Thread by @AnastaciaRyan

Personal submission to @ScotGovJustice Consultation now available on @UmbrellaLane website

Full response - bit.ly/374Z1s6

A thread of main arguments to save anyone having to read through what became a second thesis 🙄 on these important issues 1/8

#NotEqualNotSafe

@scotgov ‘s sweeping definition of prostitution as inherently violence renders invisible actual acts of abuse in the sex industry; continues an ineffective& dangerous reliance on criminal justice approaches that fosters unsafe working practices& deters victims to seek redress 2/8

The push to criminalise clients is a misplaced moralistic agenda put forward at the expense of a much needed social justice & public health approach in policy & service provision - that centres the varied needs of people this consultation states intention to support 3/8

The focus within Equally Safe strategy on ‘reducing demand’ fails to address root causes& factors that exacerbate the vulnerabilities of women& girls 2violence, which extend beyond the narrow focus on eliminating prostitution as a means to achieve gender equality in #Scotland 4/8

A platform of social justice – rights, redistribution, respect, inclusion and recognition – extending from decriminalisation as a first step, has the potential to avoid the trap of a welfarist approach as set out in current policy 5/8

Which only creates new forms of intervention in the lives of marginalised, stigmatised &criminalised women. Being able to openly challenge structural oppressions of #gender, #class & #race is essential in the de- marginalisation of women who sell sex 6/8

Only under decriminalisation are these reforms possible. @ScotGovJustice has an opportunity to lead the way internationally on an agenda for change that co-creates laws & policies meaningfully with people with lived experience 7/8

I remain hopeful that this consultation acts as a catalyst for opportunity to recognise & value the citizenship, voice, agency of sex workers, whilst creating policies to affect systems change for all women; two important tasks that need not be treated as mutually exclusive 8/8

@threadreaderapp unroll please