Support: SAFE Sex Worker Study Act (116th: HR 5448)

This bill asks Health and Human Services to study the impact of losing access to digital platforms for people who trade sex. The bill was drafted based on the results of anecdotal and community research which was conducted after the passage of FOSTA/SESTA by and in coordination with people who trade sex, public health experts and allies, and asks to look at the impact on exploitation, violence and stability.

Support: The People’s Justice Guarantee (116th, HR 702)

The PJG is a House Resolution which calls on the US government to make meaningful steps towards decarceration and reverse the trend towards mass incarceration.

Support: The Abolition Amendment (H.J.Res 7)

Even now, there is one form of legal, state-enforced slavery in the United States: forced labor for those convicted of a crime. The Abolition Amendment looks to close the exception in the 13th Amendment which allows incarcerated people to be subjected to forced, unpaid labor. Read more on Sen. Merkley’s website.

Oppose: The PROTECT Act (116th, S. 2197)

The PROTECT Act expands existing federal trafficking law in a way which would criminalize sex workers who work together while using substances. If this bill passes, human trafficking, currently defined as labor compelled by force, fraud or coercion, would expand the definition to include furnishment of substances – meaning trading sex for drugs, or peers engaging in substance use and commercial sex would be in violation of the federal human trafficking law.

Read the two-pager, developed by the Urban Survivors Union’s Sex Worker Contingent.

Oppose: The EARN IT Act (116th, S. 3398)

The EARN IT Act looks to double-down on the harms caused by SESTA/FOSTA and expand liability for platforms around sexual content. The bill also asks a 19-person panel to create regulations for the internet – with no one from public health, impacted communities, and no one who can represent the needs of sex workers.

View the resources developed by Hacking//Hustling and the SurviveEARNIT team including a webinar overview, printable two-pager and section-by-section of the last version in the 116th Congress.