FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 6, 2016
Contact: Maxine Doogan
415-265-3302, info(AT)esplerp(DOT)org
ESPLERP Joins Opposition to CA State Ballot Proposition 60
Sex workers say initiative legalizes harassment, threatens safety and violates privacy
San Francisco, CA – The Erotic Service Providers Legal, Education and Research Project (ESPLERP) today urged Californians to oppose ballot proposition 60 in November.
ESPLERP joins a long list of organizations opposing the measure, including the Adult Performer Advocacy Committee (APAC), the Free Speech Coalition, and uniquely both the California Democratic Party and California Republican Party.
This proposed initiative will not make adult film workers safer. Instead it threatens their safety and violates their privacy, by incentivising any private citizen to file lawsuits against individual workers, and, most disturbingly, expose their home addresses and legal names.
“It is really perverse that Proposition 60 claims to be about adult film industry worker safety,” said Maxine Doogan of ESPLERP. “Whereas it exposes workers to individual lawsuits of up to $1.5M, and creates a huge privacy loophole where they will become the targets of legally sanctioned stalking and trolling.”
“Proposition 60 also allows the proponent of the proposition, a private individual who is bankrolling it, to enforce the law as a sworn in state employee,” added Claire Alwyne of ESPLERP. “This sets a dangerous precedent whereby wealthy individuals can in effect buy legal power through ballot measures and circumvent the normal democratic process”.
We urge the California public to vote NO on Proposition 60 this November 8, 2016.
In March 2015 ESPLERP filed a groundbreaking court case ESPLERP v Gascon arguing that California’s anti-prostitution statute 647 (b) is unconstitutional. On May 24th 2016 ESPLERP filed a Notice of Appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit – where we are confident the merits of our case will be recognized and we will be granted our basic human rights.
The Erotic Service Providers Legal, Education and Research Project (ESPLERP) is a diverse community-based coalition advancing sexual privacy rights through litigation, education, and research.
@esplerp decriminalizesexwork (DOT)com
###
