by Robyn Few

Sex workers exist everywhere, in all societies and in all cultures; we are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and straight. We come to sex work for a variety of reasons from economic necessity to curiosity. Sex workers come from varying socio-economic experiences and our educational experience can be marginal to advanced. Some have ‘straight jobs’, and only occasionally exchange sex for money, housing or other considerations. Still others consider sex work our trade. Sex work itself can be legal, quasi-legal or illegal, as in prostitution, which is either regulated or controlled by some governments or completely prohibited by others. Regardless of where sex workers practice our trade, our work is always a stigmatized occupation.

Past efforts to organize sex industry workers in the United States have been incrementally successful. In the 1970’s, a loosely knit “union” in San Francisco, consisting of dancers, prostitutes, lesbians and their friends, known as Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics (COYOTE) was formed by Margo St. James. It was the first organization to speak out about the rights of workers, organizing nationally with other peer based rights groups. Collectively, their efforts led to sweeping reforms in the court of public opinion and the US courts. For the first time, the criminal justice system began to address its own institutional discrimination, overturning laws that rendered only “women” guilty of solicitation, such as a Michigan municipal code and an Alaskan state statue, both of which were overturned on appeal. In the late 1970’s, San Francisco’s own Judge Olie Marie-Victoire threw out the cases of some 300 suspected prostitutes when the police could not answer her query as to why it was that only women who were being arrested. Though legal challenges were overturned, the enforcement of prostitution cases in the US remains both discriminatory on gender lines, and racially biased.

By the 1980’s, sex workers were organizing international conferences on human rights. At the first two World Whores Conferences, (WWC) many women participants wore masks or bags over their heads fearing official reprisal from their own countries. While a foundation for human rights for sex industry workers was formed at the second WWC held at the European Parliament in Brussels, for the most part, their efforts were overshadowed by panic, as it was also the dawn of the AIDS pandemic. Efforts to continue to promote women’s empowerment were crimped as legislators worldwide began to chip away at individual freedoms in response to the health crisis. AIDS organizing and a coalition between the gay community and sex industry workers helped to call attention to injustice in the delivery of health care services. Through these efforts sex industry workers again were able to organize legitimately in their own interests. CAL-PEP, or California Prostitutes Education Project was such an organization that was one of the first peer based health outreach organizations focused solely on HIV prevention in the sex industry.

In the 1990’s, COYOTE laid the foundation for the formation of the Exotic Dancers Alliance (EDA) in San Francisco, which, with SEIU’s help, actually did unionize strippers in the Lusty Lady campaign. COYOTE and EDA then worked to create an occupational health and safety clinic run by and for sex industry workers, now known as the St. James Infirmary in San Francisco. Research at the St. James Infirmary has shown that the prevalence of STI’s and HIV among sex industry workers is lower than the general population -- and why shouldn’t it be, sex industry workers after-all, use their bodies for their work.

The sex workers rights movement is both young and marginalized, though increasingly, coming into the main stream. Different segments of the sex work community have legitimacy, such as actors in porn, or strippers, or even some masseuses and masseurs. But by and large, sex industry workers tend to be migratory, stigmatized and it is the stigma of the work itself that becomes a precursor for economic exploitation. An exploited worker has to pay off the police, her pimp or even consent to an undesirable act by a john for fear of arrest.

By their own admission, the police are arresting suspected prostitutes whose “reviews” are posted daily by clients on the internet page, www.sfredbook.com. To date, I know of no client who has been similarly “stung” by police efforts.

The prohibition on prostitution has created a de-facto, criminal class of women. And once convicted, job opportunities miraculously, dry up. In the United States, sex between consenting adults is legal. Where sex is illegal it involves coercion, force or minors.

There is only one thing that renders sex between consenting adults (read prostitution) illegal; the money. Sex FOR FREE between consenting adults is perfectly legal everywhere in the US.

The law continues to discriminate: Recent undocumented workers swept up in a federal bust of San Francisco massage parlors are confronting deportation. Should they choose to stay, they must submit to being informants to gain a modicum of freedom in the US. And enforcement of “trafficking” laws remains discriminatory. Indeed, when we speak of men coming to America for economic opportunity we call them “migrants”. When we speak of women, they are always infantalized, and referred to as “trafficked.”

Sex industry workers, who would never entertain the notion of being a victim, acknowledge the reality of victimization at the hands of the government. Clients and profiteers benefit from the marginal, stigmatized or illegal nature of sex work by enabling them to use the threat of state intervention to prevent workers from accessing or exercising our rights.

Ironically, it wasn’t until I was arrested by the federal government for “Conspiracy to Promote an Act of Prostitution,” that I began to organize for the rights of sex industry workers.

In my campaign I have seen a groundswell of support from the community. Sex industry workers want to speak on their own behalf and organize and advocate for their own rights. Remarkably, criminalized women, men and transgenders are coming forward, speaking out, and are beginning to put a face on this issue.

It is inaccurate and irresponsible to speak about the sex worker community as cohesive with one, two or three specific needs. Each aspect of the industry is made up of individuals who come to the sex industry for a wide range of reasons. Yet, as with any industry, sex workers in our diversity share a variety of concerns, interests and challenges.

However, if there is one cohesive thread, it is that we should no longer be regarded as criminals. And the vast majority of our clients, professionals in law, medicine and career politicians, agree, saying one thing to us in private, while conveying an entirely different message to you, the public.

Decriminalize me. Decriminalize my community and bring an end to the darkness and dangers that only an underground economy can reap. Heretofore, the only thing that this prohibition has given rise to is violence and death to the despised, dispossessed, disinherited, degraded and deplorable souls who boldly chose to have sex for money.

Yet, we are yours. We are a part of your rich history. We buy your wares, we share your same community, our children attend the same schools. We vote. We are on the front lines, getting arrested every day. We are your mothers, daughters, sisters, brothers, neighbors and friends. We are your community. Together we feel the collective triumphs, defeats and heartbreak of our nation. We just tend to feel it more, because, wink-wink, we remain invisible.