Speak Up! Doing Legislative Advocacy for Change in New York

For most issues that impact people in the sex trade within the United States, marching on Washington or asking the President to make a change is misdirected energy. States write their own criminal codes, as well as most public health, labor, and housing laws – all of which affect people in the sex trades. And cities have important powers too, regulating zoning, deciding how local money is spent, and making 

the kind of decisions that affect us on a day-to-day basis like how late parks are open or where police patrol. The language –often just a few words– included in bigger state and city laws can have major impact on the ability of public services and law enforcement to place restrictions on us and penalize us for trying to make a living. On the flip side, the absence of language that protects people in the sex industry can create space for law enforcement and public services to abuse us and violate our human rights. 

Being aware of how state and city law making works is important because it gives us the ability to engage in our democracy and demand change for ourselves and our communities. This guide serves as a primer on how the legislative process works and what opportunities there are for people in the sex industry and our allies to engage in making change. 

The Red Umbrella Project is a run and led by people who have wide-ranging experiences in the sex trades. We believe there is a lot of value in engaging in advocacy to change policies that negatively affect our communities, and that people with lived experience in the sex industry are the best people to do this work. But we’re not going to lie: there’s a lot stacked against us. The conflation of sex work and trafficking, not to mention the social and legal stigmas associated with the sex trade, make it really difficult to get our messages across. The truth is that getting rid of bad laws and getting better laws passed is slow work, and it is often discouraging. It’s unreasonable to expect that we will have big successes right away. But we are long-term optimists, and we believe that it is crucial that we invest time and energy in working for legislative change, and that it is vital for people like us to have seats at the table when our lives are being legislated. 

A note about the audience for this guide: This manual was prepared specifically for people in New York City and State who are interested in doing legislative advocacy and making change in state and city policies. State and city legislative processes vary widely, so although some of the strategies are transferable to other locations, the information about the process of how a bill becomes a law is very different in other cities and states. Please research your local situation before you engage in legislative advocacy!

If you want to talk about how it can be adapted for your local area, please email audaciaray@redumbrellaproject.org 

Download the PDF for free here: Speak Up! Doing Legislative Advocacy for Change in New York (15)

Here’s the Red Umbrella Project (RedUP) team with a crew of young people from Streetwise and Safe and the Hetrick Martin Institute, plus New York City Council Member Daniel Dromm (D - district 25) at our advocacy training on February 24, 2012.

Though there’s a lot of focus on national politics, especially in a presidential election year, for people in the sex trades, the laws that really impact our lives are made on the city and state levels. Criminal codes are state laws, and most states have lots of them, with little lines of legalese that make the lives of people in the sex trades, or people profiled as such, much more difficult. In the RedUP advocacy training we walk participants through things like the convoluted process of how bills become law, where ideas for bills come from, and how individuals and grassroots groups can make an impact on this process.

This year, our advocacy trainings are focused on getting New York State Bill A1008/S323 passed, which will make it illegal for condoms to be used as evidence of prostitution. In the training with the young people from SAS and HMI, we talked a lot about their concerns around profiling. They are especially concerned with the ways that the use of condoms as evidence intersects with the NYPD’s abusive stop and frisk tactics, and how the combinations of these two things creates harm for people of color, trans women, gender non-conforming people, and street involved youth. Their perspective on this bill is much needed, and a bunch of the members of the group will be lobbying in Albany in April. New York State elected reps really need to hear these voices.

And speaking of reps listening up - we were really excited to be joined for an hour by NYC Council Member Daniel Dromm, whose district 25 is in Jackson Heights in Queens. I met Dromm for the first time at the council hearing I testified at in December, and he’s a great ally who actually seems to get and care about our issues. I’m looking forward to working with him further, and I’m really excited that we’re starting to be able to get the ears and time of elected officials. He gave some really great advice, and really encouraged folks to speak their personal truths to legislators. Though we also emphasized the value of statistics and reports in making our arguments, he told us that connecting on a personal level with legislators is really important. He said that especially in cases in which the representative might not be on our side, the only way through is to appeal to their humanity and their empathy.

The RedUP advocacy trainings are part of our Speak Up! workshop program, which also includes our media training, which was our flagship program. The trainings are geared toward people who have had experience in the sex trades and who want to learn the skills to speak up for themselves in policy contexts, in public forums, and in both community and mainstream media.

All Red Umbrella Project programs are led by people who themselves have experience in the sex trades. This is a really important aspect of our work, because there are many service oriented agencies that provide support to sex workers, and its less common -but vital- for a group to be run and led by the population. This year, we’re doing three  advocacy trainings, and then we’re collaborating with other organizations to do a lobby day in Albany on April 17th. We have a short training on April 4 at the Gay Men’s Health Crisis that will just focus on talking points for the lobby day, and then on Sunday, April 15 at the Urban Justice Center, we have a full day training that will teach both content and strategy (more info here). I’m really excited that our work is growing in this way, and we’re becoming able to support more and more people in being awesome and learning the skills to speak up and fight back.

The Issue: In New York, as in other places, condoms are often confiscated by police and then used as evidence of intent to engage in prostitution. This spring, people in the sex industry and our allies are putting pressure on elected officials in Albany to demand that they pass Bill S1289/A1008, which would stop police from using condoms as evidence of prostitution.

The Red Umbrella Project is offering a free, full day legislative advocacy training on Sunday, April 15 at the Urban Justice Center (123 William Street, 16th floor.) in NYC to prepare for our Albany lobby day on Tuesday, April 17. Learn from a veteran staffer of the state legislature how bills become law, how to monitor bills as they make their way through the process, and how to talk to your elected representatives about your concerns. We will be joined by NY State Assemblymember Richard Gottfried for an hour during the training. The training is from 10 am to 4 pm, and lunch, snacks, and beverages will be provided. 

To RSVP or ask questions, email audaciaray@redumbrellaproject.org. We have limited capacity for both the training and the free lobby day bus, so please RSVP early. We highly encourage you to attend both the training and the lobby day, however, it’s not required to do both. Please indicate in your RSVP if you plan on attending both or just one.

Also, if you would like to distribute postcards to promote this training in your community, let me know and I can get some to you.