User:Joshwarren93/Sex Workers Outreach Project USA

Lead
SWOP might be considered a constructive program by nonviolent scholars and activists, as it attempts to create more imaginative and just communities, especially considering its focus on equality and education through advocacy.

Article body
SWOP Pittsburgh (or SWOP PGH) is the local chapter of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, started in 2018 by Jessie Sage, Moriah Ella Mason, and PJ Sage amid "an increasingly conservative political climate". The chapter's aim is to connect sex workers to local social services, and the chapter works with health institutions in Pittsburgh. In 2020, SWOP PGH created Pittsburgh's only mutual aid fund to support sex workers who were impacted by the pandemic. The mutual aid fund continues today. Partners associated with SWOP PGH are Western Pennsylvania Diaper Bank, Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania, and Allies for Health + Wellbeing.

SWOP PGH's mutual aid fund offers grants between $50 and $200, depending on the amount of money available in the chapter at the time. If the chapter is unable to meet the demand of a sex worker, they offer a social media boost of that person's payment app or crowdfunding campaign. Funding occurs in 3-month cycles, and individuals are eligible to receive funding once per cycle. A link to the application for the Sex Worker Mutual Aid Fund is here. SWOP PGH also offers the Steel City Sex Worker Resource Guide, which includes local COVID-19 information, resources for various Pittsburgh necessities: food, housing, healthcare (reproductive, LGBTQIA+ services, HIV/AIDS services, crisis and suicide prevention, mental healthcare providers), accountants, legal aid and jail support, community groups, and massage therapists/bodyworkers.

SWOP PGH has been involved in various advocacy events and in the local Pittsburgh press since its creation. In 2019, the chapter led the charge against University of Pittsburgh's first annual Hacking4Humanity hackathon event, arguing that the event's aim of finding solutions to human trafficking–including awareness raising, perpetrator persecution, and survivor support–would not help trafficking victims. SWOP PGH and hundreds of people from eight other organizations signed a petition, a very low-stakes nonviolent tactic. More recently, SWOP PGH has engaged in community advocacy work, including a clothing swap and day to tell stories to celebrate the most important day for SWOP as a whole, International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers (December 17th). The chapter has hosted various, support groups, Q&A sessions, and teach-ins in 2022, including one about being a better strip club client and one to educate about legal issues, hosted by a well-known queer Pittsburgh legal aide attorney. Also in 2022, SWOP PGH hosted a child-friendly DIY Valentine card-making workshop, where all community members were invited to create and send Valentine's Day cards to sex workers (including those incarcerated), immigrants, and friends and lovers.

Aside from these community-building events, SWOP PGH has also been involved with various legal and political issues in Pittsburgh. In Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, dozens of prostitution arrests and cases in 2017 involved the weaponization of women's cell phones. Chapter organizer Gabrielle Monroe claimed that phones are vital to the safety of sex workers, and they should not be charged with "possessing instruments of crime" in these scenarios. Similarly, condoms were also being weaponized against sex workers as "instruments of crime," and SWOP PGH along with various partners in the city successfully advocated for the removal of this legal implication. SWOP PGH originally wrote a letter to the Allegheny County District Attorney, Stephen Zappala, Jr. pleading for something to be done.