A few months ago, the US government announced a ban on sex workers and forced labor.
As the world reacted, a lot of people were wondering if sex workers were going to be a big hit.
And they were.
But we still have a long way to go to combat the problem, and the real impact may not be felt until the 2020s.
In this article, we’ll look at what’s already happening, what could happen in the next decade, and what’s still up in the air.
The sex industry is the largest and most well-known segment of the US economy, accounting for more than half of the GDP.
It’s also one of the most heavily regulated in the world.
But in 2018, the sex industry was one of only two sectors of the economy that did not meet the requirements of the new US regulation.
It was a big blow to the industry, but it didn’t have to be.
In December 2018, a federal judge in Oregon ruled against the regulation, and in March 2019, a district court judge in Florida overturned the ruling.
Both rulings are pending.
Now, a new law called the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Act (SAPRA), which is currently in the final stages of a federal appeals court, is the most significant legal victory for sex workers.
It bans sex work and forced labour.
If enacted, it would prohibit all sex work from being conducted in any commercial place, including hotels, bars, restaurants, or other places where sex workers gather.
Under the law, sex workers would also have to register with the government as sex workers under the age of 18.
If they do not comply with that, they could be fined up to $10,000 per day, and their work could be considered “forced labor.”
It would also make it illegal to use force or threaten to use it to extract sex from a sex worker.
This would go into effect immediately.
SAPRAs impact on sex work is enormous.
In fact, the American Society of Addiction Medicine estimates that sex workers make up one-fifth of all sex workers in the US.
Many people work for low pay and are vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.
There’s no way that the US is going to eliminate all sex trafficking and sex trafficking-related violence, and it’s likely to make sex work more expensive, but these changes will help to end the problem of sex work in the United States.
And there’s good news.
As the American Sex Workers Outreach Project notes, the new law will increase protections for sex work workers, who currently have few protections.
It will also ensure that sex work stays on the front lines of efforts to end sexual violence against women, such as the new Victims of Sexual Violence Act (VPVSA).
But the biggest win for the sex worker community is likely to come from the new legislation.
Sex workers are already more likely to be protected from workplace discrimination than are non-sex workers, and that will only grow with this law.
According to the Sex Work Legal Defense Project, the number of sex workers arrested in the country doubled between 2014 and 2018, and they were nearly twice as likely to report being sexually harassed or assaulted as the general population.
By the 2020 census, about 15.6 percent of women ages 18 to 49 had been sexually assaulted.
“In the last two decades, we’ve seen an increase in the prevalence of sex trafficking, and sex work has been a front-line service to combat this violence,” said Andrea Mack, policy director at the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network.
Mack believes the new bill is an important first step, but that there is much more to do to end sex trafficking.
For example, she noted, the current law is very weak when it comes to enforcing existing anti-trafficking laws, which could make it harder for sex traffickers to get convictions in court.
While it may seem counterintuitive that sex trafficking victims would be more likely than other people to report abuse to law enforcement, Mack noted that the laws are often not enforced.
We can’t ignore the fact that sex traffickers use sex workers to obtain victims, because they know that if they arrest these workers and convict them, that would make them more vulnerable.
Even if sex trafficking is not a priority for the police, it’s important to keep these victims safe.
It would be a tragedy if they are not able to report their abuse to police, because of the stigma associated with the criminal justice system.
Moreover, because sex trafficking happens online, the victims are not aware of what’s happening.
If the police were to be able to identify and prosecute sex traffickers who are operating online, then the victims would have more power to speak out and report their cases to law officers.
What happens next?
If this law passes, sex trafficking will no longer be illegal.
But it will require sex workers or clients to register as sex-
