Sex Workers Demand Meeting With Gov. Brown On Legalizing Prostitution
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) – A coalition of sex workers has gathered almost 6,000 signatures on an online petition, demanding a meeting with Gov. Jerry Brown.
"We would like to talk to him about the criminalization of prostitution laws and how they violate our constitutional rights," said Maxine Doogan president of the Erotic Service Providers Legal, Educational and Research Project or ESPLERP.
The group has a suit pending in federal court that seeks to have California's ban on prostitution overturned.
Doogan says those laws, and society, discriminate against women like her.
"Many workers don't have access to equal protection under the law. They can't go and make a report when they have been a victim of rape, robbery, theft, coercion, extortion, kidnapping,"
The governor's office won't said if it will meet with the women, or whether Governor Brown would support decriminalizing prostitution, but does say he "regularly meets with organizations and individuals on a wide range of issues."