ESPLERP's Maxine Doogan to Testify Before CA Assembly Committee

SAN FRANCISCO—The California State Assembly Committee on Public Safety is holding an Informational Hearing on Tuesday, October 20, on “Human Trafficking: Identifying the Scope of the Problem and Potential Solutions.” Maxine Doogan, President of the Erotic Services Providers Legal Education and Research Project (ESPLERP), has been invited to present to the Committee. Jerald Mosley, a retired Deputy Attorney General for Legislative Affairs, will also be presenting at the hearing regarding the lawsuit ESPLERP v Gason, a federal civil case challenging constitutionality of  California’s anti prostitution. Doogan will be making that point that sex work is not the same as sex trafficking. Sex work is when an adult consents to make their living from erotic labor, whether as a stripper, an erotic dancer, a massage provider, or a prostitute. Yet current California trafficking legislation, such as Proposition 35, absurdly conflates sex work and sex trafficking, and criminalizes sex workers as trafficked victims. “California trafficking definitions treat sex workers as if they need to be locked up and pathologized. These faulty definitions also rely on a broad definition of pimping and pandering which turns our friends, roommates, landlords, domestic partners, and support staff into sex traffickers and sex offenders,” said Doogan. “It criminalizes consensual sex workers and so far has done very little to apprehend real sex traffickers. The 'War on Sex Trafficking' is the new 'War on Drugs,' and the results are disastrous for poor women, women of color and trans women.” The hearing is due to start at 9:30 a.m. in Room 126 of the State Capitol Building and continue until 11 a.m.. Doogan will testify sometime during the 10-11 a.m. hour. Supporters of the Erotic Services Providers Providers Legal Education and Research Project will have a presence outside the Committee room, and Maxine Doogan and Jerry Mosley will be available for interviews 30 minutes before the hearing starts outside of Room 126. For more information, please visit info@esplerp.org. Pictured: Maxine Doogan and supporter.