Victory: Washington State Removes “Sex Work” Decriminalization Task Force From Bills After WoLF Testimony
Last Tuesday, WoLF submitted testimony in opposition to Washington’s appropriations bills, Senate Bill 5693 and House Bill 1816. These bills included a section about establishing $150,000 for the creation of a task force to study the decriminalization of “sex work” in the state.
WoLF submitted written testimony in opposition to both bills because policies that fully decriminalize prostitution normalize sexual violence, fail to protect victims, and fail to hold pimps and buyers accountable for their systematic exploitation of women, children, and men.
The committees voting on these bills in both houses have since removed this section from the bills.
Wolf’s position
Note: In its testimony and this blog, WoLF uses the word “prostitution” and the phrase “commercial sexual exploitation” (CSE) interchangeably.
WoLF’s testimony included a brief summary describing the differences between full decriminalization and partial decriminalization (the Equality Model).
Because prostitution is an inherently abusive and egregious form of sexual violence that disproportionately harms women and girls, WoLF would, under different circumstances, support the creation of a task force to study how partial decriminalization would affect CSE victims and greater society. However, because of the way that SB5693 and HB1816 were written, WoLF was unable to support these bills – in fact, after studying the manipulative language used in these bills, WoLF was gravely concerned about the obvious pro-prostitution messaging of the proposed task force. There are three reasons that WoLF did not support SB5693 or HB1816:
These bills referred to prostitution as “sex work” and as an “industry.” This language normalizes sexual violence as a job or a career and encourages people to think that sexual consent can be purchased or traded. Because pro-prostitution language was used in these bills, WoLF could not feel confident that a task force would be able to neutrally engage in research or analysis that would sufficiently recognize and address the numerous harms caused by CSE. These bills clearly use biased language in favor of prostitution.
These bills stated that the task force should examine the “fiscal impact” of decriminalization. WoLF was deeply troubled by the possibility that Washington was placing a price tag on the trauma experienced by prostitution victims. WoLF urged Washington to understand that the goal of a fiscal impact study must not be whether a state government would financially benefit from the decriminalization of a brutal form of sexual violence. Rather, a fiscal impact study should evaluate the financial investment that the state needs to make so it can simultaneously respond to prostitution victims in a trauma-informed manner and ensure that law enforcement officers and prosecutors will be sufficiently prepared to hold buyers and traffickers accountable.
This bill would provide funding for the state LGBTQ commission to implement and lead the task force. The authors of the bill appeared to be prioritizing “LGBTQ communities” over women as the demographic group primarily harmed by prostitution. Women and girls are disproportionately harmed by prostitution; the number one risk factor for being victimized in prostitution is being born female in a patriarchy. An LGBTQ commission should certainly represent the interests of lesbians and bisexual women. However, heterosexual women and girls are not represented by LGBTQ groups. Leadership for this type of a task force belongs to a group that represents the interests of all women and acknowledges how all women and girls are harmed by prostitution.
WoLF would support a task force that analyzes the impact of partial decriminalization (the Equality Model). However, WoLF strongly opposes a task force that would analyze the impact of full decriminalization; doing so would send a message that the decriminalization of a brutal form of sexual violence could potentially be acceptable. Under no circumstances should prostitution be fully decriminalized.
Read our full testimony for SB5693.
Read our full testimony for HB1816.
Task force section in original bill
(9)(a) $150,000 of the general fund—state appropriation for fiscal year 2023 is provided solely for the Washington state LGBTQ commission to facilitate a task force to conduct a comprehensive study on the impact of decriminalization of sex work in the state.
(b) The task force is composed of the following members:
(i) The director of the LGBTQ commission, or the director's designee;
(ii) The director of the women's commission, or the director's designee;
(iii) One member of the Washington association of prosecuting attorneys;
(iv) One representative from the department of health's healthy communities Washington to be appointed by the secretary of health;
(v) One representative from the department of commerce's office of crime victims advocacy to be appointed by the director; and
(vi) Additional members to be appointed by the governor, as follows:
(A) One member representing the Washington anti-trafficking response network;
(B) One member representing the Washington coalition of sexual 29 assault programs;
(C) One member representing the Washington coalition for rights and safety for people in the sex trade;
(D) Two members of the general public representing workers in the sex trade in urban areas;
(E) Two members of the general public representing workers in the sex trade in rural areas; and
(F) Two members of communities historically overrepresented in the sex trade, such as the Black transgender community, women of color, etc.
(c) The director of the LGBTQ commission, or the director's designee, shall convene its first meeting, and the director, or the p. 17 HB 1816 director's designee, and a member of the task force elected upon its first convening meeting, shall cochair the task force.
(d)(i) The task force shall conduct a comprehensive study on the impact of decriminalization of sex work in the state and make recommendations that include, but are not limited to, the following:
(A) Models of decriminalization of sex work currently in place in other jurisdictions around the United States and globally;
(B) Fiscal impact of decriminalization of sex work for the state;
(C) Community health impact of decriminalization of sex work for the community at large;
(D) Equity impact of decriminalization of sex work;
(E) Gaps in current protections for survivors of sex trafficking and survivors of sexual violence; and
(F) Public health and sexually transmitted infection testing requirements.
(ii) The topics identified in (i) of this subsection (d) are intended to be illustrative but not exhaustive. The task force should consider issues relating to equity, disparities, and discrimination in each topic it studies and for which it makes recommendations.
(e) The LGBTQ commission must provide staff support for the task force. The LGBTQ commission may contract support to fulfill the requirements of this subsection.
(f) The task force shall consult with the appropriate experts in the field to fulfill its work.
(g) Nonlegislative members shall be reimbursed for travel expenses in accordance with chapter 43.03 RCW.
(h) The task force shall report its findings and recommendations to the governor and the appropriate committees of the legislature by February 1, 2023. If the recommendation is to decriminalize sex work, the report should include what regulation of the industry should look like as it relates to public health and sexually transmitted infection testing requirements.
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