Publisher’s Note: We all want to decriminalize communities selling sex to survive, and to reduce harm against them. The pragmatic solution seems to be full decriminalization, which is also known as sex trade expansion. But speaking with the most marginalized women who have lived through it, we learned that the “New Zealand model” actually fails women, and particularly, Māori, low-income and migrant women. Don’t just take it from us. This post was guest written by AF3IRM allies and Māori (indigenous) sisters in Aotearoa (New Zealand). Seventeen years since the full decriminalization of sex selling, sex buying and pimping was passed into law in New Zealand, widespread harm has not been reduced for the majority of people in the sex trade. The New Zealand model teaches us that calling misogyny and transmisogyny “work” only makes them more popular.
