Statement from NOW President Toni Van Pelt:

Washington, D.C. – The Council of the District of Columbia-Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety- is considering a bill that would decriminalize those who buy and profit from the purchase of sex acts in the District.  If passed into law, this bill will provide blanket approval for the exploitative and violent activities of those who control and profit from prostituted persons. 

NOW has long supported removing criminal penalties that are applied to sexually exploited persons and expunging their criminal records.  They are the ones who are victimized and violated. It is the buyers of sexual acts: pimps, traffickers, hotel and motel proprietors and brothel owners who must be charged with crimes and put out of business.  

This bill, the misnamed “Community Safety and Health Amendment Act,” would entice and embolden a criminal industry and bring it into the family of social acceptance, while collecting substantial amounts in taxes.  But prostitution is a system of sexual exploitation, not “sex work.” 

Many prostituted persons, especially young women of color, and transwomen, are coerced into the sex trade due to difficult economic circumstances, homelessness, physical or sexual abuse, emotional trauma, coercion and abduction.  No one chooses it as a profession over other career paths. 

If this bill passes, Washington, D.C. would become the sex tourism capital of the world. We need protections and support for the people who are being prostituted—not subsidies for new industries based on the exploitation of women.   

NOW supports legislation that would decriminalize people who are prostituted and provide programs that would help them to successfully exit the trade and access counseling, health care, housing, training and employment. This approach is known as The Equality/Nordic Model, successfully adopted by Sweden, Iceland, Ireland, Northern Ireland and France.  

But the bill before the Council is based on inequality, profits and patriarchy. That is why the National Organization for Women is testifying against it today.     

Under this legislation, D.C. would see the overnight growth of a multi-billion–dollar sex tourist industry, complete with celebrity-branded chains of brothels and organized crime. This must not happen. Instead, we must decriminalize prostituted people and enforce prohibitions against the exploitative purchasers of sexual acts.  

Contact

Kimberly Hayes, Press Secretary, press@now.org, 202-570-4745

Statement from NOW President Toni Van Pelt, NOW Board Member Arizona Senator Victoria Steele, Seneca/Mingo/German ancestry, and Cheryl Wapes’a-Mayes Assiniboine/Sioux/Métis:

WASHINGTON, D.C. — NOW is proud to continue to support the growing national movement to observe Indigenous Peoples’ Day on Oct. 14 rather than Columbus Day.  It is wrong to honor a figure who colonized, enslaved and massacred thousands of Indigenous People in the Americas.  Instead, we must lift up the experiences of Native American women in the United States, who are still being mistreated, abused and ignored by the patriarchy and the power structure.

According to government statistics, Native American and Alaskan Native women are more than 2.5 times more likely to be raped or sexually assaulted than other women in the U.S.  The Amnesty International report Maze of Injustice includes statements from Indigenous women who say they didn’t know anyone in their community who has not experienced sexual violence. And survivors in at least 86 per cent of reported cases identified the perpetrators as non-Native men.

These devastating statistics have historical precedent. The colonization and Westernization of the Americas took a devastating toll on Indigenous peoples, who were raped by settlers and soldiers, including during the Long Walk and the Trail of Tears. These attacks were not random acts of individual violence—they were weapons of conquest and oppression that were planned to serve a terrible purpose.  That history is no basis for a holiday.

Today, we observe Indigenous People’s Day to remember the dark side of America’s origin story and to rededicate ourselves to addressing our ongoing obligation to heal these wounds and to work with tribal nations to promote the health and safety of Indigenous People.

Contact

Kimberly Hayes, Press Secretary, press@now.org, 202-570-4745

Media Statement the National Organization for Women:

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA –  Gathering near the Otay Mesa Detention Center, where a 37-year-old detainee died suspiciously just last week and sexual assault complaints have increased by 158 percent in the past year, hundreds of activists are rallying today with the National Organization for Women and our Unlock the Future partners for the humane treatment of immigrant women and girls.  

“Brave women make the difficult, wrenching choice to uproot their families, abandon their homes and risk a dangerous journey north seeking a life free from violence and assault,” said NOW President Toni Van Pelt. “Yet when they get here they find themselves in places such as Otay Mesa, where they may face sexual assault and harassment, lack of proper reproductive health care, nutrition and feminine hygiene resources, are cruelly separated from their children and suffer an increased risk of miscarriage.”  

In response to these horrid conditions, the Unlock the Future campaign issued a Bill of Rights for immigrant women and girls, which is supported by hundreds of partners and calls for basic human needs and dignities for detained people. Additionally, NOW is submitting a complaint to the Department of Homeland Security against the astonishingly poor health care services being provided to lesbian, gay and transgender migrants and those living with HIV in detention prisons.  

The campaign is also partnering with organizations like the Dolores Huerta Foundation to amplify the grassroots voice to Congress and the administration and Huerta is a featured spe

aker at the rally.  

“Today we rally for all of the women and girls locked away unjustly as they sought freedom from violence and oppression,” said Dolores Huerta. “We must continue to raise their voices and stories until these detention prisons are nothing but a painful memory.” 

NOW and our Unlock the Future partners will next hold rallies in Houston on Nov 17, and Phoenix on Dec. 8 and will be taking the Bill of Rights to Capitol Hill and top administration officials.  

“The women and children whose rights we are here to defend have been stripped of their dignity, safety, their visibility as human beings.  Their voices aren’t being heard.  Their stories aren’t being told,” said NOW Vice President Christian F. Nunes. “But we are here for them and standing for them, and we are taking their cause to the highest levels of government. “  

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Unlock the Future Co-Sponsors: 

National Partners 

Dolores Huerta Foundation 

Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES) 

Feminist Majority Political Action Committee 

UltraViolet 

MANA 

Catholics for Choice 

Immigrant Families Together 

Border Angels 

Legal Momentum  

Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice  

Sister Song  

African Communities Public Health Coalition  

CASA  

Black Women’s Blueprint  

UNITE HERE! 

The Global Women’s Institute 

PERIOD. The Menstrual Movement 

Local and State Partners 

California NOW 

Hollywood NOW 

San Diego Area NOW  

Senator Pro Temp Toni Atkins  

Heart of LA Democratic Club 

Field Team 6 

Stonewall Democratic Club 

Women’s March California 

Women’s March San Diego 

The Strategic Insights Group 

The Outrage 

AFDW 

Go With The Flow 

S K Burt Law 

Direct Support for Immigrants

And additional sponsors to be announced 

For a full list of Unlock the Future Partners, please see our Bill of Rights.  

Contact

Kimberly Hayes, Press Secretary, press@now.org, 202-570-4745