Professor. Advocate. Lawyer.
Yvette Butler is a professor, policy advocate, and lawyer with over a decade of experience researching issues related to sex positivity and sex workers rights and several years’ professional experience advocating for the rights of individuals harmed while involved in sexual transactions.
Professor Butler’s areas of focus are racial justice, economic justice, criminal system reform, civil rights, and civil liberties. Her guiding passion has been about helping people whose sexuality is used against them, whether through harmful approaches to addressing sex work or issues like human trafficking, nonconsensual pornography, sextortion, and sexting between minors. A self-described “nerd”, Professor Butler is excited about all things involving ethics, civil liberties, and advances in technology.
Professor Butler has advocated alongside sex workers, survivors of trafficking, and allies. Fully believing that criminalization of many activities is short-sighted and harmful, she is passionate about partnership building and finding creative solutions that reach the heart of complex societal problems. Professor Butler is a proponent of exploring creative ways to supporting all people to live self-determined lives that are free from violence.
Professor Butler has engaged in state and federal civil litigation related to police misconduct, family law, criminal record expungement, and more. She has also engaged in legislative advocacy and coalition building related to sex work, sex trafficking, domestic and sexual violence, criminal justice reform, and economic justice. Professor Butler is licensed to practice law in DC and Virginia. She received her J.D. from the George Washington University Law School and her B.A. in Philosophy at the University of Minnesota, Morris.