Sex Work and Canadian Policy: Recommendations for Labor Legitimacy and Social Change

Sex workers are rarely considered expert consultants in policy development processes; instead, they often remain on the receiving end of harmful policy decisions. This article argues that sex workers’ narratives and analyses of their lives and work should be the driving force behind attempts to answer the following question: What social and policy changes are necessary to improve sex workers’ health, safety, and working conditions? As such, the findings from a narrative research study with sex workers (N = 10) from Toronto, Canada, have been analyzed to compile five key recommendations to achieve labor legitimacy and social change. They include: conceptualizing prostitution as a form of sexual labor; the inclusion of sex workers in policy-making efforts; decriminalization and the removal of the prostitution-related offenses from the Criminal Code; the implementation of sex worker-influenced workplace standards; and support for unionization and other forms of labor organizing.