Using CityXGuide. It was a life-changing discovery. Then the Department of Homeland Security seized the classifieds website on June 2nd, throwing Rebecca and countless others into a dangerous uncertainty. Rebecca, whose real name will remain anonymous, was one of the many sex workers who found herself using CityXGuide, one of the few low-cost advertisement sites left after leading classifieds site Backpage was seized and shut down by the federal government in April Banning free-to-low priced classified advertisement sites puts workers such as Rebecca at risk to coercive environments and at higher risk of being trafficked.
The new laws had an immediate impact. In the same way that Backpage shutting down left sex workers vulnerable, CityXGuide being seized has already had a direct impact on sex workers, who cannot pay for expensive advertisements for their services and forced into more dicey situations.
A seizure notice on CityXGuide. In the wake of the attack on sex workers in the United States, a new wave of sex work organizing formed an active political bloc that has quickly influenced public opinion; the majority of voters now supporting decriminalization. The CityXGuide seizure comes during a time in which police and prison abolition have become mainstream topics in the United States, while abolitionists and sex work organizers argue that decriminalization of sex work must be recognized as a necessary step in the liberation of all people.
The organization Red Canary Song , a Chinese massage parlor worker coalition, formed later that year as a push to achieve justice for Yang Song , a migrant massage parlor worker who was killed when she fell to her death during an NYPD raid in Flushing in November of The seizure of CityXGuide has also had international implications.
South Korean escort Jina Park tells Observer worried about having used the classifieds site when she was in the United States last. Park intends to eventually emigrate to the US so that she can live with her American boyfriend, but now she worries that her work could impact her future immigration status. Last December, Democrats in both the House of Representatives and Senate introduced bills that asked the DHS to look into the consequences of the laws. Sponsors included Rep.
