BOSTON (Legal Newsline) — Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey announced May 29 that she convened with Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh and state institutional leaders to create zero-tolerance policies for sex buying in Massachusetts workplaces. The initiative is called Employers Against Sex Trafficking (EAST).
“This is a landmark partnership between the business community and government to end sex buying in Massachusetts,” Healey said in a statement. “We all owe it to survivors to stop this exploitation of people. I thank Mayor Walsh, the Alliance for Business Leadership, Massachusetts Business Roundtable, and the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce for their leadership and commend our business community for taking a stand.”
According to Healey’s office, buyers are the catalyst for sex trafficking. Therefore, to halt the illegal industry, Massachusetts must do what it can to limit demand for sex workers.
“We cannot end sex trafficking until we reduce the demand for it, and the leadership of the business community is a fundamental part of that process,” Walsh said in a statement. “I am grateful to these businesses for standing with Attorney General Healey and me on this important issue. It is our hope that other employers will join us in implementing zero tolerance policies for the purchase of sex in the workplace and create a safer Boston for all.”