The Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn opens a special exhibition on the cultural history of sex work, based on a collaboration with sex worker researchers, based on the principle “Nothing About Us Without Us.” From the museum’s online announcement: “The exhibition highlights the creative and artistic role that sex workers also play. To tell a cultural history […]
Sex Workers Help Catch Serial Killer in Alaska
Sex workers in Anchorage were being targeted by a serial killer and the police did nothing. As Season 2 of the HBO docuseries “The Lost Women of Alaska” reveals, sex workers themselves discovered critical information leading to the killer’s identity: he showed one of them a video of him raping a black woman’s corpse, but […]
Sex Workers Fight for Control of Their Images
Workers in Nevada’s brothels and strip clubs used to operate in relative anonymity. But employers now encourage them to promote themselves through social media and Only Fans, since advertising brothels directly is illegal in Nevada. The brothel Sheri’s Ranch, outside Las Vegas, is now at the center of an effort to unionize sex workers. It […]
Sue Everyone but the Traffickers
A lawsuit recently filed against a San Francisco apartment building claims it was negligent in failing to stop a 17-year old resident from engaging in sex work. The suit claims that maintenance personnel should have notice the presence of condoms and drug paraphernalia in her unit and that doormen should have noticed her provocative attire […]
Colorado May Decriminalize Sex Work
A bill introduced by four legislators, all Democrats, three of whom are female, would completely decriminalize commercial sex and prohibit localities from banning it. Supporters say it will make sex workers safer by bringing them out of the shadows. Opponents, including minority Republicans, churches, and law enforcement, claim it will turn the state into a […]
Where Failure to Pay Is Rape
Under a new Australian law, having sex under the pretense of paying for it and then failing to pay is not merely theft, but may qualify as sexual assault. Harmeet Singh Saini was sentenced to six years in prison after failing to pay the $2200 that he owed to a Sydney sex worker and had […]
Sex Worker Support Organization Celebrates 30 Years of Growth
The Peers Victoria Resources Society, which serves over 2000 sex workers in Victoria, BC, has in its 30 years of existence grown to have over 50 employees and an annual budget of $3.5 million. As such, it stands as a model NGO in providing social services to a stigmatized sexual minority, providing safe sex supplies, […]
Meta Censors Sex Activism
Meta was criticized by sex worker activists in the UK for deleting the Instagram accounts of sex-worker led art collectives, including Sexquisite, Cybertease, and UK Sex Worker Pride. Advocates say these accounts, with over 52,000 followers, were fully compliant with Instagram’s rules, but were deleted without notice. This appears to be part of a larger […]
Montreal Museum Celebrates Sex Worker History
The exhibition “By and For: 30 Years of Sex Worker Resistance” not only celebrates the struggle for sex worker rights, but the intersectional coordinates of this movement with activism on behalf of other marginalized communities in Canada. The exhibit not only features old news clippings and photographs of marches and symposia, but also a large […]
French Right Wants to Re-open Brothels
Liberalized sex work proposals are often associated with the Left, but in France, it is the populist right-wing National Rally party that is pushing this reform, with support from former leader Marine LePen. The National Rally proposal is to make the brothels cooperatives run by the sex workers themselves: legislator Jean-Philippe Tanguy said, they “would […]