While you were sleeping, and most likely having sex dreams about people other than your partner, the world’s most well-known john signed the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act into law.
The bill, a companion to the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act, is aimed at stopping sex trafficking. However, the overall effect impinges on consensual sex workers’ ability to make a living safely and institutes blanket censorship of web content that can be construed as promoting prostitution. This legislation is behind Craigslist recently taking down its personals section. (Sorry, married men, but it just got harder for you to find a “discreet arrangement.”) In the weeks prior, the Justice Department shut down Backpage.com. (Welp, Christian senators who follow sex workers on Twitter, you just made it more complicated to actualize your hypocrisy.)
“How we view sex workers is how we view sexuality as a whole,” Seattle Erotic Art Festival director Sophia Iannicelli said when I asked about how this legislation might impact the show. The day I talked with her, festival employees were reviewing their website to ensure it wasn’t at risk of being shut down.