Newsletters

These days, Andrea Heinz is happily married, has children, and works as a commercialsexual exploitation activist. Heinz’s childhood was “pretty typical,” she says. Her parentshad lived happily together for many years; she and her slightly older sister enjoyed a safeand pleasant youth and did well in school. Andrea’s young adulthood was anything buttypical, and a…

Can Washington, D.C. achieve a more successful push for decriminalization of sex work a second time around? Chibundo Egwuatu is the coordinator of the Advocacy Department and the Sex Worker Advocates Coalition (SWAC) for HIPS, a harm reduction agency that works towards ensuring the health and safety of sex workers in DC. HIPS focuses primarily…

Should the commercialization of sex ever be legal? Rachel Moran unequivocally answers that question in the negative. A survivor of seven years of prostitution – which she prefers over “sex work” because the experience was more about being abused and raped repeatedly that having sex or working – she became instrumental in bringing the Abolitionist…

Christopher Johnston’s Online Community Forum

Are there differences around the pro decriminalization of sex work issue in Europe from the U.S.? Marjan Wijers brought an entirely new frame of mind to our discussion about decriminalization of sex work: She represents the European perspective. A few of the people I’ve spoken with from the U.S. have some understanding or collaborate with…

Will hearing more sex trafficking survivors’ voices change people’s minds about decriminalization? As a survivor, Ashley Chesney is confident that hearing the accounts of victims of sex trafficking will help people make up their own minds about whether or not to legalize or decriminalize sex work. She holds that position because she believes the great…

SJN Newsletter #12: Are there good ways to protect people who have been criminalized as sex workers? Kate D’Adamo says she works primarily “under the bright red umbrella of sex worker rights” in her Policy & Advocacy role for Reframe Health and Justice Counseling in Baltimore, Maryland. The organization of which she is a partner…

Do male victims of human trafficking and former sex workers need more attention and recovery programs? Russell G. Wilson describes himself as “a person with lived experience of human trafficking.” He is not the biggest fan of the term “survivor” and typically turns down opportunities to tell his story of being trafficked as a child…