As soon as clients step into her apartment, Sophia, a New York City-based sex worker, greets them with a thermometer and a bottle of hand sanitizer. On occasion, a mandatory shower is also required. A year ago, she said she would have never imagined this.
“I miss dancing. As much as I want to go back, I don’t feel comfortable yet,” says Sophia, who asked that her last not be used.
Sophia has faced an almost total loss of income since the government imposed a nationwide lockdown in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Unlike the millions of other US workers who’ve been negatively impacted by the economic freeze, Sophia has received no government assistance in exchange for her lost earnings.
Sophia is not alone. As the Covid-19 pandemic rages on, in-person sex workers continue to face challenges protecting both their health and income. Because sex work is not recognized as a form of labor, sex workers have been unable to access government relief programs in countries where sex work is criminalized. Without financial and social support, sex workers are pushed to the brink of financial desperation.
“What became so clear under covid is that whole families depend on the work of sex work. And when that money is gone, the kids suffer, and the communities suffer.” says Rachel West, president of US PROStitute Collective. “US PROS is pressing the government to decriminalize sex work so that in times like this, sex workers aren’t just left at the mercy of the market, suffering from destitution.”
Thousands of sex workers have no other option but to continue working, placing their health and lives at risk to support themselves and their families. Driven by financial need, Hannah, another NYC-based sex worker, said when the pandemic first began she was more willing to negotiate safety measures, such as condom use, and meet with clients she normally wouldn’t meet up with.
“I’ve been financially stable for the past six years thanks to stripping. Once my club closed, I panicked. Next thing I know I’m behind on rent and eating Top Ramen every night,” says Hannah, who also asked that her full name not be used. “But I quickly learned how to efficiently make it through the pandemic and now I don’t think I will ever go back to the strip club. Escorting is more dangerous, so it’s like which do you choose? Less money, stay safe or more money, more dangerous. Right now, it’s worth it.”
Bella Robinson, activist and executive director of Call Of Your Old Tired Ethics Rhode Island (COYOTERI), urged dancers to move from offline to online once the clubs closed amid lockdown and stay-at-home orders.
“Building an online audience takes time, and we explained this to the dancers. We told them straight up you’re going to be out of work, probably maybe up to a year, no one's coming to help you other than maybe a stimulus check if you’re lucky,” says Robinson. “You need to think about moving towards another type of work, and we’re going to suggest online work because it’s legal and it’s safe.”
Robinson joins sex workers and their allies in fighting for full decriminalization of sex work, as well as fighting to stifle the stigma around it. Decriminalization—the removal of criminal penalties for buying and selling sex—is critical to ensure protection of sex workers from abuse and exploitation.
Robinson adds that these measures would help sex workers like Sophia and Hannah to receive a basic income, services, and the ability to provide for themselves and/or their families.
“The government creates endless barriers for sex workers to access the services and resources that they say they need and further puts the vulnerable population at risk,” says Robinson. “Sex workers aren’t treated as workers, even right now. We aren’t getting healthcare, we are not eligible for unemployment, nothing. It’s a total, total disaster. Families are struggling to survive.”
The pandemic has also made it harder for sex workers to report abuse, which creates a climate of impunity and increases the risk of violence in these marginalized communities. By driving sex work further underground, the Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in violence, harassment, and abuse of sex workers, West says. Sex workers in the US alone experience systemic human rights violations and outright violence, discrimination, and harassment at the hands of the police at an alarming rate.
“Abusive men are everywhere, they target us because we are easy to target. Because we don’t have protection, because we can’t go to the police, and they know that. They know that if they do anything to us, if they actually steal from us, and if they want to rape us, there’s nothing we can really do,” says Hannah.
The Covid-19 pandemic demonstrates just how urgent it is for governments to recognize sex work as a legitimate profession and to provide basic services and protection to the millions of people working in the sex industry.
“Sex workers are people too, and they deserve the same access to things that everybody else does,” says Robinson
*Hannah and Sophia's last names were left out of the article for their privacy and safety
Comments