalizes loitering for the intent to engage in sex work and enables people who have been convicted under the law to clear their records.
Penal Code Section 653.22 permitted unjust profiling, harassment and arrests of transgender women and cisgender women of color by law enforcement. The subjective nature of the law targeted people based on how they looked or where they were standing. The fear of arrest increased danger for all sex workers, including those trafficked in commercial sex. Loitering convictions create stigma, erect barriers to employment, and limit access to safe housing because of a criminal record relating to sex work.
SB 357 eliminated law enforcement’s ability to harass and arrest trans women and women of color based on a belief or assumption that the person engages in sex work. We all deserve to exist in public peacefully without the fear of violent arrest based on who we are, the clothing we are wearing, where or how we stand, or for our genders or the color of our skin.
