NEWSLETTERS & EVENTS
July 2024 highlights
On World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, members of New Yorkers for the Equality Model held a virtual press conference with New York State Senator Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan).
Each speaker stressed the urgent need for laws like the Sex Trade Survivors Justice and Equality Act (STSJEA), which aims to end demand for commercial sex by providing stronger penalties for sex buyers and pimps while offering comprehensive services to exploited individuals.
July 30, 2024
June 2024 highlights
In an op-ed for the New York Daily News, LGBTQ Rights vs. Human Trafficking, survivor leader and NYFEM member Cristian Eduardo debunks the arguments for the full decriminalization of the sex trade and why promoting prostitution as "employment" is a betrayal of the LGBTQ community.
July 1, 2024
May 2024 highlights
Earlier this month, members of New Yorkers for the Equality Model (NYFEM) - alongside state lawmakers and survivors of sex trafficking - convened at the New York State Capitol to advocate for the passage of the Sex Trade Survivors Justice and Equality Act (STSJEA, S1352/A3386).
May 30, 2024
March 2024 highlights
This week, Homeland Security raided several of Sean "Diddy" Combs' residences, reportedly in connection with a sex trafficking investigation. This development comes after several individuals stepped forward accusing P. Diddy of rape, sexual assault, and sex trafficking. One woman, Cassie Ventura, filed a lawsuit against Diddy alleging that he entrapped her for 10 years in a “cycle of abuse, violence, and sex trafficking.”
March 29, 2024
November 2023 highlights
Earlier this month, the Department of Justice announced the arrests of three individuals charged with operating an interstate prostitution ring in Massachusetts and Virginia patronized by high tech and pharmaceutical executives, doctors, professors, lawyers, scientists, accountants, elected officials, military officers, and government contractors with security clearances.
November 30, 2023
October 2023 highlights
Meet the faces behind New Yorkers for the Equality Model (NYFEM)! We are a group of New Yorkers - sex trade survivors, direct service providers, and advocates - dedicated to shrinking the exploitative system of prostitution and providing resources to survivors and those wanting to exit the sex trade.
October 30, 2023
August 2023 highlights
A coalition representing New Yorkers for the Equality Model held a press conference to draw attention to the surge of prostitution and sex trafficking in New York City. Advocates and sex trade survivors joined forces to hold city leaders accountable for the growing crisis affecting the most vulnerable people of New York City – marginalized Black and brown women, girls, undocumented immigrants, foster care and LGBTQ youth.
August 30, 2023
June 2023 highlights
On June 26th, the governor of Maine signed a bill decriminalizing people in prostitution, the first bill of its kind in the United States. We are thrilled that prostituted people will no longer be criminalized for their own exploitation, and also that Maine strengthens their commitment to holding sex buyers and other exploiters accountable for the harms they inflict.
June 28, 2023
March 2023 highlights
As you learn more about prostitution legislation and the Equality Model, you see that many people fail to make the connection between sex trafficking and the system of prostitution. To strengthen your own understanding of how sex trafficking works – as a vehicle driving people to the prostitution market – please visit our Instagram page below and share the information with your networks!
March 29, 2023
February 2023 highlights
On February 21st, the New Yorkers for the Equality Model and Human Rights Program at Roosevelt House, Hunter College hosted a special event, A Vision of Justice and Equality for Sex Trade Survivors, where New Yorkers for the Equality Model member Melanie Thompson shared her film "Can Oppression Be Liberation?"
February 28, 2023