Gentili supports, Stop the Violence in the Sex Trades, will gut the anti-trafficking laws of New York and will encourage travelers from around the world to come to New York to buy the most vulnerable among us. Our goal should be to protect these young people, to lift them up and help them pursue the great promise of their lives. youth who have been kicked out of their home, those who have aged out of foster care and homeless youth. Already, recent public messaging that prostitution is a victimless crime has led to an uptick in the number of pimps who wait down the street from our Covenant House shelter, preying on our most vulnerable youth.ĭecriminalization provides increased incentive for pimps to lure in primarily Black and brown young people in poverty, L.G.B.T.Q. Gentili’s advocacy efforts to fully decriminalize prostitution, including for clients and promoters, go too far and endanger vulnerable young adults. That is why Covenant House, an organization that helps homeless young adults, supports the Sex Trade Survivors Justice and Equality Act, which would ensure that no person is arrested for selling sex in New York. Decriminalize people exploited in prostitution, not the people exploiting them.Įsperanza Fonseca North Hollywood, Calif.Īt Covenant House we empathize greatly with Cecilia Gentili’s experience of being mistreated as a sex worker when she was merely trying to survive. Expanding the rights of those who profit and benefit from our exploitation won’t make us safer. And it still holds pimps, brothel owners and sex buyers accountable. The “equality model” decriminalizes people exploited in prostitution and provides exit services. This untenable “solution” would only exacerbate the problem and offer no exit services.
“Full decriminalization,” or what we call the “exploitation model,” throws our fate into the hands of the free market and under the control of a multibillion-dollar industry placing profit over people.
I wanted to leave prostitution but, like most in prostitution, couldn’t. Sex buyers dehumanized and treated me like a fetish and commodity. When I began my gender transition, circumstances forced me into prostitution for survival. However, I fundamentally disagree that expanding the rights of pimps, brothel owners and sex buyers will keep women like us safe. Gentili, was forced into prostitution because of economic coercion. I’m a transgender woman and sex trade survivor who, like Ms.
Meanwhile, some campaigners are concerned that “red tape” around the policy creates a safety risk.Re “ Only Full Decriminalization Will Help Sex Workers,” by Cecilia Gentili (Opinion guest essay, Oct. That’s going to drive more exclusionary behaviour.” Roberts added. “You are potentially going to get issues of overcrowding a more male-dominated crowd, fewer children and older people. “My concern is that you get over-migration into the area because it is attractive to some supporters and it is easier when they are stood up,” he told the Times last week. The UK’s football policing lead, chief constable Mark Roberts of Cheshire police, has raised concerns about a “headlong rush” to reintroduce standing areas. The Football Supporters’ Association has regularly called for safe standing to be introduced, and has welcomed the government proposals.
Standing areas in what are now the Premier League and Championship were outlawed by legislation passed in the wake of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, which led to the deaths of 97 Liverpool fans. The introduction of safe standing areas was a commitment in the government’s 2019 general election manifesto, and it is a move which has cross-party support.
The wider pilot scheme will be monitored by the independent firm CFE Research, and its findings will be provided to the government, in order to make a decision on a possible wider roll-out of safe standing for next season. Photograph: Ben Evans/Huw Evans/Shutterstock Cardiff are the only Championship club taking part in the trial.