Her Crime? Sex Work in New Orleans

[Allamakee]

Her Crime? Sex Work in New Orleans
Colorlines
By Jordan Flaherty
January 13, 2010

http://www.colorlines.com/article.php?ID=673&p=1

New Orleans city police and the district attorney's office are using a state law written for child molesters to charge hundreds of sex workers like Tabitha as sex offenders. The law, which dates back to 1805, makes it a crime against nature to engage in "unnatural copulation"—a term New Orleans cops and the district attorney's office have interpreted to mean anal or oral sex. Sex workers convicted of breaking this law are charged with felonies, issued longer jail sentences and forced to register as sex offenders. They must also carry a driver's license with the label "sex offender" printed on it.

<snip>

Advocates and former defendants claim that the decision over who is charged under which penalty is made arbitrarily, at the discretion of police and the district attorney's office, and that the law disproportionately affects Black people, as well as transgender women.

[dashaz1980]

This sounds like one girl I know in new orleans. When I lived in new orleans passed getting to talk with some of the working girls was an eye opener.  Whis I could helpmsome of them out