this letter is specifically for organizations or individuals with "expert" knowledge and certifications, and not intended to be for the broad public

We the undersigned are advocates for sex workers, people in the sex trade, and victims and survivors of gender-based violence including labor and sex trafficking. We demand gender and racial justice, economic justice, immigration justice, and community-based reparative and transformative alternatives to increased policing, prosecution, and punishment in the pursuit of community safety and peace.

We are coming together to express our opposition regarding House Bill 1265, which seeks to rename the crime of "patronizing a prostitute" to "commercial sexual exploitation" and change the offense level from misdemeanor to felony. While the bill most directly targets buyers of sexual services, it will negatively impact people who trade sex under all varying degrees of choice, circumstances, and coercion.

HB 1265 generates two major concerns. First, the proposed renaming of “patronizing” as “commercial sexual exploitation” is inaccurate and leads to confusion as to what this charge entails. Washington State law already defines commercial sexual exploitation as “commercial sexual abuse of a minor or sex trafficking,” and using the same term to describe all purchasing of sexual services dilutes what sex trafficking is, which involves force, fraud, or coercion, or the victim is a minor. Secondly, if passed, this legislation will greatly increase violence and harm against the population that it seeks to protect.

Criminalization of sex buyers reduces workers' income and bargaining power. It forces them to do more for less money, and under more dangerous environments. This remains true whether one is working on their own to make ends meet, or someone else is exercising coercive control over them in order to exploit them. In fact, by making it more difficult for workers to find and negotiate with sex buyers on their own, it increases reliance on those who seek to profit from others' sexual labor, as was the case when Backpage was shut down in 2018. It pushes sex trade further underground, making it more difficult for outreach workers to offer support and for people experiencing exploitation and abuse to seek help.

It is for these reasons human rights and anti-trafficking organizations including Amnesty International, American Civil Liberties Union, Freedom Network USA, National Survivor Network, and Legal Voice oppose criminalization of sex buyers as well as sex workers and others who trade sex.

Further, increased criminalization of sex buyers necessarily brings along increased surveillance and policing of vulnerable communities, such as immigrants, transgender people, people experiencing homelessness, and others who are involved in or adjacent to commercial sex trade. Members of these communities already experience and fear hostile encounters with the law enforcement on a regular basis, which is exacerbated by the ongoing federal persecution of immigrants and anyone who looks, acts, or sounds like one. As such, HB 1265 will lead to more racial profiling, more arrests, more indefinite detention under grossly inhumane conditions, and more deportations and family separations beyond its intended goal.

Laws and policies should protect vulnerable communities and empower those experiencing difficult circumstances. They should focus on provision of culturally appropriate services and resources such as housing, healthcare, childcare and family support, and legal relief, while reflecting our most up to date research and recommendations. These services should be provided through community-based organizations that reach vulnerable community members and build genuine trust with them. We must not divert resources from victims of trafficking and gender-based violence by passing legislation that at best does nothing to help them, and at worst makes them more vulnerable. Doing so not only creates a more violent environment while perpetuating the illusion that we are successfully preventing trafficking. We urge you to please oppose HB 1265.

Signed,