Learn more about sex work activism and how you can help
“The collateral consequences of a prostitution arrest can also make access to resources and economic stability further challenging. A prostitution conviction can mean disqualification from public housing, deportation or the inability to adjust one’s immigration status, violating a code of conduct to lead to expulsion from higher education, denial of student financial aid, civil consequences such as eviction or removal of children from the home, among many other collateral consequences.”
We don’t want “Legalization”
“Legalization of sex work would create a set of laws, codes, and regulations specific to the sex industry. People who buy or sell sex outside of these rules would be breaking the law and subject to arrest, conviction, and punishment…
’Legalization’ doesn’t solve the problem…
This policy, which describes Nevada’s law, represents a...partial approach of “legalization” is akin to arresting your hairdresser neighbor who styles your hair in your home instead of her salon, or allowing alcohol consumption in bars but criminalizing it in your kitchen.”
Read more about legalization at DecriminalizeSex.Work
…or the “Equality” aka “End Demand /Swedish” model
Read more about the “Equality Model” at DecriminalizeSex.Work
Under systems like the Equality Model, we see a desire to end the demand for sex work, yet no systems are in place to replace the income we need to live.
Instead, we see more arrests of young men of color under the guise of “fighting trafficking.” While actual victims can only access resources via the trauma of arrest. Often they face deportation or jail time instead of adequate care. Those of us who chose this work as the best and most sustainable option to support ourselves and our families’ livelihoods are not considered, and we are told that we cannot possibly know our own path to self determination.
The most marginalized of us are left behind and considered even more disposable by the state.
SWOP BK’s Statement Against the Equality (or End Demand) Model
These models lead to scarcity and isolation in our community, which means we have less access to safety and agency. There are over 20 years of data collected by sex workers and organizations from all over the world that prove this model actually leads to increased violence against sex workers and trafficking survivors:
20 year report on why the End Demand/ “Equality” model harms sex workers and abuse victims
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What we want…
The full decriminalization of sex work!
This means that consenting adults who buy or sell sexual services will not be committing a crime and thus removing much of the power from police to surveil and harass marginalized people.
“the decriminalization of consensual sex work, including those laws that prohibit associated activities — such as bans on buying, solicitation and general organization of sex work. This is based on evidence that these laws often make sex workers less safe and provide impunity for abusers with sex workers often too scared of being penalized to report crime to the police.”
Decriminalization campaigns are happening all over the country,
And all over the world
Sex work is a…
LGBTQ+
Police violence and institutional racism
Disability rights
Financial and banking discrimination
Immigration and labor rights
Shadow-banning and social media discrimination
Youth welfare
Censorship and free speech
HIV and health
Sex education
…Issue
Our shared survival depends on our collective power and support.
What is SESTA / FOSTA?
What are the impacts of this legislation?
Why banking discrimination is a huge deal
What can you do?
Sign the open letter against MasterCard to end banking discrimination.
Don’t trust city and state campaigns to regulate sex work or shift criminalization onto the buyers and third parties.
Support the abolition of the Vice squad and the abolishment of police and prisons. Include sex workers in your conversations about police brutality.
Fund sex worker projects! Especially those led by BIPOC and trans folx like these:
Black Trans Nation
GLITS Inc
Red Canary Song
Hacking/Hustling
SWOP Bronx
BIPOC Adult Industry Collective
Black Hustlers Mutual Aid
In many ways, integrating sex workers rights into the many movements for human rights is simple; however, due to stigma, shame, and internalized whorephobia in communities of color, the LGBTQ+ community, migrant rights, movements for indigenous women & 2-spirit safety, disability rights, and labor rights movements - we are often overlooked, or avoided in the conversation.
We are a part of all of these communities, though, and sex worker’s rights and liberation is integral to all of our rights and liberation - and recognizing the prevalence of sex work in marginalized communities can help us uplift those who may be in the industry circumstantially, or who are experiencing sex trafficking, to find avenues of support and autonomy in their lives.