{"id":6143,"date":"2025-07-09T15:50:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T13:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.queer-institut.de\/sexarbeitsgesetz-ein-statement\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T19:12:32","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T17:12:32","slug":"sexarbeitsgesetz-ein-statement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.queer-institut.de\/en\/sexarbeitsgesetz-ein-statement\/","title":{"rendered":"SAG – SexWorkAct – commenting the draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

Issuing the draft of an alternative Sex Work Act (SAG):
\nLaw for Equity, Rights and Respect in Sex Work<\/h2>\n

Statement at the press conference in Berlin on June 02, 2025, the International Sex Workers’ Day<\/em>, by Antke A. Engel<\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n

The document<\/a>, which was written by sex workers themselves as part of a series of workshops, represents an important milestone in terms of social justice – for sex workers and far beyond<\/u>.<\/p>\n

It is written with the aim of equality (or, rather, equity<\/u>) for all people. Equality is not only meant in formal legal terms, but also refers to social participation and the power to shape society<\/u>. And – according to the term \u201crespect\u201d in the title of the law – the reduction of stigmatization and a life free of discrimination<\/u>.<\/p>\n

The text of the law is deliberately intersectional<\/u>, i.e. it includes sex workers of all sexes and genders, sectors, income levels and, above all, origins and residence permit status – and emphasizes that specific life situations and biographies must be perceived in their particularity and context<\/u>. The draft law aims to reduce exploitation, dependencies and violence in sex work – which is precisely why it opposes the equation or conflation of human trafficking and sex work<\/u>.<\/p>\n

Working conditions and health care<\/u> are of crucial importance to enable sex workers to lead a good life, free from stigma, discrimination and violence. They represent a significant part of the law – and it is not for nothing that it is called the \u201cSex Work<\/u> Act\u201d for short.<\/p>\n

But it is also called \u201cSAG\u201d – say something, say what you think and what you want<\/u>. The law thus refers to consensus<\/u> in contact, social participation and media representations: The law ascribes crucial importance to sexual education and voluntary counseling<\/u> – not only for sex workers, but also for clients, those around sex workers and society as a whole.<\/p>\n

Public funding for education and counseling as well as access to state health and social systems are the be-all and end-all of socially just and human rights-based sex work.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Background info:<\/p>\n

The series of workshops with sex workers (in Berlin and online), from which the alternative draft law emerged, was initiated by SMART-Berlin,<\/a> supported by various sex worker self-organization projects, financed by the Alliance of the Counselling Centers for Sex Workers (bufas e.V.) and led by me.<\/p>\n

I did not write the draft bill myself – I guided the process, moderated it, initiated discussions and commented on the wording.<\/p>\n

See also >\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The draft law aims to reduce exploitation, dependencies and violence in sex work – which is precisely why it opposes the equation or conflation of human trafficking and sex work. Das Sex Work Act is also called SAG – say something, say what you think and what you want. The law thus refers to consensus in contact, social participation and media representations: The law ascribes crucial importance to sexual education and voluntary counseling – not only for sex workers, but also for clients, those around sex workers and society as a whole. A political intervention by sex workers who practice self-empowerment and social participation. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[941,668,974],"tags":[830,975,976,977,833,978,979,980,798,981,946,982,986,947,948,984,985],"class_list":["post-6143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2025-en","category-embodiments","category-statements-en","tag-antidiskriminierung-en","tag-destigmatization-en","tag-empowerment-en","tag-gerechtigkeit-en","tag-gesetzentwurf-en","tag-law-draft-en","tag-legal-politics-en","tag-partizipation-en","tag-queer-politics-en","tag-queere-politiken-en","tag-rechtspolitiken-en","tag-sex-work-en","tag-sex-workers-day-en-2","tag-sexarbeit-en","tag-sexualitaet-en","tag-sexuality-en","tag-social-justice-en"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/panmCG-1B5","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.queer-institut.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.queer-institut.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.queer-institut.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.queer-institut.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.queer-institut.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6143"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.queer-institut.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6434,"href":"http:\/\/www.queer-institut.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6143\/revisions\/6434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.queer-institut.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.queer-institut.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.queer-institut.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}