legalization can give sex workers rights that they wouldnt have otherwise. if you just decriminalize it stays as a grey market in which sex workers are more vulnerable to abuse
That seems not to be the line taken by most sex worker activists, but it's a defensible position.
The idea is that by decriminalizing sex work, sex work is then just work, subject to normal labor protections. Of course there would need to be laws or at least case law clarifying specific rights to refuse things, etc., but I think it's rhetorically important to push the idea of decriminalization first. The fear is that a push for legalization will almost certainly end up with prostitution licenses, mandatory health checks, requirements to provide health papers to law enforcement on request, and all the other provisions you'd expect a bunch of Johns in government to write into a "how to be a legal prostitute" law.
It's a better rhetorical stance to stake out a position of "No. Hands off people's bodies." If that actually succeeds without compromise there will still be issues, but we'll be in a better place overall and a better place to handle them from. And if a compromise needs to be struck we'll at least have a fencepost to start from.
legalization can give sex workers rights that they wouldnt have otherwise. if you just decriminalize it stays as a grey market in which sex workers are more vulnerable to abuse
That seems not to be the line taken by most sex worker activists, but it's a defensible position.
The idea is that by decriminalizing sex work, sex work is then just work, subject to normal labor protections. Of course there would need to be laws or at least case law clarifying specific rights to refuse things, etc., but I think it's rhetorically important to push the idea of decriminalization first. The fear is that a push for legalization will almost certainly end up with prostitution licenses, mandatory health checks, requirements to provide health papers to law enforcement on request, and all the other provisions you'd expect a bunch of Johns in government to write into a "how to be a legal prostitute" law.
It's a better rhetorical stance to stake out a position of "No. Hands off people's bodies." If that actually succeeds without compromise there will still be issues, but we'll be in a better place overall and a better place to handle them from. And if a compromise needs to be struck we'll at least have a fencepost to start from.