Listen To Survivors

Listen to survivors

There are those in New Hampshire who would fully decriminalize prostitution. This would be disastrous, as it has been in other countries.

Any government that wants to promote gender equality and prevent sexual exploitation cannot claim to fulfill these goals if it legally sanctions the prostitution of at-risk women and children. Men can now buy the bodies of these marginalized people and make profits off of them. At the same time, any possible exit strategies or police protection for these vulnerable people groups are removed. Since police can no longer enter brothels without probable cause in the countries that allowed full decriminalization, victims are hidden.

What’s going on?

HB287 currently calls for a committee of six members to investigate the pros and cons of decriminalizing prostitution in New Hampshire. It will be voted on soon, maybe as soon as March 8 by the Senate. The Judiciary Committee hasn’t shared their Executive Session recommendation, as far as I can tell.

Please call your State Senator and ask them to vote NO on HB-287.

You can find your senator and their contact info here: http://gencourt.state.nh.us/house/members/wml.aspx

Full text of HB-287 is here: https://legiscan.com/NH/text/HB287/2018

The bill looks benign, but it has the potential to give a platform to very charismatic and manipulative people. Remember, traffickers and pimps are able to convince people to give up their very rights of personhood. The right to be safe and secure in your own body. The right not to be used as a commodity.

Imagine someone so convincing that you submit fully to all kinds of terrible treatment, including being raped, punched, kicked, slapped, spit on, urinated on, starved and dehydrated, learning how to dissociate while it’s happening, so you can still go back to them. That is trafficking.

A few people who choose prostitution say their experiences are without the abuse experienced by the many survivors that I have met. Their experience is vastly different from most prostituted persons. Entitlement and abuse are the mainstays of prostitution.

Are there solutions?

Partial decriminalization and exit services would help those being exploited for sex and not help traffickers and pimps. There are bills that can be introduced without giving a platform to those who would profit from the sexual exploitation of prostitution.

Let’s talk about exactly how these and other solutions work at the Faith and Justice Summit in Greenland, NH April 20-21st. Come find out what to do and how to make a lasting difference without throwing gasoline on the fire of sexual exploitation.

#ListenToSurvivors

If you are a survivor of commercial sex trafficking or prostitution, please read the letter and if you agree, sign it and pass it on before March 6th 2018.

Let’s work toward solutions for vulnerable people.