There's a SWERF Panel happening right now called #SexTradeReality, and while we're on the topic - lets talking about the #EqualityModelReality or the #NordicModel - and what's happened in the places it's been implemented. There's a misconception that we just don't know! We do.

So as of right now roughly 7 countries have adopted what we consider the #NordicModel - criminalization of purchasers/everyone else, & either removing or not criminalizing sellers. 5 have implemented the law/it's been enough time to look at before/after. (Sorry Israel & Iceland!)

Of those countries, there are some kind of reports from NGOs and/or gov't bodies to tell you a range of results. You don't have to use economic modeling or best guesses, or use "public awareness" as a metric. You can just see what happened. So what happened you ask? Nothin good.

1. Did the size of the sex trade change? Not really. In 4/5 countries there wasn't a meaningful change in size. Sweden, the first, saw a significant drop in street-based workers in the places where they increased policing, but it was 1999- everyone was moving online anyway.

1. Size: So a few years later, when things were stable, the street-based market was smaller, but there was growth in the online market. No where else noticed a change in the size of the number of sellers in a significant way. (Ireland, France, Canada, Sweden)

1. Size: Norway the only country which saw a change - 10%, but they coupled #EndDemand w intense profiling/policing of migrant/racialized workers, inc a policy to send letters to landlords requiring forcible eviction, so a reduction in the market was bc of xenophobic violence

So I guess the #EqualityModelReality works as long as you're deporting Black and brown femmes en masse? Sounds like you're displacing the problem by enacting violence, but go on...

2. Working Conditions: Isolation: 3/5 countries (Fr, CA, Sw, Nor) reported changing work locations and moving into more isolated spaces to avoid LE interactions/meet clients avoiding LE interactions. Keep in mind isolation is HIGHER RISK. It means you can't have peers around,

2. Working Conditions/Isolation. and it's harder to do outreach from service providers. It also means less familiar spaces if something goes wrong - if a client gets angry and you don't know the space you're at or it's farther away, that means vulnerability.

3. Communication with clients. This is things like price, boundaries, CONDOM USE. Canada reported changes in the ability to communicate more openly with clients when negotiating all of the very basic things that allow workers to feel safer and have the experience they want.

4. Interpersonal violence. This is the one that should matter, and so I'll go country by country on this one, because they're all slightly different, but no one saw a reduction in violence. None. Not a single country.

4. Violence: Northern Ireland, “between 2015-2018 there has been an increase in the number of reports on the http://Uglymugs.ie  website in relation to, for example, assaults, sexual assaults & threatening behaviour (from 10 to 42).”

4. Violence: Sweden had conflicting opinions from authorities - 2 official government report reported no increase in violence while a 3rd reported an increase. The report also noted that street-based work had become riskier since the ban went into effect.

4. Violence: While Canada did not see increases in violence for street-based workers, neither did they see increases in reporting violence to LE, citing a mistrust of LE, immigration concerns, and concerns that sex workers are still criminalized under the new legal regime

4. Violence: Norway sex workers reported that the threshold of violence would have to be higher before they would report to LE, but the study did not identify any increase in reporting after the law and considered this a reflection of no increases in violence. BUT.

4. Violence (Norway): 1 study found that 33% of Nigerian workers reported lifetime experiences of violence at any point in their time trading sex, but that rose to 83% from 2009-12, another found an almost doubling of violence against Thai women (21% to 40%) after the ban.

5. Violence: Orgs in France reported significant increases in reports of violence, some noting an increase in the overall number, and some noting that the severity of violence had increased.

6. Does this decrease trafficking? Surprise! No country has reported a reduction in trafficking since the implementation of a purchasing ban. Literally none. You just can't find it. Sweden cops: No change. Nor Ireland cops: No change. The end.

There's a lot more (increases in stigma, less negotiating power, less access to community health resources, no exit services provided & DEFINITELY no harm reduction) but those are my top lines. We have the data and 5/5 countries have failed improving lives with a purchasing ban.