User:Lunasarai/Sex Worker Activism and Movements

Sex worker activisms and the social movements they have produced address issues of labor rights, gender-related violence, stigma, migration, access to health care, criminalization, and police violence and have evolved to address local conditions and historical challenges.

Although accounts of sex work date back to antiquity, movements organized to defend sex workers' rights as a more recent phenomenon. The first recorded sex worker organization, Las Horizontales, was begun in 1888 in Havana, Cuba, however, contemporary sex worker rights movements are generally associated to the feminist movement of the 1960s and 1970s in Europe and North America, even as the issue also caused arguments within the feminist movement.

Global Efforts
Since the 1970s, there has been a steady increase in documented sex worker movements around the world. An important moment in the movement was the shift from using the term prostitution to using the term sex work to emphasize their role as workers. The term, coined by Carol Leigh and Margot St James, played an influential role in the sex worker movement in the U.S. and abroad.

The First World Whore Congress, the first international gathering of sex workers, was held 15 February 1985 in Amsterdam to protect sex workers' rights. It adopted a platform adopted by the newly formed International Committee for Prostitutes' Rights (ICPR). Participants included sex workers and former sex workers from Canada, England, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States, as well as sex worker advocates from Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. At the event translation was available in Dutch French, German, and English.

The onset of the AIDS/HIV epidemic in the 1980s began to inspire some state organizations and community groups to work more closely with sex worker organizations in AIDS prevention efforts, framing the criminalization and stigma that surround sex work as a public health issue.

Red Umbrella Marches, sometimes referred to as Sex Worker Pride marches, began in 2001 as part of the 49th Venice Biennale of Art. The action was initiated by the Slovenian artist Tadej Pgacar and sex workers who created a living installation they titled, Prostitute Pavilion.

The International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers is an international day of action to protest the violence leveled against sex workers around the world. First observed in 2003, it was organized by Annie Sprinkle and Robyn Few, founder of the Sex Worker Outreach Project (SWOP). It is observed annually on December 17.

The majority of sex-worker led organizations in the world support decriminalization as the preferred approach to policy. Many groups advocate for having sex work recognized as a legitimate profession deserving of state recognition.

The Global Network of Sex Work Projects (NSWP) is a private non-profit organization that was established in November 1990 and operates from Edinburgh, Scotland. NSWP has a membership from five regions, including Africa, Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, North America, and the Caribbean. The organization supports the decriminalization of sex work and advocates for the human rights of sex workers.

Africa
While sex worker movements have been most active in South Africa, other sex worker communities across the African continent have also taken action to promote their rights and combat issues such as police abuse and the spread of HIV/AIDS. Cameroonian sex workers protested police mistreatment through a strike in 2007, while sex workers in Zambia formed a union to address the concerning rates of HIV/AIDS in their community. Sex workers in Kenya created the Commercial Sex Workers Association to regulate their work and The Association of Women at Risk from AIDS, a prominent organization advocating for the rights of sex workers in Senegal, was founded in 1993 during an AIDS prevention campaign in Dakar.

Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Task Force (SWEAT)
Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Task Force (SWEAT) is the first sex workers’ rights organization founded in southern Africa. Established in November 1994 in Cape Town, South Africa, SWEAT is considered by scholars as the most well-known sex worker movement on the African continent.

SWEAT was originally associated with the Triangle Project, a South African LGBTQ+ rights organization until 1996 when SWEAT advocates recognized a need for a human rights approach in providing services and assistance to sex workers. Upon separation, SWEAT’s work began to provide sex workers with services such as health care, legal assistance, counseling, and training programs. They also engage in advocacy efforts to promote the rights of sex workers, including advocating for policy and legal reforms to protect the health and human rights of sex workers.

At a 2003 SWEAT conference in Cape Town, Sisonke, a sex worker-led movement, was founded in response to the lack of sex worker leadership in SWEAT. Sisonke's members work to empower and educate sex workers, and to advocate for policy and legal reforms that promote the health, safety, and human rights of sex workers in South Africa. SWEAT continues to provide support and assistance to Sisonke and other sex worker-led organizations through health and human rights trainings in their efforts to promote sex worker rights in South Africa.

Asia
Asia’s location as the site of international conflict including wars in Vietnam, Korea, and Japan have contributed to a prevalence of sex workers in the region. Organizing efforts started locally with the first documented organization being EMPOWER Foundation in Thailand in 1985.

By the 1990s, sex workers in Asia began to formally organized to advocate for decriminalization and legalization of sex work alongside providing assistance to workers. Most of the organization were locally based and provided resources to sex workers in their regional languages. Regional organizations such as the Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers (APNSW) and Sex Workers and Allies South Asia (SWASA) have worked independently and collaboratively promote the health, safety, and human rights of sex workers in the Asia Pacific and South Asia regions, respectively.

Service Workers IN Group (SWING)
Founded in September 2004 in Bangkok, Thailand, Service Workers IN Group (SWING) is a Thai sex worker organization that seeks to offer services and resources to male, female, and transgender sex workers.

SWING evolved from the EMPOWER Foundation, a national Thai sex worker network, in order to provide services and assistance to male and transgender sex workers who were not included in the national and civil society response to HIV/AIDS.

Since its founding, SWING has expanded to offer services and assistance to female sex workers as well. SWING has drop-in spaces and offices in Bangkok, Koh Samui, and Pattaya, all of which are considered Thailand’s most infamous red-light districts. At each location, SWING offers core services such as care and support programs for HIV-positive sex workers and English language classes.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, SWING extended additional support to sex workers who were struggling financially due to a lack of work opportunities and were not eligible for government health care or financial benefits, as sex work is still considered illegal in Thailand. To address the issue, SWING began distributing pre-prepared food bags and providing free HIV and syphilis testing through their mobile testing trucks. Moreover, SWING received financial assistance from the Australian Embassy's Direct Aid Program (DAP) to create and deliver 1,200 survival bags to sex workers in Pattaya.

Europe
While there are numerous instances of individual acts of protests throughout Europe, the start of the sex worker activism in Europe is generally attributed to the events of 1975 that led to the occupation of the Église Saint-Nizier in Lyon. However, a previous attempt to organize sex workers in Lyon had occurred earlier in 1972.

France
In August of 1972, local politicians and police officers in Lyon, France were charged with corruption and procurement following anonymous complaints. The scandal implicated a Member of Parliament and revealed that many hotel owners were paying bribes to police in exchange for ignoring the fact that their hotels were being used as brothels. Brothels were legal in Frances since 1946 but were subject to strict regulation. As a result of the scandal, the estimated 400 sex workers in Lyon were no longer able to work in hotels, which had previously provided them with safer working conditions.

On August 24th, sex workers in Lyon planned a protest to call for safe working conditions, but the protest only attracted 30 sex workers who were willing to attend. The press reported the planned protest sarcastically, belittling the mobilizing efforts of the sex workers and attracting a crowd of onlookers and voyeurs. The police mocked the sex workers and sent them to the police station for arrest where they were held for several hours.

Following the events, the Lyon police took a harsher approach, resulting in increased repression and damage to the relationship between the police and sex workers. Sex workers felt outraged by the treatment they received and were unable to mobilize effectively in Lyon until 1975.

in 1975, when the sex workers were again faced with an increase in repression, including prison terms and other penalties, over 200 women occupied Saint-Nizier Church for ten days to seek sanctuary. They were demanding an end to fines, police harassment, and the failure of police to address the murder of three sex workers. The movement received international attention and support from the public, who brought them food and clothes. Abolitionists also supported them, hoping the mobilization would raise awareness and eventually lead to the end of prostitution. This led to similar movements in other cities, with churches being occupied in Paris, Marseille, Grenoble, Saint Etienne, and Montpellier.

However, on June 10th, the government ordered the police to brutally expel the sex workers from the churches. Ulla, the leader of the movement, was exposed with her real name and photographs of her were published in the press in an effort to shame her.

Italy
In September 1973, a group of sex workers in Rome established a group, "Partito per la Protezione delle Prostitute-PPP" to safeguard the rights of sex workers. The organization saw itself as a labor union that aimed to oppose the criminalization of sex work and promote social and pension benefits for sex workers. In 1974, the PPP initiated legal action against the Minister of Interior for the illegal registration of sex workers and against the Chief of Police for their failure to crack down on "pimps."

The group Comitato per i Diritti Civili delle Prostitute (Committee for the Civil Rights of Prostitutes), or CDCP, formed in 1983 created by the sex worker activists Carla Corso and Pia Covre to promote the labor rights of sex workers.

Regional Networks
European Sex Workers Rights Alliance - ESWA (formerly ICRSE) is a European network of sex workers and allies across Europe and Central Asia.

Latin America and the Caribbean
In Latin America and the Caribbean sex worker movements date back to the late 19th century in Havana, Cuba. A catalyst in the movement being a newspaper published by Havana sex workers. This publication went by the name La Cebolla, created by Las Horizontales.

Researchers report that in the 1900s, many immigrants arriving to Latin America and the Caribbean from Europe, Asia, and North America were engaged in sexual labor. Even though sex work was part of larger movements for industrialization in Latin America, and Cuba is the site of the first sex worker organization in the world, sex workers in the region did not begin to organize themselves as workers or to demand equal rights until the late 1960s and 1970s.

During periods of industrialization, various Latin American countries recognized sex tourism as a new industry, bringing in millions of dollars through sex shops, live sex shows, clubs, exotic dancing, escorts, etc. However, sex work continues to be stigmatized in the region with various laws, zoning restrictions, and local regulations installed to prohibit sexual commerce. The demand for sex work shows no signs of slowing down, therefore many Latin American sex workers continue to fight for political visibility, legalization, and basic human rights protections and numerous sex worker organizations have been started in the region.

Latin America serves as one of the leading forces for achieving change in the sex industry, though this is often overlooked in analyses of sex worker movements and organizing. Sex workers from Latin America were also active in other parts of the world, particularly North America and Europe. By the 1970s, 30 to 60 percent of prostitutes in Europe came from developing countries.

The start of the sex worker rights movement can be traced back to the late 1970s. One of the oldest and most influential organizations in Latin America is the Red de Mujeres Trabajadores Sexuales de Latino America Y El Caribe (Women’s Network of Sex Workers of Latin America and the Caribbean), also known as RedTraSex. Started in 1997, RedTraSex is a prime example of transnational cooperative efforts that mobilize sex workers in multiple Latin American countries. With a total of 15 countries represented, these women have directed their efforts to focus on sex worker visibility, to have their voices heard in political spaces, and to work towards the decriminalization of their profession. In addition, many also provide support services and referrals to local resources to help individuals survive within this sphere.

RedTraSex
RedTraSex is a transnational network of female sex workers from 15 Latin American countries. It was founded in 1997 in Heredia, Costa Rica and currently has its central headquarters in Argentina. The organization's main objective is to gain recognition from nation states for its members, who demand to be protected as legitimate workers and have access to adequate work and social benefits. RedTraSex uses a feminist rights-based approach to connect members with programs that address their needs. It fosters unity among members through communication platforms, awareness campaigns, support for community-based organizations, and publishing research on issues faced by sex workers. Its transnational impact in the region is particularly noteworthy.

North America
The organized sex workers’ rights movement in the United States began in 1973, at the peak of the second-wave feminist movement. Sex workers organized demanding that feminists acknowledge the decriminalizing sex work as a women’s issue and a race issue.

The crusade against trafficking and sex work in the United States has been dominated by a coalition of religious rights and abolitionist feminists. Abolitionist feminists are those who argue that the sex industry should be eliminated because of its objectification and oppressive treatment of women. Contrary to religious and abolitionist feminists, other feminists allied with sex workers to support of decriminalization.

On December 16th, 1971 a feminist Conference on Prostitution was held in Chelsea High School in New York City. Organized by thirty women belonging to various feminist groups, the conference featured workshops and a final discussion panel on “The Elimination of Prostitution.” This event was one of the earliest confrontations between sex workers and feminists who had never worked in the sex work industry. Participants confused sexual coercion with sex work which caused a small group of sex workers to speak up rejecting the feminists’ plan to save and rehabilitate them.

Decriminalization was the main topic in the final discussion panel, but things quickly became a debate when it was brought up that decriminalization would increase the criminalization of the client. Scholar, Melinda Chateauvert, summed this experience to be one of the moments that would happen again in the feminist movement: a debate on whether sex was good or bad for women with implicit or explicit intentions of controlling male sexuality.

COYOTE, Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics

In May 1973, Margot St James founded COYOTE (Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics) with Jennifer James, a Seattle-based professor of anthropology. COYOTE was one of the several liberal groups that wanted to expand the rights of privacy in the wake of Roe versus Wade; the National Gay Task Force, and American Civil Liberties Union Sexual Privacy Project also began as initiatives. COYOTE believed that women who worked as sex workers should have the same citizenship rights as others. St James gathered together reputable citizens who gave COYOTE credibility, money and recruited professionals to provide legal services, information and expertise. COYOTE’s mission received support from an initial $5,000 grant from San Francisco’s Glide Foundation, known for its social justice work and community action organizing. With this money, COYOTE organized its first sex worker conference in 1974 at the Glide United Methodist Church in Tenderloin, SF. St James didn’t want to “organize” or build an activist membership core. Rather COYOTE took a laissez-faire approach to organize by providing a safer space for sex workers to meet and find support. To spread the word, local and national underground papers ran notices of meetings and events. COYOTE’s contact information was passed out by Haight-Ashbury and the San Francisco Sex Information switchboards, at the Tenderloin’s free medical clinic and other social services and referral centers. Off Our Backs and other women newspapers across the country listed COYOTE’s twenty-four-hour emergency phone number.

COYOTE created a bail fund created with money raised from its Hookers’ Ball, the project was intended to free women from exploitative pimps. The crime of prostitution created a huge victim class of women overlapping with legal, social, economic, health, family and education issues. In the SF Bay Area, COYOTE created social welfare groups and assistance services. COYOTE’s programs were radically different in their approach to sex workers’ problems. The few services available for sex workers were still perpetuating sexual shame towards women and girls, COYOTE shifted this paradigm. COYOTE did not train “fallen women” for minimum waged jobs they wanted women to be conscious to be angry and to do something about the way society treated “loose women.” COYOTE offered a radical critique that affirmed women’s anger and let them know they weren’t alone in the experiences of whorephobia and slut shaming discrimination.

St James Infirmary

St James Infirmary is fundamentally against the criminalization of sex workers. They believe in a revolution through healthcare and challenge the conventional healthcare model that divides patients with an unhealthy power dynamic. St James Infirmary provides a peer-based model to create safe, trusted and honest environment that provides services and empowers communities. They are funded on the principle of harm reduction and support sex workers being treated with dignity and respect in every aspect of their lives. Some of their services include increasing access to primary healthcare and social services for sex workers throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. St James Infirmary also formalizes communication and collaboration among individuals and agencies who serve sex workers. In all their work, St James promotes a peer-based public health initiative to improve occupational health and safety standards to develop comprehensive medical and social services for sex workers around the world.

The story of St James is a famous story of the power of a phone call. Early one morning, COYOTE received a telephone call from a sex worker who had just left court. She wanted to know about the blood she got drawn in jail was legal. From this, the General Counsel to the Department of Public Health put COYOTE in touch with the Director of Prevention and Control at the San Francisco Department of Public Healt h to find out what was occurring at DPH and in the jails. Carol Leigh, also known as Scarlott Harlott, and others from COYOTE met with Dr. Klausner to discuss the testing he was doing in jails to eradicate syphilis. Dr. Klausner saw this testing as logical while COYOTE did not agree. Despite initial doubts, Priscilla Alexander shared her plan for St James Infirmary with Dr. Klausner. Shortly after, Dr. Klausner became a partner of St James Infirmary and gave them their first office space.

In June of 1999, COYOTE and EDA appointed Johanna Breyer as the first Executive Director of St James Infirmary. Dawn Passar, who had been the Outreach Coordinator at the Asian AIDS Project, joined the Infirmary as its first Outreach Coordinator, and Dr. Deborah Cohan became the first Medical Director. “Dr. Chuck” Cloniger was St. James Infirmary’s first Nurse Practitioner, who worked with the Infirmary for over two decades. St. James Infirmary opened its doors in June 1999 one night a week. By week two, participants had to arrive early because the line for peer-based, non-judgmental health care was flowing out onto the sidewalk.

Transgender sex worker movements
Transgender sex workers have historically formed part of sex worker movements and have also formed part of LGBTQ+ movements. The struggle for the rights of the LGBTQ community has always been interconnected with the struggle for the rights of sex workers, both of which maintain that the state and the police do not have the authority to dictate how consenting adults utilize their bodies. LGBTQ+ organizations have not always taken sufficient efforts to address the topic of decriminalizing sex work in their political agendas, and sex worker organizations have not always been able to focus on the unique needs of transgender sex workers. Therefore, specific transgender organizations have formed to serve the particular intersecting issues transgender sex workers face to speak and to their unique challenges.

Due to intersecting stigmas surrounding transgender identity and social attitudes around homosexuality, sex workers face dangerous working conditions such as disproportionate rates of gender-based violence, police brutality, higher rates of unsolved murders. Transgender sex workers frequently face difficulty obtaining appropriate identification papers which complicated access to state funded services and further exacerbate and create obstacles for migration.

Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR)
The first of many LGBTQ+ led efforts for transgender sex workers was Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR). STAR was founded and funded by Gay Liberation Front Leaders and activists Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson in 1970. Both were engaged in sex work and wanted to create an organization that helped other transient transgender street youth. Professor of Social Work Benjamin Shepard highlights how Rivera frequently had disagreements with conventional LGBTQ organizations that supported assimilation. She represented the alternative community of young queer individuals who resided, survived, and labored on the streets.

Casa de las Muñecas Tiresias
In 2019 Kenya Cuevas established Casa de las Muñecas Tiresias the only shelter in Mexico exclusively for transgender women after witnessing Paola Buenrosto, her friend and fellow transgender sex worker, killed in front of her in 2016. Casa de las Muñecas Tiresias provides housing, meals, and medical care to transgender individuals, sex workers, and those with HIV. The organization also works to provide chances for social reintegration to individuals who have been released from prison and works on HIV prevention as transgender sex workers are more at risk because of the inaccessible healthcare system. On top of Casa de las Muñecas Tiresias work, Kenya Cuevas advocates for the legal classification of transfemicide as a hate crime in Mexico.