LOS ANGELES—Calling attention to bias and discrimination against sex workers, marches for International Whores' Day will be held on Saturday, June 2, in Los Angeles, New York, D.C., Chicago, San Francisco, Austin, and Las Vegas.
Along with Gizelle Marie, Kristen Diangelo, Maria Louise Roman, Tara Coccinelle and others, Wicked Pictures contract performer and activist Jessica Drake will speak at the Los Angeles "Let Us Survive" Rally at 3:30 p.m., in front of Boardner’s,1652 N. Cherokee Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90028.
“Sex workers have waited far too long for this moment, but time is officially up for the violence the United States Government has brought to our workplace," declared Siouxsie Q, writer, performer, APAC Secretary and event coordinator of the march. "The current administration has signed into law a piece of legislation that has taken away the most important tool our community had for survival in this country. We can stay silent no longer. Sex workers everywhere, allies, advocates and anyone who has ever enjoyed or profited from our industry: we need you to show up on June 2, and most importantly after June 5 and every election moving forward. Sex workers vote. We deserve better than the folks who are currently in office.”
“This issue is very personal to me and so many others who depend on sex work to survive,” Drake said. “I am thankful to Antonia Crane, Siouxsie Q, Ian O’Brien, Bella Bathory, Mia Little, Riley Reyes, Lotus Lain, and all the organizers of the International Whores' Day March for raising awareness about the dire issues facing sex workers—most recently, SESTA/FOSTA. This is the perfect time for allies to show up and lend their support. Sex work is work, and sex workers' rights cannot be denied.”
On that same day, the Erotic Service Providers Legal Education and Research Project (ESPLERP) will be protesting at Clusterfest.com in San Francisco, to let the audiences of comedians like Amy Schumer know that sex workers are not just cheap punchlines!
As anyone who's familiar with comedy since the days of Lenny Bruce, Mort Sahl, Sid Caesar and even Bob Hope knows, sex is one of the mainstays of comedy—but Amy Schumer, like many other comedians, often uses sex workers as punchlines. For example, she recently had a skit on her show where she joked about burying a dead stripper after partying with her co-workers—in other words, using violence against women to make the point that women do more work than men and get paid less. She is also a prominent supporter of the recently enacted Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA), which forced many internet platforms used by sex workers to close and/or self-censor, so that sex workers who advertised online through those sites lost their ability to screen clients—in fact, lost their online community altogether, and in some cases were forced back onto the streets. Sex workers will die because of FOSTA, so as far as ESPLERP is concerned, Amy Schumer has blood on her hands.
Among the organizations marching with ESPLERP are SWOP Bay (SF Bay Area chapter of Sex Workers Outreach Project), and the US PROStitutes Collective.
The San Francisco march will take place between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. on June 2, in front of the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, 99 Grove Street, San Francisco, CA 94102.
The Erotic Service Providers Legal Education and Research Project (ESPLERP) is a diverse community-based coalition advancing sexual privacy rights through litigation, education, and research. Contributions to support their court case to legalize prostitution in California can be made here.
The marches will bring together sex workers, sex worker rights advocates, civil rights advocates, freedom of speech advocates, members of the ACLU, the Adult Performer Advocacy Committee, Sex Workers Outreach Project, Free Speech Coalition and many others in an effort to combat bias, discrimination and hate toward sex workers and others who face discrimination.
Sex workers can be adult film stars, dominatrices, strippers, escorts, madams, exotic dancers, webcam models, phone sex operators, and many other workers who engage in consensual sex work.
For more information about the march in Los Angeles and other cities, click here.
The march comes in support of International Whores' Day, which commemorates the occupation of Église Saint-Nizier in Lyon, France by more than 100 sex workers on June 2, 1975 in protest of their inhumane working conditions. Today, the day is recognized in marches around the world to call attention to sex workers who face violence, discrimination, harassment, abuse, assault, detainment without due process and basic civil rights violations on a regular basis.
Sex workers are often denied housing, medical insurance, credit, even the ability to open a bank account because of the source of their livelihood. Sex workers are also often at risk of losing their children in custody battles due to the nature of their profession. Legislation is often passed under the guise of “protecting sex workers and stopping human trafficking” yet in practice, those laws can put an already marginalized population at further risk.
To learn more about the International Whores' Day March, click here.
Members of the media, along with all allies of sex workers are invited to attend the Los Angeles event, and possibly other marches as well. Some event organizers and participants may be available for interview. Send requests to [email protected].
