New bills in six states showcase some right and wrong ways to help sex workers, from full decriminalization to ramping up penalties for prostitution customers.

In what was almost certainly not the first time that sex workers accompanied state legislators in Montpelier, lawmakers, state’s attorneys and advocates on Thursday called on Vermont to become the first state to decriminalize sex work.

Montpelier, VT– There’s a push to change the laws around sex work in the state of Vermont. On Thursday, supporters at the statehouse called attention to a House bill that would decriminalize adult sex work.

This commentary is by Henri Bynx, a Montpelier resident and co-founder and co-director of the Ishtar Collective.

Vermont, like other states, updated its sexual consent laws in 2021. There have been monumental cultural shifts around sex, gender, and what constitutes sexual assault since most rape and consent laws were written in the 1960s and never revised.

Gov. Phil Scott signed S. 33, an act relating to miscellaneous judicial procedures. The law prohibits a police officer from engaging in sexual contact with an individual who is in custody, being detained, or being arrested to also prohibiting law enforcement from engaging in a sexual act with a person who is the subject of an open investigation or a confidential informant or victim in an open investigation. With this legislation, policy makers reiterated that non-consensual sex is a crime, while consenting adults should be afforded the autonomy and dignity to make choices about their own bodies.