We stand in solidarity with sex workers on Sex Worker Pride.
This Sex Worker Pride, we want to remind everyone that the Museum of Homelessness stands in solidarity with all sex workers.
Photocredit: Mina Karenina, SWU
Sex Worker Pride was started by the Global Network of Sex Worker Projects (NSWP) in 2019 and is an opportunity to celebrate and share stories of sex workers’ self-determination and the achievements of the sex worker rights movement.
For us, sex worker rights and homelessness are interconnected. Criminalisation and stigmatisation of the sex industry forces many workers into unstable living situations. Sex workers often face housing discrimination, eviction, and difficulty securing stable housing options due to the precariousness of their work and the negative societal perception of what they do.
The correlation between homelessness and sex work is further exacerbated by the lack of legal protection and social support for sex workers. Recently, we've seen firsthand how the forced closure of workplaces and the forced closure of bank accounts used by sex workers have left some members of the community at risk of homelessness.
Photocredit: Mina Karenina, SWU
One of the rallying cries of the sex worker rights movement is ‘rights, not rescue.’ Despite their voices often being side-lined in debates about the sex industry, sex workers have refused to be positioned as a single group in need of ‘saving.’
Under the red umbrella symbol of sex worker rights, they have built a worldwide movement showing that sex worker vulnerability is a result of socio-economic and legal marginalisations intensified by state-sanctioned stigma and differentiated by gender, sexuality, race/ethnicity and migration status in particular.
Ensuring sex workers' rights and providing adequate support systems are crucial to addressing the issue of homelessness within the sex worker community, and there are some incredible Sex Worker led organisations that are fighting back to change this:
DONATE - SWARM: Is a collective founded and led by sex workers who believe in self-determination, solidarity, and cooperation - www.swarmcollective.org/donate
SIGN - HOOKERS AGAINST HARDSHIP: Protect sex workers from harm: stop criminalising us for trying to make a living - www.change.org/p/protect-sex-workers-from-harm-stop-criminalising-us-for-trying-to-make-a-living
SUPPORT - NUM is a UK-wide charity working with sex workers to do research, design and deliver safety tools, and to provide support services to people in adult industries - https://nationaluglymugs.org/
CONSULTATION - SWUNION: Help prevent the forced closure of venues, which would result in the unemployment of over 100 workers.