What the FOSTA/SESTA anti-sex trafficking bill means for sex workers
I don&#x27;t know how to say this well, and I often get a lot of flak on HN for trying to say it at all. People don&#x27;t like having their normal sex life compared to prostitution in any way, shape or form. But the fact that I get so much flak suggests it hits a nerve.<p>There is no clear demarcation between sex work and non commercial sex. Dating frequently involves a man spending money on a woman in hopes of getting laid. Sexual relationships almost never occur in isolation from material aspects of our lives.<p>As one example, heterosexual sex can lead to babies. So we routinely try to parse &quot;Can this guy support a child if the union results in one?&quot;<p>That&#x27;s a moral question where creating a child and being unable to provide for it is irresponsible. So there is no means whatsoever to completely separate money and sexual morality. The relationship between the two is complicated, but it doesn&#x27;t work to try to pretend you can simply and conveniently separate sex and material stuff.<p>The fact that there is no clear cut demarcation point between non commercial sex and commercial sex is why Craigslist pulled all its personal sections in reaction to this. So, logically, this potentially endangers all dating sites and hookup apps.<p>One possible path of progression: With no spaces left devoted to the needs of sex workers, dating sites and hookup apps could become a means of solicitation and then all activities on such sites would become suspect and no one could even ask who is paying for coffee when they meet.<p>I am not very familiar with this legislation, but &quot;throwing the baby out with the bathwater&quot; doesn&#x27;t begin to capture the kinds of negative consequences we are already seeing in reaction to this. This is apparently so deeply anti sex that it isn&#x27;t remotely limited to being anti commercial sex.<p>I find myself baffled at the capacity of the human race to superficially pretend we are doing something good and moral while just being sexually hung up and apparently wanting to hatefully punish people for having any sexual impetus at all.<p>This is my second attempt to try to express some of this. I would appreciate it if folks don&#x27;t scream at me about how sex in their marriage is not an act of prostitution. It&#x27;s a pointless derail of the conversation that just makes me feel &quot;Me thinks thou doth protest too much.&quot; It would be nice if people would stick to the topic of consequences of these laws instead of acting like I have said &quot;You, yes you, are just buying sex from your wife and she clearly does not love you.&quot; I said no such thing.