Sex work consists of engaging in sexual intercourse or performing other sex acts in exchange for money or favors. Sex work can be voluntary or forced through coercion or sex-trafficking. It can be empowering for those who make the active choice to engage in these activities, disempowering for those forced into this type of work against their will. Sex work can be a strategy for survival and in some cases for self-determination.

A sex worker is a person who works in the sex industry, such as prostitution or pornography among others. Some sex workers are paid to engage in sexually explicit behavior which involves varying degrees of physical contact with clients. A sex worker may be any combination of sex (male/female), gender (masculine/feminine/trans), and sexual identity (straight, bisexual, lesbian/gay.)

“Sex,” in contrast with “gender” underlines the social and cultural dimensions of masculine and feminine, and distinguishes between biology for the former, and society for the latter,...