LOS ANGELES – Free Speech Coalition, the trade organization for the adult industries, is calling on its members to lobby their Senators against SESTA, anti-trafficking legislation that threatens to decimate protections for sex workers, and leave adult producers open to massive liability.
FSC has created a #STOPSESTA landing page, which easily allows members to look-up and contact Senators and Representatives who support the legislation.
“SESTA is dangerous, misguided legislation that will cost sex worker lives, and push consensual sex work underground,” says Eric Paul Leue, Executive Director of FSC. “This is our fight, and it is important that we stand by those who provide direct services. But make no mistake, this law is dangerous for anyone with a sex-related business.”
The SESTA legislation ostensibly goes after sex traffickers, and websites that enable them, and has gained broad bipartisan support. However, the legislation does not distinguish between consensual sex work and sex trafficking, giving state attorneys the ability to prosecute any sex-related business.
Nearly three dozen state legislatures which have passed, or are considered passing legislation that link pornography to sex trafficking. Currently, only California and New Hampshire have laws separating pornography from prostitution. SESTA would give each state attorney general wide lattitude to prosecute adult companies under federal anti-trafficking legislation.
Given the hostile local climate, and the widespread presence of adult, Leue says the implications are astounding.
“Under SESTA, a zealous state attorney general could now prosecute a cam operator in North Carolina for facilitating trafficking based on a conversation between a performer and a fan, or go after a clips site based on content created by a third-party in Alabama. There is no safe harbor, and the will at the state level is there.”
Leue encourages all FSC members to call their legislators today.
