Cambridge committee hears survivors, students and advocates on trafficking, safety and decriminalization

The Cambridge City CouncilHuman Services and Veterans Committee convened a stakeholder meeting to discuss Policy Order 2025-46 on trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation, drawing survivor-led providers, school-based student speakers, sex-worker advocates and city officials for a three-hour public forum and listening session.

The meeting focused on two broad, competing sets of policy priorities: measures to expand criminal-record relief and services for people exploited in the sex trade, and proposals from some advocacy groups to decriminalize consensual adult sex work to improve worker safety and access to health care. Speakers also urged the council to expand consent education in schools and to invest in local services such as gender-safe drop-in centers.

"A yes once does not mean a yes always," said Emily Ann Wintner, a junior at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School and member of the Title IX Aurelia Advocates, describing her group's consent-education work at the high school. Students from the group told the committee they provide ninth-grade workshops and a train-the-trainer course that has reached more than 1,000 ninth graders, aiming to normalize boundary-setting and reporting pathways in schools.

Dr. Mary Speta, who identified herself as a researcher and executive director of AMIRA, summarized research and definitions used by practitioners to distinguish human trafficking, commercial sexual…