Editing Human sexuality (section)

===Legal issues===

{{Main|Family law |Divorce |Marriage |Human sexual activity#Legal issues|Sex and the law}}
Globally, laws regulate human sexuality in several ways, including criminalizing particular sexual behaviors, granting individuals the privacy or [[autonomy]] to make their own sexual decisions, protecting individuals with regard to equality and non-discrimination, recognizing and protecting other individual rights, as well as legislating matters regarding marriage and the family, and creating laws protecting individuals from violence, harassment, and persecution.<ref name=SexualityLaw1>{{cite web | last1 = Mills |first1=Elizabeth |last2=Haste |first2=Polly |last3=Wood |first3=Stephen | date = 17 June 2016 | title = 1. Issues and Debates; How is sexuality regulated in law? | work = Sexuality and Social Justice: A Toolkit | location = Brighton, UK | publisher = Institute of Development Studies, Sexuality, Poverty and Law Programme | url = http://www.spl.ids.ac.uk/sexuality-and-social-justice-toolkit/1-issues-and-debates/how-sexuality-regulated-law  | access-date =  17 June 2016 }}</ref>

In the United States, there are two fundamentally different approaches, applied in different states, regarding the way the law is used to attempt to govern a person's sexuality.  The "black letter" approach to law focuses on the study of pre-existing legal precedent, and attempts to offer a clear framework of rules within which lawyers and others can work.<ref name=SexualityLaw1/> In contrast, the socio-legal approach focuses more broadly on the relationship between the law and society, and offers a more contextualized view of the relationship between legal and social change.<ref name=SexualityLaw1/>

Issues regarding human sexuality and human sexual orientation have come to the forefront in Western law in the latter half of the twentieth century, as part of the [[gay liberation]] movement's encouragement of [[LGBT]] individuals to "[[come out of the closet]]" and engaging with the legal system, primarily through courts. Therefore, many issues regarding human sexuality and the law are found in the opinions of the courts.<ref name=Minnesota1>{{cite web|title=Researching Legal Issues of Sexual Orientation|url=https://library.law.umn.edu/researchguides/sexual-orientation.html|website=library.law.umn.edu|publisher=University of Minnesota|access-date=3 July 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150705012329/https://library.law.umn.edu/researchguides/sexual-orientation.html|archive-date=5 July 2015}}</ref>

====Sexual privacy====
{{See also|Sexual and reproductive health and rights}}
While the issue of privacy has been useful to sexual rights claims, some scholars have criticized its usefulness, saying that this perspective is too narrow and restrictive. The law is often slow to intervene in certain forms of coercive behavior that can limit individuals' control over their own sexuality (such as [[female genital mutilation]], [[forced marriages]] or lack of access to reproductive health care). Many of these injustices are often perpetuated wholly or in part by private individuals rather than state agents, and as a result, there is an ongoing debate about the extent of state responsibility to prevent harmful practices and to investigate such practices when they do occur.<ref name=SexualityLaw1 />

State intervention with regards to sexuality also occurs, and is considered acceptable by some, in certain instances (e.g. same-sex sexual activity or [[prostitution]]).<ref name=SexualityLaw1 />

The legal systems surrounding [[prostitution]] are a topic of debate. Proponents for criminalization argue that sex work is an immoral practice that should not be tolerated, while proponents for decriminalization point out how criminalization does more harm than good. Within the feminist movement, there is also a debate over whether sex work is inherently objectifying and exploitative or whether sex workers have the agency to sell sex as a service.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/columnists/kate-heartfield-do-prostitutes-sell-themselves-or-a-service-1.877652|title=Kate Heartfield: Do prostitutes sell themselves or a service?|last=Heartfield|first=Kate|website=Times Colonist|access-date=30 October 2019}}</ref>

When sex work is criminalized, sex workers do not have support from law enforcement when they fall victim to violence. In a 2003 survey of street-based sex workers in NYC, 80% said they had been threatened with or experienced violence, and many said the police were no help. 27% said they had experienced violence from police officers themselves.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://sexworkersproject.org/downloads/RevolvingDoor.pdf|title=Revolving Door|last=Thukral|first=Juhu|date=2003|website=Sex Workers Project|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040103043554/http://sexworkersproject.org/downloads/RevolvingDoor.pdf|archive-date=2004-01-03}}</ref> Different identities such as being black, transgender, or poor can result in a person being more likely to be criminally profiled by the police. For example, in New York, there is a law against "loitering for the purpose of engaging in prostitution", which has been nicknamed the "walking while trans" law because of how often transgender women are assumed to be sex workers and arrested for simply walking out in public.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.vox.com/2019/8/2/20692327/sex-work-decriminalization-prostitution-new-york-dc|title=Sex workers' fight for decriminalization, explained|last=North|first=Anna|date=2 August 2019|website=Vox|access-date=30 October 2019}}</ref>