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Press Release: We are still criminalised, say sex workers.
The woman interviewed recently on BBC Victoria Derbyshire show spoke forcefully about her experience and how she was working for “financial security and independence”.On the same programme a brothel owner (and former police officer) claimed that “the police are turning a blind eye if women are working together for safety”. This is completely untrue.Laura Watson, […]
Statement: WEP leader insults and dehumanises sex workers
Last night Sophie Walker, the leader of the Women’s Equality Party responded to a comment by a sex worker on twitter by calling her a “sex bot”. For Walker to disparage and dehumanise sex workers in that way is sickening. Is the Women’s Equality Party not for equality and respect for all women, whatever our […]
New Statesman: How a crackdown on Google and Facebook is making life more dangerous for sex workers
As is already happening in the US, vital websites for sex workers could be shut down by laws aimed at curbing trafficking.In the early 1990s, BT began cutting off the landlines of sex workers who advertised in telephone boxes. The cards, often put up by young people or pensioners for a fee, allowed women to […]
New Statesman: The dangerous myth of the “pop-up brothel”
By Dulcie LeeThe reality behind a buzzword that is hindering the fight for women’s safetyHundreds of pop-up brothels are springing up across the country. Budget holiday homes, Airbnbs, and private lets are being turned into “sex clubs”. Crimestoppers have launched a campaign to try and stem their supposedly indomitable rise.Only last week the Sunday Times reported that […]
Statement: SWARM and ECP celebrate former prostitutes’ high court win
SWARM and ECP congratulate the three women who last week won in court the right not to reveal their criminal convictions for prostitution to prospective employers.The women have multiple convictions for soliciting or loitering under the Street Offences Act, and their records will be amended to filter out these convictions. The women in this landmark […]
NUS: Student Sex Worker Briefing
To mark International Sex Worker Rights Day on 3rd March NUS LGBT+ Campaign has joined forces with sex worker-led organisations to create a briefing for students’ unions on how they can better support student sex workers.Read our briefing on how students’ unions can better support student sex workers.In 2016 NUS LGBT+ and Women’s Campaigns undertook a […]
The Guardian: Letter (unpublished) – response to allegations against Oxfam and other NGOs in Haiti
(The Guardian, unpublished).Dear Madam/Sir,Like our sisters in Haiti (‘Aid staff would pay more’: sex workers in Haiti speak out), sex workers who have survived disasters and face the calamity of criminalisation every day, must start with our need to support ourselves and our families. Women from Empower, a sex workers collective in Thailand, were in […]