We are glad that our MP Diana Johnson has met with us on two occasions to discuss her proposals for legislation aligned with the Nordic Model (criminalizing the purchase of sex), finding we have convictions in common for a future of greater equality.
But we regret not feeling that we’ve yet been been heard. We are frustrated that in spite of evidence and warnings from sex workers who have experienced the model, regarding its harmful outcomes, the All Party Parliamentary Group on Commercial Sexual Exploitation will not reconsider their method of decision making.
Their position conflates illegal coercion with legal autonomy, couching sex worker voices as being co-opted by exploiters, and therefore, invalid. This also negates and dismisses the experience of those of us who have experience of street sex work, is fundamentally undemocratic, and tantamount to structural gaslighting. Using the causes of sex workers to promote what is about them, without them, is exploitation.