Sex workers call for support in Scottish Government Equally Safe consultation

Charities and sex workers have said their voices are not being listened to at a time when workers have been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

With just one day before public responses to the Equally Safe consultation close, charities ScotPep and Umbrella Lane are calling for public support.

The Scottish Government’s position is that prostitution is commercial exploitation of women, and the consultation asks questions about challenging men's demand for prostitution.

The Scottish Government will consider new proposals

But workers fear any move towards introducing laws that would criminalise the purchase of sex - known as the Nordic model.

They believe this would make them less safe by reducing their options and forcing them to see dangerous clients.

Dr Anastacia Ryan, founder of Glasgow-based sex worker charity Umbrella Lane, said the organisation had repeatedly asked to be involved with the early stages of the consultation but was excluded.

Now, she said, workers are suffering the economic shock of Covid-19.

She said: “Last week I was asked to give a presentation outlining the effect of the pandemic on our members but it’s a bit late in the day now to be asking us to give our voice - too little too late.

“At the moment, the most common call to our helpline at the moment is requests for referral to foodbanks.

“The timing of the consultation is very unfair. People are already facing poverty due to the effects of Covid-19.”

ScotPep has also raised the issue that the consultation is “inaccessible” for some sex workers, and it has created a ‘toolkit’ to assist with creating responses.

On December 3 the Scottish Government added documents to the consultation website to support responses from sex workers.

Sasha, who mixes computer programming work with sex work, started in the industry around two years ago.

She said: “This is a class issue. Most of the people in government don’t know what it’s like to live moment to moment and struggle economically.

“I’m very disgusted by the way we were excluded from responding to the consultation.

“Some of us have Masters degrees, some of us PhDs, but some people struggle.”

Sasha shares concerns that criminalising the purchase of sex will force her to engage in riskier work.

She added: “I am so angry about this but it’s coming from a place of fear.

“We have chosen this work for ourselves because it is better than other options, even if you don’t enjoy it.

“Most of my clients wouldn’t want to commit a crime so they are going to vanish; I’m going to have to see people I don’t want to see and do things I don’t want to have to do.

“It won’t be good, it won’t be pretty.”

A Scottish Government spokesman said the Equally Safe consultation does not put forward any proposals to change the criminal law.

He added: "We welcome the engagement from the many organisations and individuals who have already submitted responses and have offered a short extension to anyone who wishes to provide a response past the closing date, noting the current climate has made meeting this deadline more difficult."

Jack, an LGBT sex worker who sees male clients, expressed anger that the consultation does not take into account gay or trans sex workers, despite the fact they would also be affected by changes to the law.

He said: “The whole consultation document is framed around sex work being violence against women and girls, yet we know that trans women face high levels of violence.

“I started working to pay for my university degree but in the work I do I feel I can help people. Not all my clients are able bodied and I am helping people fulfil a certain need, whether society likes to talk about it or not.

“Would I be in the industry if I didn’t have to pay for my tuition? Perhaps not, but by and large I enjoy it.

“I feel that the government has handled the consultation pretty atrociously. I don’t think it’s come at the right time, given the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The drop in demand has resulted in more people taking part in high risk services - so it’s given some insight into what the industry would be like under the Nordic model.”

Criminalising the purchase of sex is viewed as a way to decrease demand.

But sex workers say there are better ways to protect them, such as removing the “brothel keeping” law, which stops more than one person working together for safety and support.

One woman, speaking as a representative of charity ScotPep, said she lives with a chronic illness and, following a “battle” to access benefits she turned to sex work.

Other countries, such as Ireland, Sweden, Iceland France and Norway have already criminalised paying for sex.

As the vast majority of people who sell sex are women and the majority who buy sex are men, the industry is viewed by the government and feminist organisations as stemming from gender inequality.

She said: “For me, and for many people living with chronic illness or disability, sex work is the least bad option of a lot of bad options.

“It’s so, so frustrating to have to be always defending that choice.

“Instead of fighting to recognise labour rights and the right to work together, we have to be constantly fighting against the Nordic model.

Countries such as Sweden have already made it illegal to pay for sex

“When you reduce the pool of clients it pushes us to accept worse conditions, it pushes us to accept clients we would not otherwise, and you are not able to stand by your boundaries because you still have to eat at the end of the day.

“That is the problem with the end demand framework - they don’t consider the demands of women, which is why it stings to see it pushed as a policy.

“The whole client criminalisation model is based on attempting to abolish the sex industry - but you can’t abolish it.

“So many of us know it can be scary and frightening and harmful so the Scottish Government should not be making it more illegal, and so more unsafe. They should be making it decriminalised.”