This commentary is by Rachel Foster, co-founder and executive council co-chair of World Without Exploitation.
This was never about merely cleaning up archaic language.
Months before Burlington’s Town Meeting Day, sex trade survivors — including those bought and sold in Vermont — sounded the alarm regarding a dangerous “bait and switch” when it came to revoking wording in the city charter governing prostitution.
Initially executed under the cover of darkness, we flagged a well-organized plan to rev up a charter language issue to be used as a fig leaf in a sneaky effort to make pimping, sex buying and brothel owning legal throughout the Green Mountain State.
To be clear, everyone wanted to eliminate the charter’s antiquated, offensive wording. A simple amendment to language could have accomplished this goal. But that wasn’t done, and the reasons for this deception are crystal clear.
When Burlington Councilor Perri Freeman initially introduced the measure revoking the city charter’s prostitution provisions, Freeman stated unwavering support for efforts to fully decriminalize the sex trade. However, during a subsequent hearing — when other councilors expressed concern about the impact on the landscape of Burlington and residents’ health and safety — Freeman backtracked, stating this was purely about eliminating outdated language in the charter and nothing more.
But the cat was already out of the bag in terms of the larger efforts at play. In fact, on the day of the vote, Councilor Joe Magee told me that he unequivocally supports full decriminalization, yet couldn’t articulate a supportable reason why.
The campaign in Burlington is part of a comprehensive, coordinated, nationwide plan to decriminalize the sex trade. From Washington, D.C., to Louisiana to Oregon, well-funded, methodical efforts to legalize brothel-keeping, pimping and sex-buying have been exposed. Hoodwinking has been part of the process, with pro-pimping supporters conveniently omitting how they seek to give free rein to third-party promoters and sex buyers.
Far-reaching promises are repeatedly made to keep sex trafficking out and make “sex work” safe — an unsupportable assurance that’s failed everywhere it’s been attempted. In fact, nearby Rhode Island — the only state to experiment with full decriminalization — ended that practice in 2009 after 29 years due to increased violence, organized crime, trafficking and child exploitation during that period.
Here’s the reality — people simply don’t have an appetite for brothels next door, pimps hanging out by their child’s school or creepy men traveling in from neighboring states to purchase another human being for sex.
If the sex trade were completely decriminalized, that could easily be the case. Brothels operating in your apartment building. Sex buyers coming in-and-out at all hours. In a legal sex trade, these would all be considered legitimate business interactions free from scrutiny.
The sex trade is inherently exploitative and violent. And that’s why it is so upsetting that deep-pocketed actors with a vested financial interest in decriminalizing prostitution were able to use the “archaic language” issue to fuel their subterfuge, which will harm so many.
While human trafficking and prostitution are not one and the same, they’re inextricably intertwined. Research repeatedly proves that racial, gender and income inequality is at its epicenter. Those sold are predominantly economically vulnerable young people of color, while sex buyers are men, primarily white, with disposable income. And pimps and brothel keepers have a high stake in increasing profits by coercing compliance from people in their control through whatever means in their arsenal.
Just look at who jumped for joy on Election Day. Immediately after the Town Meeting Day vote, the deep-pocketed group Decriminalize Sex Work unabashedly declared victory in Vermont with a mass email blast with the caption “We Won!”
As always, simply follow the money to see who benefits. It’s not the women bought and sold in prostitution, but rather the brothel owners, pimps and those with an economic stake in an open sex trade. One of the architects of the failed plan to fully decriminalize prostitution in our nation’s capitol — who himself was embroiled in sexual misconduct accusations and once proclaimed, “I just think I’m hypersexualized” — was bankrolling “local Vermont” groups pushing to decriminalize brothels and sex buying in Burlington.
Anyone who walked Burlington’s streets in late February knew this wasn’t a grassroots effort about merely cleaning up language. All you had to do was see the sea of professional, glossy green signs that took a lot of money to create and put up around the city. This whole charade was about unleashing on the municipality the market forces of a fully-open sex trade — including inevitable sex tourism and easily anticipated collateral harms and crimes.
As a co-founder of World Without Exploitation, a national coalition of more than 200 organizations, I’ve traveled the country speaking with hundreds of people who were exploited in the sex trade. I’ve listened to the wise counsel of those with lived experience. Survivors are unequivocally imploring Vermont to take a close look at efforts to put the state’s most vulnerable in harm’s way.
Don’t be bamboozled by those with an economic stake in an open sex trade, giving a free pass to exploiters, abusers and profiteers.
Thankfully, there’s an alternative broadly supported by sex trade survivors and advocates. Known as The Equality Model, this progressive solution provides exit services, not criminal penalties, for those sold in the sex trade.
At the same time, this approach still holds those who fuel the demand for commercial sex — the brothel owners, buyers and pimps — accountable for the devastation and damage they cause.
I sincerely hope Gov. Phil Scott uses his power to veto this wrong-headed policy that isn’t about “archaic language,” but that instead will soften the ground for dangerous statewide efforts already underway.
What went down in Burlington is the canary in the coal mine in terms of deep-pocketed groups laying the foundation for full decriminalization. So, I implore Vermont’s leaders and legislators to pay close attention to the chicanery that transpired and stop efforts on a statewide level to place the most vulnerable in harm’s way. And I hope they’ll see that The Equality Model is the best way forward.
