Sex workers at risk : condoms as evidence of prostitution in four US cities

M. MacLemore

Human Rights Watch interviewed more than 300 people, including 200 current and former sex workers, in New York, Los Angeles, Washington, DC, and San Francisco as part of an investigation into barriers to effective HIV prevention for sex workers. The findings are shocking: city public health departments spend millions of dollars promoting and distributing condoms as an effective method of HIV prevention. Meanwhile, police departments undermine these efforts by harassing and threatening sex workers for carrying condoms and using possession of condoms as evidence to support prostitution arrests. For many sex workers, particularly transgender women, arrest means facing degrading treatment and other abuse at the hands of the police. For immigrants, arrest for prostitution offenses can mean detention and removal from the United States. Some women told Human Rights Watch that they continued to carry condoms despite the harsh consequences. For others, fear of arrest overwhelmed their need to protect themselves from HIV, other sexually transmitted diseases, and pregnancy. An alarming number of sex workers told us they were afraid to carry the number of condoms they needed, and some had unprotected sex with clients as a result. Police and district attorneys. On page 27 and 28 an intermezzo titled: LGBT Youth Affected By Condoms as Evidence.