Several 2020 Democratic presidential candidates are supportive, or at least open-minded, about decriminalizing prostitution. When the topic comes up in candidate forums or media interviews, Sens. Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, and Bernie Sanders have expressed varying degrees of support.
But in the case of Harris, a California senator, it’s drawing rolled eyes and broad skepticism from sex worker advocates. They cite Harris’ crackdown on prostitution during her time as a line prosecutor in Alameda County, San Francisco district attorney, and California attorney general.
Alex Andrew of the Sex Workers Outreach Project, isn’t happy with the flip-flop.
“Kamala Harris isn’t a trustworthy person,” Andrew told the Washington Examiner. “A lot of the facts of that debate are being exposed as false.”
Harris’ campaign did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
The Democratic presidential candidate was once a staunch opponent of decriminalizing prostitution. As San Francisco district attorney in 2008, she condemned a city ballot measure to effectively halt all law-enforcement from arresting those engaged in the practice. Under Proposition K, the San Francisco Police Department would have been barred from using resources to investigate or prosecute any suspected prostitutes or prostitution rings.
”[The bill] would put a welcome mat out for pimps and prostitutes to come on into San Francisco,” she claimed, arguing prostitution isn’t simply a victimless crime as its legalization proponents suggested. “It is not just simply what’s happening between consenting adults in the privacy of their home. It’s what’s happening on the street corner that is plaguing the neighborhood and attracting more crime that is threatening the safety of that neighborhood.”
Proposition K ultimately failed 59% to 41%.
But 11 years on, Harris has a different view on the issue.
When asked in March about whether she supports the decriminalization of “sex work,” she said in a February interview with the Root. “I think so. I do.”
“When you are talking about consenting adults, I think that, you know, yes, we should really consider that we can’t criminalize consensual behavior as long as no one is being harmed.”
Harris has reiterated those points in subsequent interviews.
Nevada is the only state where prostitution is legal in some form. Strictly regulated brothels operate in small population counties, away from the bulk of Nevada’s population in the Las Vegas area and Reno.
Harris is one of several 2020 Democratic hopefuls willing to consider decriminalizing prostitution.
Warren signaled her openness to the idea in June and backed Tiffany Cabán’s candidacy for Queens, New York district attorney, who ran on not prosecuting prostitutes.
“Sex workers, like all workers, deserve autonomy,” though the Massachusetts senator was vague on specific plans.
New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker offered his support unconditionally, telling BuzzFeed News, “Yes, sex work should be decriminalized.” Sanders said it would be something he’d look into as president.
But the stance is most conspicuous for Harris, considering her prosecutorial focus on the issue.
In 2006, Harris helped author a state bill that beefed up laws against pimps and Johns. She argued at the time that many women in the sex trade are often previous victims of sexual abuse who feel they have nowhere else to turn.
Harris would make prosecuting individuals engaged in sex work as a cornerstone of her campaign for attorney general, an office she won in 2010 and was reelected to in 2014, two years ahead of her ascension to the Senate.
As attorney general, Harris took aggressive action against the founders of Backpage.com, on which prostitutes had regularly advertised their services, before its closure. She brought dozens of charges against the site’s owners, claiming the site was an “online brothel.”
And during Harris’ attorney general tenure, a new effort to decriminalize the world’s oldest profession gained traction via a 2015 lawsuit against the state in federal court by three prostitutes and a client. Harris motioned to dismiss the lawsuit, asserting that prostitution “compromises the quality of life in a community.”
Some who have been in the sex industry have voiced pleasure with Harris’ apparent conversion on the issue.
“Kamala Harris is obviously an intelligent woman and I can understand the political pressure at the time [to go after sex workers], but I can see her having a change of heart.” Kaitlyn Bailey, a former self-described sex worker and director of communications at Decriminalize Sex Work, told the Washington Examiner.
“My official position is that I’m very cautiously optimistic,” added Bailey, who says she has spoken with Democratic presidential candidates off the record about decriminalizing prostitution.
Legalizing, or at least decriminalizing, prostitution can be a political asset if framed right, Bailey said.
“Democrats can leverage the idea of sex work into a host of other issues, like immigration, racism, and income inequality,” she said. “Candidates like Harris should stand with the cops who are tired of arresting people for just getting one another off.”
Yet organizations who have worked with former prostitutes say decriminalization will only increase what they see as a public-health crisis and violent acts against women.
“We see purchasing a woman as a crime of violence,”said Lucy Bloom, executive director of Veronica’s Voice, a Kansas City-based organization aimed at helping former prostitutes. People like Harris, Bloom said, “need to understand this is gender-based violence. It’s a crime to exploit people. That needs to hold. When we say a person can be purchased, we turn that person into a commodity.”
Other anti-trafficking groups have shared concern that decriminalizing prostitution would lead to the opposite effect that its proponents argue. Demand Abolition, a Washington, D.C.-based group focused on ending the sex trade, point to studies showing that prostitutes are often victims of violence, even in places where the practice isn’t prosecuted.
