OPINION – Cherie DeVille
As an American, I am thrilled to see Vice President-elect Kamala Harris enter the West Wing.
As a porn star, I am terrified.
I respect Harris for seeing gays and women of color through a compassionate lens. After four years of Vice President Mike Pence, it’ll be nice to see someone make the executive branch empathetic again.
Still, I doubt Harris’s executive empathy will extend to exotic dancers, porn stars, strippers, prostitutes, or erotic masseuses: The vice president-elect brings a lifetime of animosity toward sex workers to Number One Observatory Circle.
It’s hard to stand out as a sex working-hate politician. Most politicians hate porn stars, so I struggle to keep track of all the senators, district attorneys, and other elected hacks who rail against the performers in the pornos they watch.
But Harris is so against sex work that she came on porn stars’ radar years ago.
We have been raising the alarm about Harris since her days as a San Francisco District Attorney. Our sirens are growing louder as inauguration day nears because we need public support to prevent Harris from pushing against sex work in the Oval Office.
“Harris’s actions harm sex workers”
Harris’s hatred goes back to her days as San Francisco District Attorney. In 2008, Harris opposed a San Francisco ballot initiative to legalize prostitution.
“I think it’s completely ridiculous, just in case there’s any ambiguity about my position,” Harris told The New York Times. She proclaimed the law would roll “a welcome mat out for pimps” and push vulnerable women into the arms of drugs and guns.
Harris also said the quiet part out loud: She worried legal sex work “compromises the quality of life in a community.”
In other words, sex work looks terrible. As a district attorney, senator, and presidential candidate, Harris has trafficked in outdated sex-worker cliches.
Out reports that California Attorney General Harris fought in court in 2015 to ensure the state continued criminalizing sex work. Harris’s office’s reasoning: “[P]rostitution is linked to the transmission of AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases.” Republican Senator Jesse Helms couldn’t have said it better himself.
In many circumstances, Harris’s actions harm sex workers …
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