The New York Times, reporting on Vance’s announcement, said the DA will “continue to fight those who exploit or otherwise profit from prostitution without punishing the people who for decades have borne the brunt of law enforcement’s attention.” Such a conclusion betrays a profound ignorance of the ways so-called Nordic models - wherein only buyers of sex or third parties face criminalization - have continued to harm sex workers, forcing them into the shadows and entrapping their loved ones and associates in the system of carceral injustice. When police interactions involve so much consistent violence, especially for trans women of color, the level of incomplete decriminalization on the table is insufficient. A number of the cases the DA moved to dismiss dated to the 1970s and 1980s - a dismissal now, however welcome, does not constitute justice after decades of persecution under anti-sex worker laws, which have always been steeped in anti-Blackness and transmisogyny. But the fact that laws relating to business licensing were being used to ensnare presumed sex workers at all is troubling. Vance has asked a judge to dismiss 914 open cases involving prostitution and unlicensed massage, along with 5,080 cases that stemmed from the now-defunct “walking while trans” ban - the significance of this cannot be dismissed. “Trafficking” will no doubt be used to carry out raids and harass survival workers. The DA’s office said that it would continue to bring other charges that stem from prostitution-related arrests. For many immigrant workers, the risk of deportation will remain. Historically, the criminalization of “promoting” sex work has left the loved ones and roommates of sex workers, as well as sex worker rights advocates, vulnerable to prosecution. Sex workers themselves will continue to face arrest, even if not prosecution. The district attorney’s office will still prosecute people patronizing sex workers, as well as those who allegedly promote sex work. The policing of sex workers will continue. And to be sure, Manhattan has not freed sex workers from the ruinous grip of law enforcement.
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Until sex work is wholly removed from the business of policing and the carceral system - that is, full decriminalization - every legislative or policy shift that limits the excesses of criminalization is but a step. Yet, as I’ve previously noted, it is no accident that these victories are consistently referred to as “steps” by those who have fought hardest for them. The policy shift would not have been possible without the tireless work of advocates like Gentili and other trans women of color who have long been on the front lines of the fight for decriminalization, a struggle against the oppression of some of the most marginalized communities in the country. “I cannot express enough how important this step is for NYC,” tweeted Cecilia Gentili, a prominent organizer for sex worker and trans rights. The Manhattan decision follows similar moves in other New York City boroughs - Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx - as well as Baltimore and Philadelphia, but it carries with it the weight of Vance’s powerful office. Following decades of police harassment, racist anti-trans profiling, and brutal incarceration with sometimes deadly consequences, every step toward the decriminalization of sex work is welcome. Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance announced on Wednesday that his office would no longer criminally prosecute prostitution or unlicensed massage, while moving to dismiss hundreds of cases related to the state’s infirm anti-sex worker laws. Photo: Joana Toro/Corbis via Getty Images
Sex workers and supporters take part in a demonstration calling for the decriminalization of sex work in Jackson Heights, N.Y., on Sept.
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