Star Light Ministries

I believe in sex workers rights. I believe that the people in sex work should have protection under the law. I believe that sex workers should be free of stigma. I believe that sex workers should have freedom from violence, aggression, coercion, all forms of economic slavery, and from the fear of losing their children in the courts.

That’s a given.

But how do sex workers get those rights?

Although Prop K didn’t pass in San Francisco, there were a lot of gains there. 42% of voters voted for the decriminalization of sex work. That’s huge.

But more needs to be done. And in order for concerted efforts to take hold, the sex worker community needs to pull together. Ren has written a great post on the sex worker caste system. Lessons from the civil rights movement tell us that this can be overcome, but we have to invite everyone to the table to discuss their needs and wants out of the sex workers rights movement.

Here’s my easy (ha!) list of things that need to be done in order to achieve full rights for sex workers:

Money is power. Sex workers have to gain financial viability. This means paying taxes. Having bank accounts. Financial viability means making financial contributions to candidates that support your work. Financial viability means spending power for the community. In the civil rights movement, African-Americans had banks, businesses, and they used that economic power to influence the political powers-that-be.

Build community. Sure, community is hard. Frustrating. Messy. There are personalities that clash. There are people who do not do their fair share of the work. There are people who want to distance themselves from the cause. But in order to have community, you have to give people permission to be different. If a sex worker doesn’t want to march, then find something that s/he will do. Work with one another. There are four stages of community, and you will go through all of these, collectively and alone: pseudo-community (where everyone is nice, and mostly honest), chaos (this is characterized by lots of fighting, people talking about rules, frustration and anger), emptiness (in this stage, people give up their ideas of what SHOULD happen, and let go of their own agendas), and, finally, community. True community is characterized by a willingness to see others as equal to yourself, sharing, letting people be themselves, and cooperation.

Court your elders. There must be a way for people who have left sex work to remain in the movement. There must be hundreds of thousands of people who have left sex work who are still concerned for the movement, even though they want to protect their anonymity. Find these people! Invite them to participate, even privately, through donations, support groups, mentoring.

Ask for help. One of the major issues I see in the movement is that sex workers are having to re-create the wheel. There are proven ways of building community, of organizing. Find an expert will to help organize sex workers. Yep. You’ll probably have to pay the person. But use their expertise. For example, if you run a sex worker organization and your Board is falling apart, call a non-profit specialist on your particular issue and have them come in to work with your Board. The reality is that these particular issues are not sex worker related. They are organization related. And all organizations have them!

Trust your allies. I have long wanted to be an ally in the sex workers rights movement. However, I constantly butt up against the distrust that sex workers have of me. I understand the distrust. People have used and manipulated sex workers. But sex workers must quit assuming that everyone is out to get something from you, and begin to build trust with individuals on a case-by-case situation. And instead of assuming that allies are bad when we mess up (because we will mess up), explain it. Communicate it. Give a second chance. And even a third.

Mind your boundaries. Remember that you can only do what you can do. Only sign up for what you can do. I always tell people in my work that if no one steps forward to do a task, maybe that task is not important. Allow your partners in the movement to mind their boundaries, too. You might think about how many hours you are willing to put into the fight. You might think about how much money you’re willing to spend. You especially need to think about how much emotional capital you want to put into the fight.

Sex workers deserve human rights. Always keep this goal in front of you, so that you have the stamina to sustain the movement.