Some of the words on this website might be new to you. Here are a few definitions and I welcome questions too.
Sex trade:This refers to all the ways to be involved in sex for money or resources including sex for survival needs, escort services, exotic dancing/stripping (in clubs, at parties or at homes), adult videos, erotic massage, and many more ways.
Youth with life experience/Experiential youth: Many advocates outside the U.S. use this term when referring to youth who are or have been in the sex trade. It encourages seeing youth as whole people first who also have expertise from their life history.
Involved in or impacted by the sex trade: Another way to talk about how the sex trade can be a part of you but it doesn’t have to define you as a person.
Harm reduction: A practice that started with active drug users supporting each other’s health without quitting entirely or even reducing drug use, like needle exchanges or learning how to use naloxone. Now it includes a whole range of options, ideas and ethical practices of reducing harm in sex, drug use, and more. Learn more here www.harmreduction.org
Street economy: Often referring to underground, mostly illegal ways of getting money including the drug trade, the sex trade, and theft through outright stealing to elaborate cons. Not entirely street based, the underground economy supplements and supports whole communities and includes less illegal things (for example, selling services like braiding hair without paying taxes).
Rescue-based: Refers to law enforcement, policy or service approaches with youth in the sex trade that believe youth need to be saved (from ‘the life’, the streets, their communities, themselves) instead of working together as partners to make more opportunities for youth.
I support the most effective practice with youth and the words you use make a difference.
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