{"id":10871,"date":"2025-03-11T11:00:12","date_gmt":"2025-03-11T11:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/freedomnetworkusa.org\/?p=10871"},"modified":"2025-10-02T15:19:05","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T19:19:05","slug":"how-conflating-sex-work-and-sex-trafficking-harms-sex-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freedomnetworkusa.org\/2025\/03\/11\/how-conflating-sex-work-and-sex-trafficking-harms-sex-workers\/","title":{"rendered":"Guest Blog: How Conflating Sex Work and Sex Trafficking Harms Sex Workers"},"content":{"rendered":"

One thing to keep in mind is that while sex work and human trafficking in commercial sex are two different things, individual people may have experienced both at different points in their lives.<\/strong> I\u2019ve been in abusive relationships and I\u2019ve been in healthy ones. I\u2019d had healthy intimate partner relationships <\/span>and<\/span><\/i> unhealthy (but not abusive) ones before I was ever in a legitimately abusive relationship. I\u2019m currently in a healthy relationship, but I\u2019m still a survivor of intimate partner violence in the past. Similarly, I\u2019ve been a sex worker and have experienced human trafficking in commercial sex. I was a sex worker, and then I was trafficked, and later I was a sex worker again. While I was a consensual sex worker, I was still a survivor of trafficking because I had experienced trafficking in my past.<\/span><\/p>\n

While not all sex workers are trafficking survivors and not all trafficking survivors have ever consented to commercial sex as sex workers, some people have been or done both. So when we talk about harm to consensual sex workers (and for me, \u201cconsensual\u201d is part of the definition of \u201csex work\u201d) we have to remember that many of those sex workers may also be trafficking survivors. Many of them may be using sex work as a way to avoid returning to traffickers, abusive partners, abusive families, or other exploitative work situations.<\/strong> We don\u2019t have to like sex work or try to say it is \u201cempowering\u201d to acknowledge that it can be a freedom strategy for survivors who would otherwise be beholden to their traffickers or stuck in situations that are far less safe for them. And even for those sex workers who have never experienced human trafficking, they deserve choice, safety, and the ability to prioritize whatever they are getting out of sex work (maybe a flexible schedule, immediate cash, or a lower barrier income) over some of the other situations they\u2019ve faced (like missing kids\u2019 school events, work that is inaccessible for their disabilities, unemployment due to a criminal record or hiring discrimination, or returning to an abusive partner).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Conflating sex work and human trafficking means implementing strategies and legislation that aim to prevent or punish sex work, rendering \u201cconsent\u201d irrelevant.<\/strong> When we create laws (like FOSTA) that are meant to make it too risky for any platform to host commercial sex without regard for consent, we take away people\u2019s options for supporting themselves along with traffickers\u2019 options for marketing their victims. Traffickers move to the dark web, and <\/span>sex workers (who may also be survivors) move to the streets<\/span><\/a>. When we push for financial processors to stop processing payments for anything that might be commercial sex, we take away people\u2019s ability to participate in a wide array of economically necessary activities. Traffickers have the resources to move \u201coff-grid,\u201d and <\/span>sex workers (who may also be survivors) have their accounts frozen, lose access to their money, or rely on others to hold their money for them<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A whole host of \u201cdemand reduction\u201d or partial criminalization activities claim to \u201creduce the demand\u201d for commercial sex. In reality, these models replicate many of the harms of human trafficking, <\/span>leaving sex workers (again, some of whom may also be survivors) with fewer<\/i> options for income, less<\/i> ability to engage in activities that could keep them safe, and, in many cases, criminal records<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a free society, consensual adult sexual behavior should not be criminalized, and people who trade sex should not have to prove an appropriate level of victimhood in order to deserve a life free from being targeted by the state for harassment, criminalization, or deprivation of liberty. People who are led to choose sex work out of housing insecurity are victims of bad housing policy, not of human trafficking. People who choose sex work due to lack of economic stability are victims of poor social policy, not human trafficking. People who choose sex work due to limited migration options are victims of racist immigration policies, not human trafficking. And people whose trafficking is a result of force, fraud, or coercion, or of the exploitation of a minor, still deserve choice over the timeline for and kinds of services they want.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ultimately, we live in a world in which <\/span>less labor than we\u2019d like to admit is truly \u201cfree,\u201d<\/span><\/a> in which most workers sacrifice some degree of their wellness and autonomy to maintain the ability to pay for their essential needs. We live in a country in which our <\/span>social safety nets are often insufficient or inaccessible<\/span><\/a>, leading many to try to find ways to survive economically that are harmful or criminalized, or that otherwise challenge some forms of morality. We live in a country that is tightening immigration policies in racialized ways, <\/span>weaponizing immigration as an issue to garner support for policies that increase vulnerability to exploitation<\/span><\/a>. Rather than resolving any of these issues, conflating sex work with human trafficking confuses the issue, causing harm to both consensual workers and those being trafficked.<\/strong> We can, and must, do better.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One thing to keep in mind is that while sex work and human trafficking in commercial sex are two different things, individual people may have experienced both at different points in their lives. I\u2019ve been in abusive relationships and I\u2019ve…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[326],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nGuest Blog: How Conflating Sex Work and Sex Trafficking Harms Sex Workers - Freedom Network USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/freedomnetworkusa.org\/2025\/03\/11\/how-conflating-sex-work-and-sex-trafficking-harms-sex-workers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Guest Blog: How Conflating Sex Work and Sex Trafficking Harms Sex Workers - Freedom Network USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One thing to keep in mind is that while sex work and human trafficking in commercial sex are two different things, individual people may have experienced both at different points in their lives. I\u2019ve been in abusive relationships and I\u2019ve…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/freedomnetworkusa.org\/2025\/03\/11\/how-conflating-sex-work-and-sex-trafficking-harms-sex-workers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Freedom Network USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-03-11T11:00:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-10-02T19:19:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chris Ash\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Chris Ash\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/freedomnetworkusa.org\/2025\/03\/11\/how-conflating-sex-work-and-sex-trafficking-harms-sex-workers\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/freedomnetworkusa.org\/2025\/03\/11\/how-conflating-sex-work-and-sex-trafficking-harms-sex-workers\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Chris Ash\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/freedomnetworkusa.org\/#\/schema\/person\/c105a8ee3473baa35deeaee9e5893d7a\"},\"headline\":\"Guest Blog: How Conflating Sex Work and Sex Trafficking Harms Sex Workers\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-03-11T11:00:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-02T19:19:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/freedomnetworkusa.org\/2025\/03\/11\/how-conflating-sex-work-and-sex-trafficking-harms-sex-workers\/\"},\"wordCount\":859,\"articleSection\":[\"Blog\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/freedomnetworkusa.org\/2025\/03\/11\/how-conflating-sex-work-and-sex-trafficking-harms-sex-workers\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/freedomnetworkusa.org\/2025\/03\/11\/how-conflating-sex-work-and-sex-trafficking-harms-sex-workers\/\",\"name\":\"Guest Blog: How Conflating Sex Work and Sex Trafficking Harms Sex Workers - Freedom Network USA\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/freedomnetworkusa.org\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-03-11T11:00:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-02T19:19:05+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/freedomnetworkusa.org\/#\/schema\/person\/c105a8ee3473baa35deeaee9e5893d7a\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/freedomnetworkusa.org\/2025\/03\/11\/how-conflating-sex-work-and-sex-trafficking-harms-sex-workers\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/freedomnetworkusa.org\/2025\/03\/11\/how-conflating-sex-work-and-sex-trafficking-harms-sex-workers\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/freedomnetworkusa.org\/2025\/03\/11\/how-conflating-sex-work-and-sex-trafficking-harms-sex-workers\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/freedomnetworkusa.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Guest Blog: How Conflating Sex Work and Sex Trafficking Harms Sex Workers\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/freedomnetworkusa.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/freedomnetworkusa.org\/\",\"name\":\"Freedom Network USA\",\"description\":\"Just another WordPress site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/freedomnetworkusa.org\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/freedomnetworkusa.org\/#\/schema\/person\/c105a8ee3473baa35deeaee9e5893d7a\",\"name\":\"Chris Ash\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/freedomnetworkusa.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f9622e881140920e76947ccb997f73037f0e6e48c7f2d145f26e8ce1a274af49?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f9622e881140920e76947ccb997f73037f0e6e48c7f2d145f26e8ce1a274af49?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Chris Ash\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/freedomnetworkusa.org\/author\/cash\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Guest Blog: How Conflating Sex Work and Sex Trafficking Harms Sex Workers - Freedom Network USA","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/freedomnetworkusa.org\/2025\/03\/11\/how-conflating-sex-work-and-sex-trafficking-harms-sex-workers\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Guest Blog: How Conflating Sex Work and Sex Trafficking Harms Sex Workers - Freedom Network USA","og_description":"One thing to keep in mind is that while sex work and human trafficking in commercial sex are two different things, individual people may have experienced both at different points in their lives. I\u2019ve been in abusive relationships and I\u2019ve…","og_url":"https:\/\/freedomnetworkusa.org\/2025\/03\/11\/how-conflating-sex-work-and-sex-trafficking-harms-sex-workers\/","og_site_name":"Freedom Network USA","article_published_time":"2025-03-11T11:00:12+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-10-02T19:19:05+00:00","author":"Chris Ash","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Chris Ash","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/freedomnetworkusa.org\/2025\/03\/11\/how-conflating-sex-work-and-sex-trafficking-harms-sex-workers\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/freedomnetworkusa.org\/2025\/03\/11\/how-conflating-sex-work-and-sex-trafficking-harms-sex-workers\/"},"author":{"name":"Chris Ash","@id":"https:\/\/freedomnetworkusa.org\/#\/schema\/person\/c105a8ee3473baa35deeaee9e5893d7a"},"headline":"Guest Blog: How Conflating Sex Work and Sex Trafficking Harms Sex Workers","datePublished":"2025-03-11T11:00:12+00:00","dateModified":"2025-10-02T19:19:05+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/freedomnetworkusa.org\/2025\/03\/11\/how-conflating-sex-work-and-sex-trafficking-harms-sex-workers\/"},"wordCount":859,"articleSection":["Blog"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/freedomnetworkusa.org\/2025\/03\/11\/how-conflating-sex-work-and-sex-trafficking-harms-sex-workers\/","url":"https:\/\/freedomnetworkusa.org\/2025\/03\/11\/how-conflating-sex-work-and-sex-trafficking-harms-sex-workers\/","name":"Guest Blog: How Conflating Sex Work and Sex Trafficking Harms Sex Workers - Freedom Network USA","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/freedomnetworkusa.org\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-03-11T11:00:12+00:00","dateModified":"2025-10-02T19:19:05+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/freedomnetworkusa.org\/#\/schema\/person\/c105a8ee3473baa35deeaee9e5893d7a"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/freedomnetworkusa.org\/2025\/03\/11\/how-conflating-sex-work-and-sex-trafficking-harms-sex-workers\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/freedomnetworkusa.org\/2025\/03\/11\/how-conflating-sex-work-and-sex-trafficking-harms-sex-workers\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/freedomnetworkusa.org\/2025\/03\/11\/how-conflating-sex-work-and-sex-trafficking-harms-sex-workers\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/freedomnetworkusa.org\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Guest Blog: How Conflating Sex Work and Sex Trafficking Harms Sex Workers"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/freedomnetworkusa.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/freedomnetworkusa.org\/","name":"Freedom Network USA","description":"Just another WordPress site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/freedomnetworkusa.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/freedomnetworkusa.org\/#\/schema\/person\/c105a8ee3473baa35deeaee9e5893d7a","name":"Chris Ash","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/freedomnetworkusa.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f9622e881140920e76947ccb997f73037f0e6e48c7f2d145f26e8ce1a274af49?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f9622e881140920e76947ccb997f73037f0e6e48c7f2d145f26e8ce1a274af49?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Chris Ash"},"url":"https:\/\/freedomnetworkusa.org\/author\/cash\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freedomnetworkusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freedomnetworkusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freedomnetworkusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freedomnetworkusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freedomnetworkusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10871"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/freedomnetworkusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11194,"href":"https:\/\/freedomnetworkusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10871\/revisions\/11194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freedomnetworkusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freedomnetworkusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freedomnetworkusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}