Leigh Latimer, Supervising Attorney of the Exploitation Intervention Project at The Legal Aid Society, published a joint letter with Molly Simmons of Brooklyn SWOP in the New York Daily News in response to an op-ed recently published which criticized the push to decriminalize sex work in New York.

With legislation promising to do just that pending in Albany, the letter points out that without decriminalization and adequate resources and support for these workers, aggressively punishing clients of sex work to destroy “demand” will only continue to drive sex workers into scarcity and obscurity.

“Every example we have of ‘end demand’ shows no decrease in the violence against or poverty of sex workers, nor does it actually provide material services to help survivors and sex workers, who are often the same people,” the letter states. “Stigmatizing sex work and differentiating it from other work fosters exploitation, legitimizes shame and makes it harder for those in the sex trade to leave if they choose.”

Read the full piece here.