There is Nothing Harmless About Sex Buying

Reprinting and sharing this article that ran in the Detroit News on March 12, 2021

Opinion: There is nothing harmless about sex buying  (link)

*By Chrissy Hemphill

Recently, Washtenaw County prosecuting attorney Eli Savit announced he would introduce a policy ending the prosecution of sex buyers. This plan and the ideology it represents not only ignores the very people he took an oath to protect, it demonstrates his failure to understand how the sex trade operates.

To some, sex buying might seem like a harmless business transaction. Just a regular guy blowing off steam by paying someone for sex. But spend a day in the shoes of those being bought, tackling the trauma and physical and psychological harm that not one but myriad “regular guys” impart. They have endured years of sexual violence, harassment, brutalities and dehumanization at the hands of these men. Once you hear their stories, we are pretty certain you will conclude there is nothing harmless about sex buying.

Sex trafficking exists because there is a demand for commercial sex, Hemphill writes.

Here is the reality: Sex trafficking exists because there is a demand for commercial sex. If men weren’t buying sexual access to women, girls and trans women and trans youth, there would be no sex trafficking.

Savit wants you to believe that the only harm that happens in the sex trade is because of pimps and traffickers. But here’s the truth: Any sex trade survivor in Michigan or across the country can testify to the horrific harm sex buyers enjoyed inflicting when the door closed and money was exchanged. Sex buyers buy women like objects to fulfill their fantasies, not as human beings with dreams and a capacity for suffering.

The sex trade is predicated on inequality: racial, sex, gender and income. Overwhelmingly, people are first sold into the sex trade as a consequence of systemic vulnerabilities, including histories of childhood sexual abuse, foster care residencies, poverty, homelessness, drug addiction and mental health concerns.

Even in the rare occasion when no third-party profiteer — a pimp, an exploiting boyfriend or an escort service — is in the picture, women end up in the sex trade as a means of survival.

Survivors from Michigan to Maine to Missouri will tell you that the power imbalance between the buyer and the bought is devastating and destructive. Giving a free pass to sex buyers will only embolden rich and powerful men to purchase access to those with less power and privilege.

From a policy perspective, decriminalizing sex buying, which is de facto decriminalizing the sex trade, including brothel-owning, leads to an increase in the demand for prostitution. Nevada, the only U.S. state that allows legal brothels in a few rural counties, has the highest per capita rate of an illegal sex trade — 63% higher than the next highest state. In Amsterdam, a city where sex buying is legal, the city’s mayor seeks to relocate the red light district, stating the legal sex trade is fueling sex tourism and abuse.

Legalizing sex buyers has been tried and is a failed experiment. The harms of prostitution can never be regulated away by legalizing commercial sex establishments. People exploited in the sex trade face physical, emotional and sexual abuse from both third-party exploiters and the sex buyers who drive the market. We don’t need to try this in Michigan and help destroy the lives of vulnerable people with an absence of choices in their lives.

If Savit is serious about protecting our most marginalized, listen to survivors and support the equality model. The equality model decriminalizes and provides services to those sold, while holding accountable those who cause devastating harm — the pimps, brothel owners and yes, the sex buyers.

So before Ann Arbor becomes the next Amsterdam, we urge prosecuting attorney Savit to listen those who have survived the sex trade. Ann Arbor must not give its keys to pimps, brothel owners and sex buyers.

Visit www.stopsavit.com to learn more

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*Chrissy Hemphill is a human trafficking specialist with Avalon Healing Center, formerly known as Wayne County SAFE.