CASPER, Wyo. — Two weeks after a Casper, Wyoming City Council vote on a legislative proposal criminalizing “performance prostitution” was delayed when a council member pointed out that the wording would affect local online sex workers with an OnlyFans account, the council passed the ordinance on Tuesday.
The original ordinance, as XBIZ reported, created the new crime of “performance prostitution,” which it defined as “any touching, manipulation or fondling of the sex organs and/or aerola [sic] by one person upon themselves or by one person upon the person of another, whether by touch of the physical use of other items, for the purpose of sexually arousing or sexually gratifying the person who paid for and/or financed the sexual arousal or sexual gratification.”
But at the February 2 meeting, Council Member Kyle Gamroth pointed out that the definition would criminalize online sex work in the city.
"I was just curious,” Gamroth asked, “would that make somebody, like, if they were using an OnlyFans account or something to generate some revenue on the side, would that make that illegal.”
On Tuesday, Gamroth’s “OnlyFans amendment” was included in the definition which added the word "touched" and the phrase, "... and who is in the same building, structure, vehicle or area as the person or persons touched or touching,” to the definition of “performance prostitution,” according to local K2 Radio.
'Human Trafficking' in Wyoming
Last month, the Casper City Council began revising their prostitution ordinance after the Casper Police Department and the Natrona County Sheriff's Office alleged that they had “seen some cases of prostitution that involve human trafficking,” according to K2 Radio.
City Manager Carter Napier told the council then that the main purpose was to further criminalize sex work by enhancing law enforcement’s ability to go after clients.
"The primary thing those changes would accomplish is having a clearer shot, if you will, at not only dealing with those who are committing the act of prostitution, but those that would actually solicit and purchase those acts as well," said Napier at the time.
A memo prepared by City Attorney John Henley justifying the ordinance reform, according to K2 Radio, alleged that “the victims of human trafficking are often vulnerable females who come to the United States from other countries based on promises of a job and citizenship.”
"Other victims,” Henley wrote, “come from the ranks of [the] nation's youth, who having run away and are living in desperate conditions on the street, are 'recruited' with the promise [of] safety and employment.”