Colorado lawmakers look to decriminalize sex work
DENVER, Colo. (KRDO) - Colorado lawmakers introduced a bill to decriminalize sex work on Wednesday.
Senate Bill 097 is sponsored by Democratic Senator Nick Hinrichsen of Pueblo and several other lawmakers. The 16-page bill hopes to decriminalize commercial sexual activity among consenting adults. If passed, local municipalities would not be able to override the law through home rule. Of the local governments registered in opposition, all are in our coverage area: the Cities of Fountain, Woodland Park, and Monument.
Under the bill, offenses like prostitution, soliciting, or patronizing a prostitute would be decriminalized. However, "pimping" and pandering that involves menacing or criminal intimidation would still result in criminal penalties.
"It simply says that two consenting adults may do what they want without fear of legal implications, and makes it possible for them to seek medical care without being worried about it, to report abuse, without being worried about it, and ensures that they are heard without fear of being arrested," said Senator Lisa Cutter (D), one of the bill's sponsors.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) supports the bill, explaining that sex workers are less likely to report assaults or crimes when their work is criminalized. One study found that anywhere from 45% to 75% of sex workers will experience workplace violence in their lifetime.
In 2022, Colorado lawmakers passed House Bill 1288, which provides immunity from prostitution charges when sex workers report certain crimes or are human trafficking victims themselves.
The ACLU says that criminalization contributes to the mass incarceration system. Additionally, they say some sex workers opt not to carry condoms, in fear that they would be used as evidence that they are sex workers. One study found that the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases among sex workers in Indonesia increased by 58 percent when the work was criminalized, believed to have been driven by condom access and use.
Some researchers admit that, because so few communities across the world have legal or decriminalized prostitution, and rarely change existing laws, data on the impacts of decriminalization can be conjectural. Here in the U.S., legislation varies across states. For example, while Maine decriminalized sex work in 2023, it left laws in place to prosecute those who pay for it. In Nevada, legal prostitution is limited to licensed brothels. Colorado's bill differs from both of these.
Organizations against decriminalization, like the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE), say that there are "harms inherent in the commercial sex industry – physical and psychological harms that cannot be regulated away."
The organization says that removing laws that target buyers normalizes male demand for paid sex and perpetuates gender-based violence.
Here in Southern Colorado, people are already starting to rally against the bill.
"What we're really doing is encouraging people who already operate in that space in illegal activity to just come out into the light and do it in, you know, in a way that is very front and center and in our communities. and what that's going to do is create more victims of human trafficking," said District Attorney Michael Allen, who is also running for State Attorney General.
Only introduced this week, the bill is in its infancy. With Republican lawmakers likely to push hard against the bill, it's still unclear whether it will reach Governor Polis.
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