Erotic Service Providers Legal, Education and Research Project (ESPLERP), a San Francisco-based nonprofit that advocates for the rights of sex workers, wants to reduce the amount of public sector and philanthropic dollars that flow to rape crisis centers, domestic violence shelters, and anti- prostitution and sex trafficking organizations.
“They’re just providing anti-prostitution counseling,” said Maxine Doogan, ESPLERP president. “They’re not offering other services.”
According to Doogan, the entities should be deploying grant funds to provide tangible solutions to oppressed women, such as mental health counseling and stable housing. Doogan asserted that many providers abuse their power, claiming she’s heard of sexual assault victims being threatened with prosecution in juvenile and adult courts if they choose not to receive services.
Doogan said the failure of the complex of entities catering to women in sexual crises is closely intertwined with California laws that criminalize sex work. She believes that if sex work was decriminalized, rape crisis centers and other such organizations would receive less funding and greater scrutiny of the services they provide.
Last year, ESPLERP filed a complaint, ESPLERP v. Gascón, against the State of California that challenged the constitutionality of laws criminalizing sex work. The U.S. District Court of the Northern District of California dismissed the suit. Last spring ESPLER appealed the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
According to Doogan, passage of Proposition 35, which expanded definitions regarding sex trafficking, was a critical factor in entities failing to provide necessary services. “All of a sudden, they began including sex trafficking in their mission statement,” said Doogan. “You saw them pandering to sex trafficking language. Since then, they have associated themselves with law enforcement, and not in a good way.”
