The Oldest Profession Podcast

For decades, Rhode Island effectively decriminalized indoor, consensual sex work—and the sky didn't fall. It got safer. Kaytlin traces the legal fight, the raids, and the politics, then digs into new evidence: a ~40% drop in gonorrhea among women and ~30% fewer reported rapes during the decrim window. With voices from attorney Michael Kiselica, ACLU's Steven Brown, COYOTE RI's Bella Robinson, and economist Manisha Shah, this episode shows what happens when you stop arresting adults for consensual sex.

Guests:

• Michael Kiselica (attorney) on litigating "public" vs. private and the 2003 decision.

• Steven Brown (ACLU RI) on the 1976 COYOTE suit and 1980 revisions.

• Bella Robinson (COYOTE RI) on lived experience, raids, and organizing.

• Prof. Manisha Shah (UCLA Luskin) on the natural experiment and causal impacts.

• Prof. Aya Gruber (USC Gould) on panic, racism, and "neo-abolitionist" coalitions.

Key findings discussed: ~40% decrease in gonorrhea; ~30% decrease in reported rapes during RI's decrim period.

Policy context: 2009 recriminalization + punitive add-ons (HIV testing mandates, special fines); recent partial rollbacks and limited immunity reforms.

Big idea: Decriminalization increases negotiating power, enables cooperation with police, and reduces harm. "End-demand" shifts risk onto workers.

In this second and final episode on the decriminalization of sex work in Australia, host Kaytlin Bailey picks up where we left off: the 1995 vote to decriminalize sex work in New South Wales.

We look at what happened after decrim passed, what it actually changed for sex workers and their neighbors, and how the fight has moved from the streets and brothels to city councils, state legislatures, and online platforms.

You'll hear from:

• Elena Jeffreys – sex worker and advocacy lead for Scarlet Alliance, on how decriminalization transformed day-to-day safety, the ongoing damage caused by local council overreach, and why racialized enforcement against Asian and migrant workers remains the frontline of anti-sex work politics.

• Eurydice Aroney – longtime sex worker rights advocate, on how decrim reduced community hysteria, what a decriminalized neighborhood actually looks like, and why most residents don't even realize brothels are upstairs from their favorite shops.

• Eliza Sorensen – sex worker, co-CEO of Assembly Four, and co-founder of Switter and Tryst.link, on the new battleground of online safety laws, age verification, payment processing, and why we still don't have decriminalization of sex work online.

We cover:

• How the 1995 reforms gave sex workers in NSW the ability to report abuse and seek protection from police, instead of being targets of police corruption.

• The warning Roberta Perkins gave lawmakers the day before decrim passed – that dumping responsibility onto local councils without clear planning rules would cause problems – and how right she was.

• The way local zoning and planning powers are used to target Asian and migrant-run workplaces while more privileged workers can quietly sidestep the harshest scrutiny.

• The spread of decriminalization across Australia: from NSW to the Northern Territory, Victoria, and Queensland, and why licensing models in other states have failed sex workers.

• How laws like Australia's Online Safety Act and age verification mandates create new risks for sex workers, queer people, and anyone seeking sexual health information.

• The story of Switter and Tryst – why sex workers had to build their own platforms, what happens when they get kicked off infrastructure providers, and how digital rights and sex worker rights movements are increasingly intertwined.

Kaytlin closes the episode with a reflection on what Australia's story teaches us: that decriminalization works, that gains can be undermined by racism and surveillance, and that sex workers' strategies for keeping each other safe are a blueprint for defending everyone's basic freedoms.

This is Part 2 of our series on the decriminalization of sex work in Australia.

Listen, subscribe, and sign up for our newsletter at oldprosonline.org.

In 1995, New South Wales, Australia became the first place on earth to fully decriminalize adult consensual sex work. How did that happen – and what can today's decrim campaigns learn from it?

In this first of two episodes, host Kaytlin Bailey traces the long arc of sex worker organizing in Australia, from colonial brothels and early feminist allies to the HIV/AIDS crisis and a massive police corruption scandal that forced lawmakers to change course.

You'll hear from three longtime sex worker rights leaders who were there:

• Elena Jeffreys – sex worker and lead advocate for Scarlet Alliance, the Australian Sex Workers Association, reflecting on the legacy of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander sex worker leadership and the national movement.

• Julie Bates – former street-based sex worker, peer educator, and organizer who helped found the Australian Prostitutes Collective and later received royal honors for her activism. Julie walks us through street decrim in 1979, early safer sex campaigns, and convincing brothel owners and cops to join the cause.

• Eurydice Aroney – former sex worker, researcher, and advocate who lived and worked in Sydney's red light district in the early 1980s and helped document the realities of policing, residential backlash, and the fight for reform.

Together, they tell the story of how:

• Sex workers literally built colonial Australia and created vibrant working-class communities.

• Early feminists and left organizers pushed to repeal "victimless crimes," winning the 1979 repeal of the Summary Offences Act and the first decriminalization of street-based sex work.

• Street-based workers led the way on HIV prevention, normalizing condom use even while brothel condoms were treated as evidence of a crime.

• The Wood Royal Commission exposed entrenched police corruption, forcing both major parties to confront the reality that criminalization fuels abuse, not safety.

• Transgender advocate, sociologist, and sex worker Roberta Perkins used rigorous community-based research to give sex workers a seat at the table and arm allies with the data they needed to argue for, and win, decrim.

We end this episode at the moment decriminalization finally passes in New South Wales with comfortable majorities in both houses of parliament and support from both major parties. This sets us up part two, where we'll dig into what happened next and what today's movements need to know.

This is Part 1 of our series on the decriminalization of sex work in Australia.

Listen, subscribe, and share with someone who still thinks criminalization "helps" sex workers. Learn more and sign up for our weekly newsletter at oldprosonline.org.

Georgina Beyer made global history as the world's first openly transgender mayor and member of parliament. In this episode, host Kaytlin Bailey traces Beyer's path from boarding schools and strip clubs to the halls of power. We explore how her lived experience shaped her political courage and the critical role she played in decriminalizing sex work in New Zealand. This is a story of survival, dignity, and profound transformation.