Law & Society Conference Recap
On International Whores’ Day, New Moon Network Joined Panel of Sex Worker and Human Rights Experts
to Discuss Policy Solutions to End Stigma Against Sex Workers
written by Mariah Grant
On June 2, 2023, New Moon Network Co-Director, Melodie Garcia moderated the panel titled, “Creating Multifaceted Policy to Address Stigma Against Sex Work and Institutional Challenges Facing Workers” as part of the Law and Society Association’s annual conference. This year’s conference was held in San Juan, Puerto Rico between June 1-4. The panel brought together experts from sex worker rights, harm reduction, migration, drug policy, and gender violence to discuss the institutional and cultural issues sex workers face, including stigma that is frequently compounded by their multiple overlapping marginalized identities.
Photo of the panelists from left to right: Melodie Garcia, Mariah Grant, Becca Cleary, Upegui-Hernandez, and Justice Rivera.
The panelists included Debora Upegui-Hernandez, Justice Rivera, Mariah Grant, and Becca Cleary. Debora is a social psychologist, activist, and researcher, originally from Colombia, who migrated to New York City as an adolescent and has resided in Puerto Rico for the last 10 years. Her work has focused on gender violence, immigration, drug policy, drug users’ rights and the experiences of Latinxs in the United States. Justice is a queer Jew Rican writer, harm reduction consultant, and pleasure activist based between Seattle, WA and San Juan, PR. Their professional and artistic work is grounded in principles of harm reduction, anti-oppression, and healing justice. Mariah is a human rights and migration expert with a focus on sex workers’ rights, freedom of movement, and labor exploitation. She has worked throughout the US and internationally, in a variety of capacities including case management, training and technical assistance, human rights research, and policy advocacy. Becca is staff attorney at Decriminalize Sex Work (DSW), a national organization pursuing a state-by-state strategy to advance legislation protecting the rights, health, and safety of adult consensual sex workers and victims of human trafficking in the United States. She is a graduate of the City University of New York Law School, where she studied post-conviction relief options for survivors of trafficking who were criminalized as a result of their exploitation.
In addition to identifying the harms institutional discrimination, particularly criminalization, play in the lives of sex workers, the panelists spoke to other policies that infringe on sex workers’ rights and safety, including those that allow for discrimination in banking, housing, employment, education, parenting, healthcare, and migration. Debora and Justice also highlighted how gender violence and the history of colonization impact sex workers in Puerto Rico, and that decriminalization must be worked on in tandem with addressing femicide and harmful policies that discriminate against drug users on the island. They also highlighted the opportunities presented in Puerto Rico’s constitution which is based on a human rights framework, setting it apart from the US.
The panelists also spoke about both incremental and longer-term policy changes that must be realized within the US-context, including passage of immunity bills that would create pathways for sex workers to report violence they have been the victim of or witness to, District Attorney non-prosecution policies that reduce the harm of the current criminal legal system, and uplifting current worker collective models from legalized or regulated sex work industries that can help guide advocates when imagining a post-decriminalization legal and social landscape. The panel concluded with an audience Q+A that brought insights from sex worker advocates, organizers, and researchers from around the world, including Australia, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, Sweden, and the UK.
