In the US both the selling and buying of sex is criminalised. Research from New York found that 80% of street workers and 46% of indoor workers experienced violence or threats in the course of their work. Thirty percent of sex workers had been threatened with violence by police officers, while 27% actually experienced violence at the hands of police.In a 2015 study, nearly nine out of 10 (86%) of trans sex workers who interacted with the police reported being harassed, attacked, sexually assaulted, or mistreated in some other way by police.
Written by Ida Mojadad In 1917, hundreds of San Francisco sex workers confronted a Tenderloin church pastor for trying to chase them out of town with his sermons, effectively giving him a crash course on their inability to survive economically. That direct action laid the groundwork for sex workers in France, Canada and England to occupy churches, putting […]
by Rachel West, US PROStitutes CollectiveThere is a wave of change in the US on the rights of sex workers and it is growing. A slew of laws challenging the criminalization of sex work are being put forward around the country and New York, Seattle and now California have repealed legislation which made loitering for […]
Seattle City Council votes to repeal drug and prostitution loitering laws which have a “deep and harmful racist history” and are shown to have “a disproportionate impact on women of color, both cis- and transgender”.Today Seattle City Council repealed drug and prostitution loitering laws that endangered SW safety, unjustly targeted non-violent peoples, and disproportionately impacted […]
Sojourner Truth with Margaret Prescod · April 23, 2020 Today on Sojourner Truth: Coverage of the impact of COVID-19 on sex workers. Should they be eligible for economic relief? Our guests are Niki Adams and Rachel West. Niki Adams is a spokeswoman for the English Collective of Prostitutes, a network of women working in […]
‘Nothing about us without us”Sex workers have had a struggle to be listened to. For too long policy and law on prostitution has been dealt with without sex workers’Maya Oppenheim Women’s Correspondent Two sex workers stormed a demonstration by women opposed to a bill which would decriminalise sex work in New York.Lawmakers have announced plans to introduce a piece […]
By Saemmool Lee Thanta Laovilwanyakul(middle) talks about her experience as a sex worker at the “Public Meeting with Empower.” Empower Foundation set a table that displayed T-shirts and books that represent their their idea at the public meeting On Monday evening, Thanta Laovilwanyakul, a sex worker from Thailand, sat in front of a stage at Omni […]
Wednesday 24 January 7-8:30pmCrossroads Women’s Centre, 25 Wolsey Mews, London, NW5 2DXRachel West is in London from San Francisco and will report on a recent victory for sex workers there. US PROStitutes Collective, working with other sex worker groups, was instrumental in winning an amnesty from arrest and prosecution for sex workers accused of prostitution […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Contact: Minouche Kandel, (415) 572-6482, minouche.kandel@sfgov.org SAN FRANCISCO ANNOUNCES FIRST-IN-THE-COUNTRY POLICIES TO SUPPORT SEX WORKERS WHO ARE VICTIMS OR WITNESSES TO VIOLENCE IN REPORTING TO LAW ENFORCEMENT “Prioritizing Safety for Sex Worker” policies would protect a sex worker reporting a violent crime from arrest or prosecution for prostitution or minor drug offenses […]
Women’s Right to Refuse Why women in the United States will strike on March 8th. By Melissa Gira Grant The call went out just weeks ago for a women’s strike in the United States. March 8th, International Women’s Day, would be marked by “striking, marching, blocking roads, bridges, and squares, abstaining from domestic, care and sex […]