Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Virginia Journal of Social Policy & the Law

Volume

32

Publication Date

2025

Abstract

Sex workers throughout the world experience ubiquitous and acute discrimination in every facet of their lives due to deeprooted stigma. Societal fear and hatred of sex workers often lead to their exclusion from healthcare services, financial institutions, and accessible housing, as well as their marginalization by the carceral state, family law systems, media, and politicians. Between 2022 and 2024, the Australian jurisdictions of the Northern Territory, Queensland, and Victoria passed groundbreaking legislation codifying novel anti-discrimination protections for sex workers. These laws are the first in the world to explicitly protect sex workers against discrimination in accommodation, employment, government services, and other areas. Novel anti-discrimination protections exist outside of traditional anti-discrimination categories like age, ethnicity, nationality, race, and sex. The goal of this article is to contribute to a nascent literature on the promises and challenges of novel sex work anti-discrimination legislation. We do so by conducting a comparative analysis of novel categories of anti-discrimination protection in U.S. law, including the protected statuses of caregiver, caste, domestic violence survivor-victim, homelessness, and source of income, to derive and apply valuable lessons learned to the sex work context.

Our comparative analysis reveals that sex work does not fit comfortably under umbrella categories of anti-discrimination protection. Instead, we argue that the distinct nature of sex work anti-discrimination legislation can raise public awareness and serve a symbolic function in the fight against “whore stigma” and “whorephobia,” effectuate the broader goals of sex work decriminalization, and confront intersectional discrimination against sex workers who suffer at the crossroads of whorephobia and racism, xenophobia, homophobia, and transphobia. We also use our comparative case studies to highlight and address substantive and procedural concerns when pursuing novel sex work anti-discrimination protections, including the challenges of defining the protected category; implementing, enforcing, and tracking the effectiveness of these unique laws; and pursuing complementary legislation and social interventions to overcome the limits of anti-discrimination law. Ultimately, we seek to support the expansion of anti-discrimination frameworks in the direction of sex workers’ rights.

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