Legislation would again make state a haven for sex trafficking | Opinion

Audra Doody is co-executive director of Safe Exit Initiative and uses her personal experience to advocate for people in the sex trade.

I’m a survivor of sex trafficking. It happened here in Rhode Island during those dark times when indoor prostitution was legal in the Ocean State − a period during which organized crime and trafficking ran rampant.

My pimp had me living with a group of girls in a dingy apartment in Woonsocket. Every morning, we’d be shuttled to massage parlors. Whenever we didn’t make enough money, my trafficker shipped me to casinos in Rhode Island and Connecticut. Or he’d take us up and down I-95 from Maine to Florida. Half the time, I didn’t even know where I was.

I know firsthand that a decriminalized sex industry is not progressive, won’t protect women, and won’t keep communities safe. Yet, right now, the legislature is debating Senate Bill 2934, which would remove all aspects of prostitution as a crime including pimping, sex buying, and operating a brothel. In essence, the small state of Rhode Island would become the region’s largest sex tourist destination … once again.

Sex buying isn’t a victimless crime. Men purchasing sex have no clue whether the person they’re procuring is trafficked or not, a minor or not, coerced or not. And society’s most marginalized − Black and brown girls, LGBTQ+ people, runaways, immigrants, and those from impoverished communities − are the ones most often being purchased, predominantly by white men.

Rhode Island would be the "plantation state" when it comes to vulnerable people trapped in service of wealthy exploiters and buyers. We don’t have to guess, because we’ve seen it happen around the globe. Exploitation explodes anywhere the sex trade is legalized or decriminalized.

But it’s not just S2934 that offers legal protection to exploiters. There’s also Senate Bill 2225, which repeals the loitering statute, and S2441, which protects people from prostitution charges if they’re the victim or witness to a crime. It’s the women and marginalized people in prostitution who need the protection these bills offer − not the sex buyers who are the ones most often enacting the violence and harm we need protection from.

Promoting efforts that create windfalls for exploiters is the opposite of progressive policy. If these new laws come to fruition, Rhode Island will undo all its good work in the push to prevent trafficking and child exploitation. We don’t have to guess, because we’ve already experimented with this disastrous policy when we decriminalized prostitution from 1980 to 2009. During this 29-year disaster, organized crime operated legal brothels and sex trafficking rates spiked.

Moreover, allowing sex buying sends the terrible message that purchasing sex is socially acceptable, threatening to turn Providence and Newport into sex tourist destinations. The end result will be more trafficking, organized crime and victims − because the sex industry can never have as many willing participants as unchecked demand requires.

There’s a better solution − a common-sense, compassionate approach offering survivors support and a way out. Known as the Equality Model, it’s the leading global response to prostitution reform and been enacted in several countries. Just last summer, Maine became the first state to sign this model into law. There’s even legislation moving in Massachusetts and New York.

Rather than arrests and criminal penalties, partial decriminalization offers legal protection to those selling sex, while holding bad actors and exploiters accountable for the damage they cause. By prioritizing exit support and prevention, it also reduces the size of the sex trade, as well as accompanying violence and trafficking.

Rhode Island has an opportunity to be a leader by embracing this thoughtful, survivor-led approach which focuses on what’s best for the most at-risk people in the sex trade. It’s time to put their needs first by enacting the Equality Model.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Promoting efforts that create windfalls for exploiters is the opposite of progressive policy.