Sex Workers’ Rights and Anti-Racist Organizing
In this blog post, you’ll find information about local groups and campaigns to support as well as resources to learn more about sex work and its various intersections and how to support incarcerated sex workers.
CW: discussion of anti-Black racism and state violence against sex workers
image description: photo of a large white sign that reads, “Love respect protect and pay black sex workers” in black all upper case lettering. Behind the lettering, there is an image of a pink heart.
Sex Work and Mutual Aid
“At its core, mutual aid is about challenging the oppressive capitalist structures and social relations we live under in order to build community care and survive. State violence and abandonment of sex workers from social safety nets, police brutality, state and corporate surveillance, nation borders, mass incarceration, and rampant whorephobia are just some ways that criminalization work to cut off sex workers and their loved ones from vital resources, pushing them to engage in mutual aid. Sex worker autonomous self-reliance and solidarity have long fueled radical community building and care networks independent from carceral institutions. . . . we can thank sex workers- specifically Black and brown queer and trans sex workers- for much of what we know about mutual aid” International Whores’ Day Zine 2020
Local Groups + Campaigns
image description: White text on a black background reads, “Strike while the iron is hot,” in upper case lettering. In the middle, there is an image of a lace up platform high heel shoe and a red rose. At the bottom of the image is white text boosting the social media account, “@PDXStripperStrike”
Portland based sex workers are fighting for fair working conditions for Black sex workers and sex workers of color.
Demands: Portland based sex workers are calling for a #PDXStripperStrike until clubs (1) agree to invest in ongoing accredited cultural sensitivity training for all staff, management, and owners, (2) make a public post in solidarity with the strikers for accountability around working towards these goals (3) participate in listening sessions with Black swers and swers of color.
Update: The Stripper Strike is active in 21 states!
Nationally- Haymarket Pole Collective website
Haymarket Pole Collective mission statement: “Advocating proactive policy and equitable treatment for Black and Indigenous workers by facilitating restorative justice in the adult entertainment industry. ”
Support by donating- through YWCA, the campaign’s fiscal sponsor. All donations are tax deductible.
Support by buying merch-
Read more:
Follow @pdxstripperstrike, @_pxssycontrol__ , and @stripperstrikeusa on Instagram for more info.
image description: Dark purple text over a very light purple background reads, “TJP”. On the next line, in smaller font, it reads, “The Jezebel Project” in all upper case lettering.
“Providing a voice and platform for the lived experiences of Portland's Black sworkers and entertainers.”
If you want to learn more about discrimination in the dance industry, listen to this discussion between Charlisa Harris and Brianna Cistrunk, the founder of The Jezebel Project https://audioboom.com/posts/7586471-exotic-discrimination
Follow @the.jezebel.project on Instagram
If you are a Portland Based Sex Worker in need of support, you can apply to this mutual aid fund here!
The Portland Sex Worker Relief Fund aims to distribute relief to Sex Workers in the Portland metro area who are most marginalized by systemic oppression in the industry and most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more here
Come to bat for SWers! Donate to the Portland Sex Worker Relief Fund
Cashapp: $PDXWorkerRelief
Venmo: @PDXWorkerRelief
PayPal: PDXWorkerAid@protonmail.com
GoFundMe: http://gf.me/u/xt6x5k
image description: Over a light pink background there is the image of a platform high heel shoe, outlined in red, and an open red purse with condoms peeking out. On the high heel, there is text that reads, “PDX Sex Workers,” in all capital lettering, and on the purse, there is text that reads, “Relief Fund",” in all capital lettering.
You can also follow them on Instagram for updates and resources!IG: @pdxswrelief
They "use an equity adjusted and harm reduction based model to direct funds in a way that is compassionate, anti-elitist, and conscience of the barriers faced by folks with intersecting identities when accessing aid"
Si necesita información en Español, envíenos un email a PDXworkeraid@protonmail.com
You can also check out, Stroll, a harm reduction, education, and outreach program by and for sex workers.
Interested in helping out? Look through their wishlist. Please filter from priority: highest to lowest.There are multiple options at different prices here. Treats are ALWAYS a bright spot, so don't think that sweets, candy, or snack food is frivolous. They can be a real pick-me-up on a hard day. Clean clothes, underwear, socks, etc are always needed.
You can also submit to the next issue of Working It: On White Supremacy.
“How do we survive in a system we're more or less not supposed to survive in? How do we navigate it? How can we thrive?
Share what keeps you going,
share what keeps you sane,
share your tips and your tricks and your treats that help you pull through,
the art that keeps you alive,
the community that keeps your heart full and your life meaningful.
and if you understand the legal system, share any thing about navigating that!
Where do you look for support in times of trouble?
How do you take care of yourself?
And art, and art, as always!
Regular columns:
Tales from the Shift
Go to Health
Worst/Best Tips
Client Hall of Shame
Sex worker friendly health/housing/&school resources
and any bad clients or predators you've run into for the Ugly Mugs and Bad Dateline”
Submit to Workingitinportland@gmail.com
For more info on getting involved, whether you are a sex worker or “an accomplice,” check out this link
Decrim Oregon is a coalition of individuals and organizations who understand that sex work is work, simply economic survival under capitalism. Get involved in our project to decriminalize sex work completely in the state of Oregon, USA, and the world.
Platform- Decriminalize. Decarcerate. Destigmatize.
How to get involved
image 1 description on the left: On a white background, there is the image of a fist with red nails outlined in red surrounded by a red circle.
image 2 description on the right: On a background of red roses, there is a large white circle. Within the circle, there is red text that reads, “Decrim OR” in all upper case lettering. In the middle of the white circle is an image of an umbrella, but instead of a normal canopy there is an upside down red rose.
Read Up On. . .
Check Out Stroll’s Required Reading List
Revolting Prostitutes: The Fight for Sex Workers' Rights, by Juno Mac and Molly Smith. Link
Alice: Memoirs of a Barbary Coast Prostitute, by Ivy Anderson, Devon Angus. Link
Responding to Human Trafficking: Dispossession, Colonial Violence, and Resistance Among Indigenous and Racialized Women, by Julie Kaye. Link
Times Square Red, Times Square Blue, by Samuel R. Delany. Link
Without a Net: The Female Experience of Growing Up Working Class, by Michelle Tea et al. Link
Sex at the Margins, by Laura María Agustín. Link
A Taste for Brown Sugar: Black Women in Pornography, by Mireille Miller-Young. Link
Sun, Sex, and Gold: Tourism and Sex Work in the Caribbean, by Kamala Kempadoo (Editor) Link
The Comforts of Home: Prostitution in Colonial Nairobi, by Luise White. Link
Threadbare: Clothes, Sex, and Trafficking, by Anne Elizabeth Moore. Link
Entry Denied: Controlling Sexuality At The Border, by Eithne Luibhéid. Link
Policing Sexuality: The Mann ACT and the Making of the FBI, by Jessica R Pliley. Link
Sex Work and Sex Workers, by Barry M Dank and Roberto Refinetti. Link
Melody: Story of a Nude Dancer, by Sylvie Rancourt. Link
Fishnet, by Kirstin Innes. Link
Sex Slaves and Discourse Masters: The Construction of Trafficking, by Jo Doezema. Link
Sex Trafficking, Scandal, and the Transformation of Journalism, 1885-1917, by Gretchen Soderlund. Link
My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness, by Kabi Nagata. Link
Rent Girl, by Michelle Tea, Laurenn McCubbin. Link
Naked in the Promised Land: A Memoir, by Lillian Faderman. Link
Sex Work Matters: Exploring Money, Power, and Intimacy in the Sex Industry, by Melissa Hope Ditmore et al. Link
Redefining Rape: Sexual Violence in the Era of Suffrage and Segregation, by Estelle B. Freedman. Link
Illicit Flirtations: Labor, Migration, and Sex Trafficking in Tokyo, by Rhacel Salazar Parreñas, Rhacel Salazar Parreñas. Link
Live Sex Acts: Women Performing Erotic Labor, by Wendy Chapkis. Link
Global Sex Workers: Rights, Resistance, and Redefinition, by Kamala Kempadoo and Jo Doezema. Link
image description from right to left. image 1: Book cover of “Policing Sexuality: The Mann ACT and the Making of the FBI,” by Jessica R Pliley. Black background with a large badge that reads, “White slave officer US Department of Justice”. image 2: Book cover of “Sex at the Margins”, by Laura María Agustín. An aerial shot of a two people walking through a crosswalk. They are wearing business casual clothing. image 3: Book cover of Alice: Memoirs of a Barbary Coast Prostitute, by Ivy Anderson, Devon Angus. An old black and white photo, zoomed in on a person’s face, cutting off all but the bottom right quarter of their face. image 4: Book cover of “Revolting Prostitutes: The Fight for Sex Workers' Rights,” by Juno Mac and Molly Smith. A pink background with the image of a person holding a sign with the book’s title. It is drawn to resemble a neon sign.
Support Incarcerated Sex Workers
Get involved with SWOP Behind Bars
As an ally: Donate, volunteer for SBB, support the National Sex Worker Bail Fund, be a penpal, host a letter writing party, invite SBB to speak, educate yourself about SW rights, distribute know your rights info, donate used books, start your own used book drive, start your own outreach project.
As a currently or formerly incarcerated person: Become an SBB member while incarcerated, receive newsletters behind bars, request help with bail, request advocacy/legal help, get your voice heard by the media, access harm reduction resources
Learn more:
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“We want to amplify the ongoing struggles within these (often intersecting) communities for self-determination, respect, and liberation and rally around those who also face oppression as people engaged in any aspect of sex work/trade. All (sex) workers deserve dignity, respect, and should be able to work in safe conditions free from harassment, in conditions that they determine. Like all workers, we also deserve the right to work together collectively and to form workers’ organizations and unions.We deserve for our labor to be seen as labor. Sex work is work, but today goes even beyond labor to demand we can not only survive, but thrive. Sex workers are resilient as fuck, but goddamn, we shouldn’t have to be” - International Whores’ Day Zine 2020