Erotic Service Providers to Sue to Legalize Prostitution in CA

SAN FRANCISCO—Using the motto "Stop Criminalizing Adult Consensual Private Sexual Exchange," the Erotic Service Providers Legal, Education and Research Project (ESPLER), a not-for-profit community-based coalition advancing sexual privacy rights through legal advocacy, education, and research, will be filing a complaint in federal court here tomorrow at noon in an attempt to overturn state laws—specifically Penal Code 647(b)—that criminalize the selling of sexual services, including prostitution. Penal Code 647(b) makes it a misdemeanor offense for anyone to "solicit[] anyone to engage in or ... engage[] in lewd or dissolute conduct in any public place or in any place open to the public or exposed to public view"; "solicit[] or ... agree[] to engage in or ... engage[] in any act of prostitution"; or "loiter[] in or about any toilet open to the public for the purpose of engaging in or soliciting any lewd or lascivious or any unlawful act." The filing of the complaint will take place at noon tomorrow, March 4, at the Golden Gate Avenue entrance of the Phillip Burton Federal Building & United States Courthouse, 450 Golden Gate Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94102. Those who attend will be able to receive copies of the complaint and accompanying brief which seek to overturn the prostitution laws. For more information, email Maxine Doogan here. ESPLER can be followed on Twitter here.