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Democratic congressman calls on US to decriminalize sex work nationwide in response to damn findings released by Ethics Committee of the House Fr Matt Gaetz.
Shri Thanedar of Michigan tweeted this on Thursday sex workers they should be able to come to the police when they are victims of abuse, adding that decriminalizing sex work would help efforts to prevent child trafficking and other forms of exploitation.
“We should decriminalize sex work to maximize legal protections for sex workers and their ability to exercise other rights, including unionization, justice and health care.” Decriminalization and regulation would prevent trafficking and exploitation of minors,” Thanedar wrote.
The congressman added in another post: “It also helps them report crimes against them.”
It also helps them report crimes against them.
— Shri Thanedar (@ShriThanedar) December 26, 2024
Sex work is legal in only one state in the US: Nevada. It is strictly regulated, and according to data from 2023, less than twenty companies operate in the entire country.
Thanedar’s comments came in response to an allegation from the House Ethics Committee that Gaetz likely violated Florida’s statutory rape law while he was a congressman and “regularly paid women for sexual activities with him” from 2017 to 2020. The committee spoke with one woman who said she had sex with Gaetz when she was 17 and was paid $400, “which she understood to be payment for sex.”
Gaetz vehemently denied the allegations and pointed to the Justice Department’s decision not to press charges against him as evidence of his innocence. The House voted in early December to release the report on Gaetz, after the former congressman resigned from Congress and then withdrew his bid for attorney general amid allegations of sexual misconduct.
That attempt to lead the agency that once investigated him failed because it became clear that several Republican senators, in addition to the chamber Democratsthey were unmoved in their opposition to his nomination.
Gaetz has now gone on Trump’s cable network One America News and has openly hinted at running for governor in 2026. But the rabble-rousing Trump loyalist has few close allies besides the former president himself and is expected to face stiff opposition for the role if run.
Former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy provided that The Independent at the 2024 Republican convention in Milwaukee (where he and Gaetz clashed on the event floor) that the allegations being investigated by the Ethics Committee in particular would sink Gaetz’s bid for governor. The two hate each other, especially after the Florida congressman led a successful bid to oust McCarthy from the presidency in 2023.
This article was amended on 2 January 2025. Shri Thanedar was originally stated to be the US Representative from Illinois, but this was incorrect. He is a representative of Michigan.