After years of advocacy from Colorado sex workers, lawmakers have proposed legislation that would make the state the only one in the U.S. to fully remove criminal penalties for prostitution.
Four Democratic lawmakers introduced Senate Bill 97, which would decriminalize commercial sexual activity in Colorado, last week. The bill wouldn’t legalize the practice or set up an oversight structure regulating it, as the state did with marijuana and Nevada has done with prostitution in several counties. Acting as a pimp or engaging in certain forms of solicitation would remain criminal offenses.
But criminal penalties would otherwise be dropped across the state for anyone selling or paying for sexual activity between adults.
“Whatever your morals are, I don’t believe the government should be involved in the bedroom of consenting adults,” said Sen. Nick Hinrichsen, a Pueblo Democrat and one of the bill’s sponsors. “But beyond that, what you learn is when you (criminalize prostitution), the repercussions are harmful.”
Hinrichsen acknowledged the bill faced steep odds, even in a legislature controlled by his party, and he said his toughest challenge would be getting his colleagues to move past “the moral judgment that the behavior is wrong” to consider what he says is the data supporting the bill.
As some conservatives castigated the measure on social media last week, Hinrichsen replied to one X post with a link to an international meta-analysis published by researchers from four countries. That study linked criminalized prostitution with adverse health outcomes, like increased infection rates and violence against sex workers.
Progressive lawmakers had discussed bringing a similar proposal last year but held off. The bill’s supporters this year will likely include progressives, but the sponsors — Hinrichsen, Sen. Lisa Cutter and Reps. Lorena Garcia and Rebekah Stewart — come from different corners of the Democratic Party’s tent.
Gov. Jared Polis has also signaled some initial support for the proposal.
“Governor Polis will review this bill as it moves through the process but supports an adult’s right to make their own decisions about their bodies,” Polis spokeswoman Shelby Wieman said Monday. “He also wants to better understand how any changes to this area of law can also better protect against crimes such as human trafficking.”
The bill’s introduction was hailed by current and former sex workers in Colorado, who have long advocated for decriminalization and reforms to the state’s laws. Supporters argue that criminalization drives sex work underground and leaves workers vulnerable to abuse, violence and trafficking — particularly those who work on the street.
In 2022, those concerns nudged lawmakers to give immunity from prostitution charges to sex workers who report serious crimes to law enforcement.
“I’m honestly shocked,” said Ella West, who lives in Denver and works as an escort. “Just the fact there’s even four legislators that are willing to bring this is huge. I didn’t realize we were doing that well in terms of the perception of sex work. I will say the bill itself looks pretty damn good in its current form.”
If enacted, the bill would make Colorado the only state in America to completely decriminalize the world’s oldest profession.
But it’s not the first state to undertake decriminalization or to reform the criminal provisions related to sex work. Nevada has legalized prostitution in certain counties — though not in the counties that include Las Vegas and Reno — and Maine has removed penalties for sex workers, though not for the clients they serve. That approach, known as the “Nordic model,” has been adopted by several countries, including Canada. Rhode Island decriminalized indoor sex work for nearly 30 years, for unclear reasons, before penalties were reinstituted in 2009.
Hinrichsen, West and other advocates said they supported decriminalization over full legalization. Hinrichsen said he was wary of the state establishing an intensive “regulatory regime,” and advocates said a model like Nevada’s still left workers dependent on brothel owners and state oversight of a stigmatized profession.
Decriminalization makes workers safer, West said.
“With legalization, it still gives an avenue to create a really uneven landscape for sex workers, where certain regulatory bodies could come in and implement things that might be rather invasive, or not accounting for the really vulnerable people who may not want to be as outward as others,” said Devynn Dewey, the founding director of Don’t Strip Our Rights, a sex worker advocacy group supporting the bill.
Still, West said she wasn’t optimistic the measure would pass.
The bill will first need to clear the Senate Judiciary Committee, with a hearing likely in the next several weeks. Lawmakers on the committee were still processing the bill late last week, but the committee has generally been less willing to embrace progressive criminal justice measures than its counterpart in the state House.
“It’s certainly one of the toughest bills I’ve ever run, and the odds are steep,” Hinrichsen said.
He said he was talking with his colleagues, some of whom had not yet taken a firm position on the proposal. The Colorado District Attorneys Council has taken an initial neutral position on the proposal; spokesman Patrick Mueller said the group’s board likely wouldn’t settle on a position until the end of the week.
The bill quickly drew criticism from conservatives and some Republican lawmakers late last week on social media. Michael Allen, the El Paso County district attorney and a Republican candidate for attorney general in this year’s election, released a statement Friday opposing the bill.
“Coloradans are leaving this state in record numbers because crime is rising and the cost of living is out of control — yet radical Democrats in the legislature are focused on legalizing prostitution,” Allen wrote. “It’s disgraceful.”
Despite the long odds, West and other supporters said they were pleased that the issue was being discussed at all. They said sex worker reforms were likely to be a long-term project.
“We’re just not used to people giving a (expletive) about our rights, I think that’s the bottom line there. At best, they leave us alone,” West said. “This bill — it posits sex work as a viable way to earn a living, and that’s just not the attitude I’m used to.”
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