Cel ebr at ing PRIDE Int er sect ions Bet ween The GLBTQ & Sex Wor k Communit y

What is Pr ide, and why do Sex Wor ker s r ecognize it ?

Pride is a celebration and recognition of the and all those who have paved the way for LGBTQ equality. On June 28, 1969, after a police raid on the Stonewall Inn, an underground bar in City, the LGBTQ community and supporters rioted and fought back against legal and social repression of the community. The riot was led by sex workers, gender nonconforming individuals, low-income individuals, and people of color, people who were most affected by police actions against the GLBTQ community and who were brave enough to stand up and fight back. At the Sex Workers Outreach Project, we very much care about Pride celebrations. Pride is as much a day for sex workers as it is for the LGBTQ community. We very much remember and honor those who were willing to stand up and demand change against social repression and violence enacted by the state against LGBTQ communities, and also remember the instrumental role sex workers had in making happen. As sex workers continue to come forward and find in standing with SWOP and other -led organizations, we will continue to work with Pride organizers to rightfully stand in solidarity with other marginalized and disenfranchised communities who continue to demand recognition and a political voice. While many of us come from a wide variety of backgrounds and may not identify as LGBTQ, sex workers can and should proudly, loudly and wildly participate in the beauty and community celebration. that Pride activities mean for people around the country.

What are some issues impacting LGBTQ sex workers? Exposure Laws & Communicable Diseases: Across the country, people can receive up to 30 years in prison for ?exposing? sexual partners to HIV. At least thirty-two Survival Sex, Housing Instability & Youth: A (32) states and two (2) U.S. territories explicitly disproportionate number of LGBTQ youth engage in criminalize HIV exposure through sex, shared needles sex work as a means of survival. As youth come to or, in some states, and 14 States specifically criminalize terms with their sexual or , too many engaging in sex work if the individual knows he/she is families continue to throw youth out of their homes or HIV+. No exposure or transmission? You can still be create violent and unsafe living conditions that make charged--even if you use a , your viral load is running away the best option. Many housing shelters suppressed to the point where the possibility for transmission is virtually negligible, or you engage in a continue to discriminate against LGBTQ youth, often sex act, like oral sex, where risks of transmission are allowing and straight-identified peers to virtually negligible. For sex workers, no sex must even harass or enact violence against LGBTQ youth seeking occur. shelter. Many also impose strict policies that reinforce Fear, despite overwhelming research and evidence social gender roles based on one?s biological or from the scientific community indicating that these perceived sex. Without stable housing, survival sex laws cause more harm than good, perpetuates these work is a rational choice for many. laws. While most laws target HIV, many states have Poverty & Employment : As a socially laws that apply to all sexually transmitted infections disenfranchised community, many members of the and Illinois recently increased laws around Tuberculosis exposure. Given the health disparities LGBTQ community, particularly gender-nonconforming experienced by LGBTQ people and sex workers, these and people, experience rampant laws concern people of both communities. And as sex employment and social service discrimination, cutting workers are frequently subjected to mandatory HIV them off from access to resources and leaving many in testing during interactions with the criminal justice poverty. For many, the sex trade is an important source system and are more frequently in contact with the of income. For some it may be the only viable way to criminal justice system, sex workers often face meet economic needs, and for others it might be an disproportionate burdens for the criminalization of HIV. important source of supplemental income.

www.swopusa.org Sex Workers Outreach Project 1-877-776-2004 Trans people?s history is tied up with sex sex workers that they perpetuate to What many don?t realize is that the work due to the variety of economic and remain prevalent...Failure to recognize police brutality the trans community cultural factors that have often made the contribution of queer sex workers to faces is directly tied to other forms of sex work the most viable option for the queer community allows 'othering'. It discrimination we face. Some TWOC are trans survival. And it?s personal, too? my means that sex workers are repeatedly thrown out of their homes (even as own history as a and as a not recognized as part of queer children) and have to support sex worker are connected so closely that communities and that sex worker-led themselves by attempting to get a job. I cannot speak about one without the campaigns for decriminalization are not Discrimination against transgender other. So often trans people seeking the recognized as a queer issue. people in the workplace causes us to be supposed safety of respectability try to unemployed or underemployed, so we jettison our connections to prostitution, -Ryan Elizabeth Cole, Academic have to turn to sex work. As sex workers, and while I understand this strategy and The (cis- and trans-) misogyny and we get mistreated by clients and the the emotions behind it, I can see that sexism that endangers our lives and police. Police violence against sex this comes at the cost of rejecting sex violates our autonomy is part of the workers, and those presumed to be sex workers. And that rejection has profound same systemic that workers, goes unpunished and implications for our life chances, which policies and oppresses all of us! uninvestigated because sex workers are multiply exponentially for many trans seen as expendable by clients and sex workers of color. -Vanessa Soma, Founder, V. Soma Law worthy of destruction by the state. It?s a -Morgan Page, Activist A lot of people seem surprised when I vicious cycle that is worsened by the tell them that I do sex work. The idea constant threat of police violence Rather than ignore the centuries-long that, as trans men, we should be doing a towards anyone who is transgender or relationship between sex work and more stereotypically masculine job gender non-conforming. queer liberation, we should embrace it. contributes to the difficulty in being -Princess Harmony Rodriguez -Diane Anderson-Minshall, journalist able to talk openly about it. This is all the more reason why it?s important that I think it?s connected to many things. Sex and communities must the LGBT movement should be a work is a queer issue as much as any question whether they will continue to non-judgemental place for us to be other issue is. allow non-sex working gays, , open about the reality of our lives and -Ignacio Rivera, Queer artist, activist, filmmaker, and to be held up as experts on should support us in the struggles we lecturer and sex educator sex work and allow the misleading encounter. ideologies and representations of queer -Sam - Sex Worker Open University I've noticed some folks tend to equate the sex that sex workers have at work, or the version of our sexuality that we facts : sell, with our in real life sexuality. I.e. lesbian community - Homeless LGBTQ youth are 7 times more likely & members will sometimes say that a sex worker can trans youth are 8 times than heterosexual peers to not identify as a lesbian because she has sex with men at 1 work. That ain't cool. Some parts of the LGBT community trade sex for a place to stay. sometimes seems to fall into the trap of not viewing sexual - 39.6% of trans-sex workers reported biased treatment labor as LABOR just as much as heterosexual community by judges & court staff (vs. 15.5% of non-sex does, if not more so. workers).2 -Rachel Carlisle, SWOP-Denver Organizer - 35.3% of Trans sex workers were thrown out of a shelter (vs. 12.9% of non-sex workers).2 When I started the Lesbian AIDS Project [at ?s Health - 40.6% of black or black trans-sex workers were HIV+, Crisis], it had twelve clients. When I left it had 4,000, 2,000 of vs 7.0% of black non-trans sex workers (and 0.6% of whom were women...at least a third to a half of those white non-sex workers).2 women were sex workers, & at least three quarters of them were endlessly incarcerated. You could not divorce that - LGB young women are twice as likely/LGB young men lesbian identity? or trans identity? from sex work, HIV are ten times as likely to be in juvenile detention for infection, poverty, and incarceration. But those 2,000 lesbians prostitution charges than their heterosexual peers.3 were never visible anywhere in the political markers for - 95% of the 800 individuals charged with HIV exposure . Never. Their stories were never at the crimes in California between 1988 & 2014 were sex center; they were never invited. It was as if those markers of workers or individuals profiled as sex workers.4 queer identity and how it?s completely intertwined with sex work and difficult choices never existed. 1.) Surviving the Streets of New York, Streetwise and Safe, 2015 2.) Meaningful Work Report, NCTE, BPPP & Red Umbrella Project, 2015 -Amber Hollibaugh, writer, filmmaker and political activist, in Sex Work and Queer Politics in Three Acts 3.) Addressing the Invisibility of LGB & GNC Youths in the Juvenile Justice System, Angela Irvine, 2010 4.) HIV Criminalization in California, Williams Institute-UCLA LAW, 2015

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