U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez responded Tuesday evening to a report that a New York City paramedic supplemented her income during the coronavirus pandemic by working for a spicy website.
“Sex work is work,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote, retweeting an article from Rolling Stone magazine accusing the New York Post of shaming the paramedic, 23-year-old Lauren Kwei, for posting content on the OnlyFans. site to earn extra money.
The New York Democrat said any shame should be aimed at the federal government, not sex workers.
“The federal government has done almost nothing in months to help people,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote. “We have to pass incentive checks, user interface, small business emergency assistance, hospital funding, etc.
AOC REMAINS REPUBLICANS WHO DO NOT WEAR MASKS FOR EXCLUSIONS
“Keep the focus of shame there,” added Ocasio-Cortez, “not on marginalizing people who survive a pandemic without assistance.”
Earlier this month, Ocasio-Cortez agreed with Republican US Josh Hawley of Missouri, who has also called for incentive checks for ordinary Americans to be part of the next coronavirus control bill.
“I will happily work with @AOC and anyone who wants to help working families. Families and working people in need should be the FIRST consideration in COVID relief efforts, not the last, ” Hawley wrote on Twitter December 4.
The Rolling Stone article reported that OnlyFans saw the number of filings from creators of spicy content increase as much as 75 percent during the pandemic.
The article added that Kwei also worked as a hostess at a Korean restaurant to pay her bills – and then called the Post for “not applauding her for her entrepreneurial spirit.”
The magazine also accuses the Post of jeopardizing Kwei’s job as a health worker, although a representative for her employer, SeniorCare, told the Daily Beast there were no plans to end Kwei.
Ocasio-Cortez has previously advocated decriminalizing sex work. Last year, she joined fellow progressives Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., And Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., To support the SAFE SEX Workers Study Act.
CLICK HERE FOR A COMPLETE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE
The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., Argued at the time that the bill was needed to help determine whether the sex trafficking legislation currently on the books had the effect of knocking sex workers off online sites – only to force them into situations where money is being made, which may be more dangerous.
According to the Congress.gov website, the bill was referred to the House health subcommittee, but there was no indication that it went beyond that point.