Many sex workers in the UK are now are being put in the perilous position of choosing to feed their families or risking their health β and the health of their loved ones, campaign groups have warned. Additional powers that police have been given to respond to the current crisis also means that sex workers are being singled out for scrutiny, according to the English Collective of Prostitutes ECP.
As sex workers are denied worker status, they also lose out on the entitlements and rights granted to other workers. They like to use their power over people. Work has dried up for many of the estimated 80, β 90, sex workers in the country β about 90 percent of whom are women, the ECP says. Many brothels have closed and street solicitation has become more difficult.
We often have nowhere to turn if clients stop coming to see us, and can face poverty or homelessness. Our community is facing a crisis. And fewer married men are able to find a private place under lockdown to watch the show. It is certainly happening. Sex workers are being very careful and not risking picking up the virus and taking it home to their families and passing it on to anyone else. In the UK it is legal to buy and sell sex β but only behind closed doors. Street solicitation is punishable by law.
Many activists are encouraging the UK to follow New Zealand, which has not legalised prostitution but decriminalised it. Sex workers there are entitled to weekly wage subsidies during the pandemic. Sex worker Gabrielle Monroe from Pennsylvania has a criminal record that has prevented her from getting steady paid work in other professions.
She says she is suffering financially now more than ever. Previous jobs as an estate agent, a Girl Scout leader and selling advertising for a national radio company all ended when bosses heard of her past.
