We are a group of lesbians in Vancouver who have been active in the women’s movement. We have noticed the growing trend to support legalization or full decriminalization of prostitution amongst many people concerned for the safety and well-being of prostituted women and men. While we support the decriminalization of prostituted people, we believe this must be done in the context of prostitution abolition, including the continued criminalization of buyers, sellers, procurers and traffickers. We are writing this letter to the community of lesbians and queer women in which we live because we believe lesbians and queer women have an interest in supporting women’s sexual autonomy.

Legalizing prostitution is not true solidarity with prostituted women or with the cause of women’s sexual autonomy. Real solidarity with prostituted women is in the fight for abolition of prostitution and for greater sexual choice for all women. Here’s why :

1. Prostitution enforces compulsory heterosexuality by teaching men that they have the right to access women’s bodies on their terms and to expect prostitution-like behaviour from other women. Lesbianism, by contrast, can create more sexual autonomy for women by providing an alternative for some women that is also an example to society of sexuality that is not male-controlled.

2. Prostitution is connected to other forms of coercive sexuality in that johns and pimps use their power in the form of money, male sexual privilege and/or violence to choose the nature of the sexual encounter – much as men do in rape, battery and incest. Many prostituted women have survived rape, battery and incest prior to entering prostitution.

3. Sexual autonomy for women also requires economic autonomy – prostitution provides neither.

Full text: http://sisyphe.org/spip.php?article3792