Working together is critical…and disagreements are inevitable. That doesn’t mean good partnerships have to end.

December 1, 2020

Working with allies in the movement to end sexual harm is always necessary. It propels our vision of a better world forward and is central to how CAASE operates. But that doesn’t make it easy. Recently, our friends and allies at the Survivor’s Agenda released their policy platform. It is simultaneously thrilling, forward-thinking, and disappointing. Unfortunately, it endorses the full decriminalization of the sex trade—which includes sex buying and pimping. We at CAASE have long supported the Equality Model, which would lift all penalties for those who sell sex while holding buyers and pimps accountable for the harm they cause.

This moment shows that even common allies can disagree. In feminist circles, this isn’t unusual and the issue of the sex trade is often the root of these divisions. It’s unfortunate this splintering has occurred (yet again) among otherwise like-minded people and organizations. It’s particularly disheartening because we all agree on one half of this issue: People selling sex should not face any penalties.

However, because survivors are routinely discredited and discouraged from speaking out, we will not abandon long-standing allies over this difference. Instead, we are focused on the many values we share with the Survivor’s Agenda, especially the value of speaking out and uplifting survivor voices to the national political stage. 

Leaders of the Survivor’s Agenda deserve praise for their incredible work to harness the collective power of survivors and advocate for these issues nationally. Survivors are everywhere in our communities, and it’s about time their voices were heard. We’re encouraged to see the platform amplify the voices of women of color, LGBTQ people, and folks experiencing poverty. Its commitment to the least privileged and most marginalized survivors is crystal clear.

But, we cannot stifle our concerns that the full agenda includes an endorsement of sex buying and pimping through the full decriminalization of prostitution. The harms in the sex trade are endemic to it. They cannot be regulated away through policy change. We know this from mountains of research and our years of work to divert the attention of the criminal justice system away from folks selling sex. Most recently, we published a report on how the enforcement of prostitution laws is inappropriately focused on selling. This is a direct conflict with the broad consensus that people in prostitution do not deserve penalties, but instead, access to social support and services. The report included the voices of survivors, most of whom expressed frustration about their lack of opportunities and a life outside the sex trade, or any recourse for the harms perpetrated against them by buyers and police.

We recognize that some people freely choose to sell sex, and we respect those who want to engage in prostitution and be afforded the same dignity and rights that America (rhetorically) grants to all workers. CAASE also recognizes that sex trafficking is different from prostitution. However, research shows that the majority of people with experience in the sex trade started when they were minors, wanted a way out, and were harmed by it. Research centered on people with lived experiences confirms that few get enjoyment from performing sexual acts on men they have little ability to reject. Research also shows that prostitution involves such repetitive exposure to trauma that post-traumatic stress disorder is more common for people who’ve lived through it than those who have lived through military combat. Additionally, research suggests that substance abuse is a more common response to prostitution than a cause of it because people need to dissociate from reality in order to survive their days in the sex trade. With this overwhelming evidence in mind, we simply cannot support this part of the platform. 

So, where do things stand now? This November, CAASE sent a letter to the Steering Committee of the Survivor’s Agenda to express both our wide admiration for the agenda, and our deep concern that this portion of the platform will do much more harm than good. We will continue to promote the platform publicly, with the caveat that full decriminalization of the sex trade is not a structural policy reform that would stop the inherent violence, sexism, racism, homophobia, and transphobia of the sex trade. We will seek conversations with the Survivor’s Agenda about the experiences of survivors in the sex trade and we will encourage them to evaluate their endorsement, look at other policy reforms like the Equality Model, and hopefully come to a different consensus. We are both supportive of the agenda while remaining defiant in our objections, staying true to our commitment to walking side by side with and serving survivors.

This piece was primarily authored by Madeleine Behr and Kaethe Morris Hoffer with editing assistance from Hayley Forrestal.