Employment Discrimination in Sex Work: Legal Rights and Real-World Challenges

When you work in sex work, your job isn’t just stigmatized—it’s employment discrimination, the unfair treatment of workers based on the nature of their labor, often leading to denial of services, legal penalties, or loss of assets without due process. Also known as workplace bias against sex workers, this isn’t just about judgment—it’s about laws that treat your income as illegitimate, even when the work itself isn’t illegal. You can be turned away from a bank, evicted from housing, or have your phone seized—all without ever being charged with a crime. This isn’t hypothetical. In 2022, a sex worker in London lost her car after police used civil forfeiture rules to claim it was "used in connection with illegal activity," even though no charges were filed.

That’s where civil forfeiture, a legal process allowing authorities to confiscate property suspected of being linked to crime, even without a conviction. Also known as asset seizure without trial, it’s one of the most powerful tools used to punish sex workers indirectly. Your savings, your car, your laptop—they can all vanish because someone decided your work was "suspicious." And if you’re not a citizen? immigration risks, the threat of visa cancellation, detention, or deportation for noncitizens engaged in sex work. Also known as migrant worker legal exposure, this turns survival into a potential deportation sentence. A single arrest, even if dropped, can end your right to live in the country. Meanwhile, sex worker rights, the legal and human rights protecting individuals who exchange sex for money, including protection from violence, discrimination, and arbitrary arrest. Also known as labor rights for sex workers, these are rarely enforced, even when written into policy. You’re told you have rights—but when you try to use them, the system ignores you, punishes you, or makes it impossible to even access help.

What you’ll find in the posts below isn’t theory. It’s what people actually do to survive. How to carry a know your rights card that police can’t ignore. How to open a bank account when every branch says no. How to protect your money before civil forfeiture hits. How to stay safe when immigration officers show up. These aren’t abstract ideas—they’re survival tools used by real people every day. You’re not alone. And you don’t have to accept this as normal.