12 Apr Call to legalise sex workers for people with disability
Disability rights advocates are divided over a push in the South Australian Parliament to bring about the legal use of sex workers by people with a disability.
Kelly Vincent, who was elected on a platform of rights for people with disabilities, launched her campaign on Tuesday to support the legal push, saying she feels it would benefit many who are disabled.
Some advocates say it would allow disabled people to get rid of sexual frustration and achieve some happiness, but others say the campaign risks stigmatising those who it is trying to help.
Ms Vincent says if a private member’s bill introduced by Labor MP Steph Key is passed in about a month, sex workers with specific training could provide a safe and positive environment for people with a disability to experience intimacy.
If successful, she would then push for a policy to allow people with a disability to use their government funding to pay for sex workers.
“For those people who are feeling frustrated and alienated and alone and sad because they can’t access this experience, and for those people for whom the services of a sex worker could make a genuine huge, positive difference to their lives, in a private, intimate manner, then I don’t see why that can’t be allowed,” Ms Vincent said.
Denise Beckwith, who grew up in Sydney’s south-west with cerebral palsy, won a bronze medal at the Sydney Paralympics and now works with Disabilities Australia.
She says her use of a prostitute meant she could develop in ways she otherwise may not have.
“I have a disability and my first sexual experience was with a sex worker, and I really value that experience because it gave me confidence to then pursue other relationships, so sex work has an educative function,” she said.
“I approached my father – who’s quite an open-minded man – and saw it as a need for me for me. So he actually helped me scope out a male sex worker – I saw a male sex worker.”
National Disability Discrimination commissioner Graeme Innes would not comment on the proposed law change, but says people with disabilities have the right to the same choices as anyone else.
“The broader Australian population, overall, has a negative attitude towards people with a disability and a quite constricting attitude to people with a disability and that’s probably the major barrier that we, as people with a disability, face in Australia,” he said.