What Sex Workers Want

Sharmus, a tall transgendered woman, bundled up in a hooded-coat and scarf, looked out at the crowd gathered earlier this week in Washington. The crowd, mostly young and middle-aged women, were clutching red umbrellas and signs proclaiming, "STOP SHAMING US TO DEATH" and "STOP THE WAR ON WHORES." Sharmus, who uses that name for her work in the sex industry, was speaking at the sixth annual International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers.

Ignoring the stares of a few passers-by, Sharmus took a deep breath and began to talk about an incident in early December when a customer shot at and tried to rob her. It wasn't the first time she'd been threatened with a weapon or assaulted. During her seven years in the sex industry she says she has contacted the police on four separate occasions to report an attack. And each time, she felt blamed by the police or the prosecutor for what happened. Twice, she says, police officers have reprimanded her for putting herself in a risky situation.

According to the rally's organizers, and other similar organizations, the only way to really protect sex workers like Sharmus, is to make what they do both legal and legitimate. That, they say, would make it easier for them to go to the police for protection without fear of prosecution or callous treatment. But would legalizing the sex industry make its workers any safer? The question is far from settled.

Carol Leigh, a San Francisco-based advocate for the decriminalization of prostitution who attended the D.C. event, says she was raped at age 28 while working as a prostitute. "I couldn't call the police because I certainly felt that they wouldn't take the crime seriously," she says. She feared they would just close down the place where she worked.

In Sweden, authorities have made it legal to sell sex but not to buy it. In 1999 they passed a law that encourages law enforcement to aggressively prosecute johns. Their theory is that sex workers will be more likely to come forward and get help or report a violent customer if they don't fear prosecution. The Swedish national police board reports that since it began levying charges against johns, the number of prostitutes has decreased by as much as 40 percent, and there's been a significant reduction in the number of women trafficked into the country for use in the sex trade.

However, some sex-work advocacy organizations suggest sex workers in Sweden have just become further marginalized and conduct their affairs more privately. Stacey Swimme, a national board member for the Sex Worker Outreach Project-USA, a group that helped organize the D.C. march, does not think the model would be a good fit in America. She says that sex workers will protect their source of income, the johns, and thus will be hesitant to report them. "Anything that pushes sex workers and their clients further into the underground economy is still compromising the safety and the health of sex workers," she explains.