Colorado Democrats have unveiled sweeping legislation that would make their state the first in the nation to fully decriminalize prostitution for both buyers and sellers.
According to The Gateway Pundit, Senate Bill 26-097 would erase criminal penalties for commercial sexual activity among consenting adults and would go a step further by stripping cities and counties of the authority to pass their own ordinances against prostitution. In other words, even if local officials or voters object, they would be legally prohibited from criminalizing the sex trade within their jurisdictions.
The official summary makes clear that the measure is designed to impose a uniform statewide standard, effectively nationalizing a radical experiment in vice policy within Colorados borders. The bill would repeal existing state criminal offenses related to consensual adult prostitution, while explicitly blocking local governments from reinstating those protections at the community level.
Supporters frame the legislation as a safety measure for those in the sex trade, adopting rhetoric long favored by progressive activists. Criminalizing prostitution endangers adults who engage in consensual sexual activity, Colorados proposed bill reads, arguing that fear of criminal punishment among consenting adults engaged in commercial sexual activity encourages physical, emotional, and structural violence against sex workers, subjects them to economic crimes, and increases resistance to harm-reduction practices.
The bill further claims that sex workers are less likely to report these crimes or seek medical help following an assault, suggesting that removing all criminal penalties will somehow empower law enforcement and improve public safety. Colorados proposal goes even further than deep-blue Maine, which decriminalized only the selling of sex, by also decriminalizing the purchase of sex in the name of allowing sex workers to screen clients more effectively.
Backers insist that if buying sex is no longer illegal, clients will be more willing to provide personal information, supposedly maintaining sex workers safety. The legislation also attempts to draw a sharp line between human trafficking and consensual commercial sex, asserting that decriminalization would free police to focus on traffickers and exploiters.
Decriminalizing consensual sex work for adults enables law enforcement to focus resources on perpetrators who induce others to perform sex acts by force, fraud, or coercion, the bill states, as if erasing penalties for the broader trade will not embolden criminal networks. It further notes that sex work transactions often occur online, spanning multiple local government jurisdictions, and concludes, Sex workers deserve clarity and certainty that they can safely conduct business within the state, regardless of the local governing authority.
While Nevada permits tightly regulated brothels in limited rural counties, no state has ever attempted a blanket statewide decriminalization of the entire industry. Even Maine stopped short of legalizing the buyers, but Colorado Democrats now appear determined to turn the state into a testing ground for a free-for-all sex market, raising serious concerns among conservatives about public morality, community standards, and the erosion of local control.
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