“I have spoken at length with sex workers I know about their life experiences, and the damage that stigma does. It increases violence and it increases risk, and the laws of Canada, currently, really make their lives more dangerous.”
It would be no surprise for the quote above to have come from a sex work advocate, social worker, or academic. When it comes from a sitting politician – in this case, Canadian MP Laurel Collins in a recent interview with Slixa – it takes on an added significance, at least from the perspective of a longtime observer of laws and social attitudes surrounding sex work.
While sex work has been legal in some countries (and perhaps best described as “quasi-legal” in Canada) for decades, it’s fair to say support for sex workers and the very idea of legal sex work among politicians in the U.S. is a rare thing.
Canada is not the U.S., obviously, but both culturally and geographically speaking, it’s one of our nearest neighbors – and while I don’t expect Collins’ interview with Slixa to have a major, immediate influence on the thinking of her American counterparts, I do hope the willingness of politicians like her to give a fair hearing to the needs, concerns and plight of sex workers is something that catches on in this country.
“My motivation for speaking out comes from hearing from sex workers about the work they do,” Collins told Slixa. “Additionally, sex trafficking is a serious issue that needs to be tackled, but the two should not be conflated.”
At the moment, unfortunately, conflating sex trafficking with sex work appears to be the preference in Washington (along with generally chipping away at the protections afforded to operators of interactive websites under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, but that’s another rant altogether.)
The Slixa interview also touches on an exchange between Collins’ fellow MP, Arnold Viersen, in which Viersen simultaneously managed to insult Collins and the intelligence of just about everyone who heard the exchange.
In the interview, Collins also talks about the opportunity for continuing Canada’s “national conversation” about sex work — and the need to get something more than lip service out of people who talk a good game in declaring support for sex workers, but who often don’t follow up with legislative solutions that put their talk into action.
The full Slixa interview with Collins is a quick and encouraging read. Although she doesn’t represent an area in which I’ll ever be able to vote, it’s still somehow heartening just to know there are politicians anywhere in North America who are sufficiently reasonable and open-minded to put stock in what sex workers have to say about sex work.
While for most of my life I would have said I don’t much hope for pols in Washington extending the same sort listening ear to sex workers that Collins clear has, there’s at least some indication these days that Washington might be willing to do some listening. That willingness is probably best represented in the SAFE SEX Workers Study Act – a proposal supported by sex work advocacy groups like Erotic Service Providers Legal Education and Research Project (ESPLERP).
Are we at a turning point in attitudes towards sex work, if not throughout society, at least within our legislative chambers? That may be too optimistic a notion – but hopefully politicians like Collins and any like-minded peers she in the U.S. can at least help move the needle in the right direction.
