Beyond Decriminalization: Sex-work, Human Rights and a New ...

PIVOT LEGAL SOCIETYPrivacyA. [C]ertainly a massage parlour is the safest place to work because there’s safety innumbers. Given that though, I think people should have the choice to beself-employed and assess that risk on their own . . . no one . . . needs that paternalistic,‘this is safer for you’ approach and be told where or how to work.A. I mean, realistically, some people are still going to go outside, no matter what.- female off-street in-call sex workerA. Well, maybe it could be that there would be sort of a Low Track area where the druggiesand all that hang out and I don’t know . . . the only thing that maybe, if therewere a closed radius to some dumpy, cheap hotels they could work out of there andtheir friends could watch out for them.- female off-street out-call sex workerA. That shouldn’t mean that if you’re in that kind of [sex work] business you have to bein that [one] zone, because you know it would be ridiculous, if say there was a[sexwork] zone like that in Gastown for instance and someone wanted to get laid inBurnaby or Coquitlam, they’re [the client is] not necessarily going to want to come allthat way to perform a sort of a domestic kind of transaction. And so yeah, you couldhave a zone that is geared for that but that couldn’t be the only zone or you’d have tohave other zones all over the place.- female off-street in-call sex workerGenerally sex workers emphasized the need for privacy for workers, clients and the industry as awhole. Some sex workers stated that they felt a zone for prostitution would make them more visible,which could make them susceptible to stigmatization and discrimination. Both escorts and femalestreet sex workers emphasized the need for privacy:A. Once you start zoning and say “you can only operate in this area”, what happensis then…like you’ve really labelled people and, I don’t know, I think you’ll drive itfurther underground. Some people will stand up and say, “yeah, I’m gonna work inthis area”, but then I don’t know . . . . Nobody really wants to stand up and say “I’ma sex-trade worker”. I don’t know a lot of people who would want to admit it, youknow?female street-level sex workerA. I was very discreet about it. I mean, the thing is, if you let people know what you do,then you’re opening yourself up to eggs being thrown at you, or whatever the heck,people screeching at you, who knows, maybe people trying to make you move out ofyour home or at least making you feel so uncomfortable that you move out on yourown volition. So, it really pays not to tell people what you do.- female off-street out-call sex workerA. I think that it would successfully operate invisibly if there’s not an area because therecould be very small houses with just one or a few workers and like you said peoplecould come and go unnoticed, if you like, whereas if it’s all ghettoized into a certainred light district then people are you know . . . you’re only there for one reason. Youlose privacy.- female off-street out-call sex worker76