New York took a significant step toward expanding the national conversation about sex and crime when a collection of lawmakers on Monday introduced bills to decriminalize prostitution. Described as the first decriminalization bills ever in the state, and the most comprehensive decriminalization effort ever initiated in the United States, the bills expand upon recent attempts in several other states and the District of Columbia. If passed, the bills would allow paid sex between consenting adults β decriminalizing both the buying and the selling of sex, as well as promotion of prostitution β while maintaining prohibitions on trafficking, coercion and sexual abuse of minors.
There is no assurance that the measures will pass anytime soon; the legislative session is scheduled to end next Wednesday, and Gov.
Andrew M. Cuomo has not endorsed the effort. Such arguments echo those made by some of those who have worked in the sex trade, several of whom expressed satisfaction that their concerns were finally being heard by state politicians. Salazar said she had been impressed by how rapidly decriminalization has become more mainstream to discuss, both nationally and in New York, where Democrats unseated eight Republican incumbents in the Senate in November.
The idea has long had a prominent supporter in the Assembly in Albany, where the health committee chairman, Richard N. Prostitution is legal only in a few counties in Nevada, and few supporters believe any state will soon fully decriminalize prostitution.
Opponents of the decriminalization movement say that efforts such as the one being undertaken in New York are misguided, arguing that full decriminalization will create a demand that encourages underground sex trafficking. Sonia Ossorio, president of the New York City chapter of the National Organization for Women, said the decriminalization effort, if successful, would effectively set up a new industry and give legitimacy to existing brothels and pimps.
