Rep. Mandie Landry, District 91, New Orleans
A New Orleans lawmaker wants to decriminalize prostitution in Louisiana in the next legislative session. Representative Mandie Landry said by doing so would allow victims of human trafficking to go to law enforcement for help instead of being arrested for prostitution.
“So, by removing the crime here, it would allow law enforcement and also people who work on the street to assist in reporting when there’s someone who’s working on the street who is underage or who might be there against their will,” said Landry.
Landry said often sex workers are the victims of violence and are unable to get assistance because they fear arrest.
In addition to reducing human trafficking, Landry said decriminalizing prostitution would also lead to safer sex practices among sex workers and their customers.
“Condoms are evidence of the crime of prostitution, and so when you make a condom evidence of a crime it discourages people from practicing safe sex and so that leads to a greater public health risk for example,” said Landry.
Landry said when you remove the crime of prostitution it becomes much more obvious who is in the profession by choice versus against their will and if it is consensual between adults why is the government involved?
For many sex workers, Landry says it is a matter of economics and when people are hurting financially, they often make decisions that they would not otherwise. In Louisiana, white women make an average of 67-cents on the dollar compared to men and for Black women, it is even less.
“As one advocate pointed out to me it still costs the same for everyone to live here and so for someone that only makes $.48 on the dollar has to make different decisions to make up for that $.52,” said Landry.
The session begins on April 12th.
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