At Least a Few Lawmakers Are Listening to the Adult Industry

“Sex workers have gained the backing of a small group of Democratic lawmakers after largely being shut out of the policymaking process,” wrote Rodrigo, who spoke to a number of pro-industry activists and entertainers, as well as a small but hopefully growing cadre of United States lawmakers who are taking the perspectives of sex workers and their advocates seriously.

After dissent from adult industry over SESTA/FOSTA, and its disastrous impact on legal adult entertainment, Rodrigo called the legislation a “turning point.”

Now, Representative Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) is advocating for a bill that would study the effects of SESTA/FOSTA. “It was not just that their perspective was discarded. Their perspective wasn’t even heard. They were considered almost untouchable in the Capitol,” he told Rodrigo. Most lawmakers, he said, “didn’t even want to take meetings because of the possible images or pictures” with sex workers or those representing their interests.

Of the bill he’s working on now, Rep. Khanna told Rodrigo, “We need the study in the bill…But the issue is about overcoming the stigma, it’s about getting people who are on the margins of society a voice.”

That same stigma, wrote Rodrigo, keeps lawmakers from working openly with those in the sex industry extends to lobbying attempts, as well, according to Rodrigo. Embarrassment over where they’re spending their money hurts advocacy groups’ fund-raising abilities. 

But, at last, some headway seems to be in the making. Rep. Khanna’s SESTA/FOSTA study bill is being led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who met with Mary Moody of the Adult Industry Laborers & Artists Association earlier this year, and has met with sex worker groups in the past, as well. (Sen. Warren has also expressed a desire to decriminalize sex work. Some in the adult industry have criticized her record on sex work issues in the past, but one hopes that her openness to meeting with those in the industry shows a willingness to learn.)

And Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) told Rodrigo in a statement, “Sex workers sit at the intersection of a lot of important, but exceedingly difficult, issues surrounding law enforcement, gender, race and speech…When Congress makes policy that affects any of those concerns, it would be malpractice not to take their voices into consideration.”

A small group of national lawmakers showing their openness to taking sex workers’ issues seriously is a big step forward. But, as Rodrigo noted, the momentum is up against a large roadblock in the form of conservative lawmakers’ existing relationships with anti–sex work organizations like Exodus Cry, whose “Traffickinghub” campaign entered heavily into the drafting of the Stop Internet Sexual Exploitation Act drafted by Senators Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Ben Sasse (R-Neb.). Similarly, noted Rodrigo, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE), formerly Morality in Media, received a $240,000 grant from the Justice Department last year. And, as we’ve previously reported at YNOT, NCOSE influenced resolutions in 16 states declaring pornography a “public health crisis.”

Still, knowing that there are at least a few heavy-hitting politicians willing to hear from sex workers and their advocates is a welcome ray of light. For those in the industry, as well as those who hold freedom of expression dear, even small gains are often worth celebrating.