Not on my watch! Another mother still lives with the trauma of her daughter who was raped, abused, starved and trafficked. These stories are becoming common place. And when we look at the ethnicity of trafficked victims, the FBI estimates that Black children, overwhelmingly girls, make up 55 percent of all prostitution-related arrests.
Legalizing prostitution would exponentially grow that percentage, since New York would be sending the message to sex buyers that our girls are for sale in the free and legal market. Prostitution is violence; not sex, not work. Please know that we are working very hard with the NYPD and other city officials to make sure they stop arresting prostituted women. No one should be punished for their own exploitation. We are working with city agencies to make sure services are offered, from housing to medical to income-generating alternatives.
So much needs to be done to help this invisible population recover and thrive. But we also have to ask ourselves who are the agents perpetrating this harm? Who is harming and who is benefiting in the sex trade?
The sex trade is a business like any other: supply, demand and the push to make a profit. How do pimps and traffickers make their money? Sex buyers. Take away the demand and the business crumbles. We cannot go back to a New York that rolls out the red carpet for pimps, pornographers and traffickers.
Decriminalize the victims by providing supportive services, not by aiding the sex buyers and pimps. We fought hard to get bills passed into law to protect victims and survivors of sex trafficking and with this being entertained we will now lift the protections that have been put in place.
