It's a new year and while white, nationalist violence and the undeniable disparities in policing has captured our attention once again, we know that the year will hold countless possibilities for growth and change. One of our major goals for 2021 is to DECRIMINALIZE SEX WORK!
While we’ve been advocating to end the criminalization of
sex work for over 30 years, there is now a bill
sponsored by Rep. Mandie Landry to repeal certain prostitution-related offenses in Louisiana.
In 2019, we began collaborating with Rep. Landry and Andrea Ritchie, building off our collective work on the NO Justice campaign, to draft legislation that would repeal sex work-related offenses. LA HB 366 was introduced and referred to the Committee on Administration of Criminal Justice in March 2020, but was paused due to COVID-19.
It will be reintroduced with a new bill number in the upcoming legislative session, Spring 2021.
In this time, WWAV has been working with an advisory committee of stakeholders, whose lives and livelihoods will be impacted by this legislation, to develop a toolkit that outlines what sex work is and who is harmed by its criminalization.