Sex Work / Sex Worker

Sex work is the exchange of sexual services, performances, or products for pay. It covers a wide range of activities, including escorting, cam work, adult film, stripping, and phone or online services. The terms sex work and sex worker were popularized in the 1970s and 1980s to frame it as labor and to move away from stigmatizing language. LGBTQ+ people are overrepresented in the trade, and transgender women, especially trans women of color, engage in it at far higher rates, often because of family rejection, housing loss, and job discrimination. Many LGBTQ+ and civil rights groups, including the ACLU and Amnesty International, support decriminalizing sex work between consenting adults as a matter of safety, health access, and labor rights, while keeping laws against trafficking and coercion.