The Sex Workers Outreach Project (SWOP-USA) also hosted an institute, “Justice and Change: A Sex Worker Institute,” focused on the building blocks of social justice organizing: facilitation, organizing across differences and confronting privilege, political advocacy, decriminalization and decarceration, and coalition building.
ESPU Press Release
Presidential candidates clarify your position! espu-press-release-June-27-2019
Meet The Face Behind PA Workers Survivors
Updated 7/8/2019 HELLO! Thank you for your interest in my discussions on survival sex, sex work and sex trafficking. This post contains strong content not appropriate for all environments.
Whores Day Weekend NYC
NYC #IWD2019 TWO EVENTS Fri 5/31 FRIDAY PM @mehanata #mehanatabulgarianbar SUNDAY DAY Lorimer and Diggs #McCarrenPark is a public park in Brooklyn, New York City. It is located in both Williamsburg, Brooklyn and Greenpoint, Brooklyn and is bordered by Nassau Avenue, Bayard Street, Lorimer Street and North 12th Street. #decrimnow #makeallwomensafe #strongertogether #sexworkersagainstsextrafficking #sexworker #sexworkers … Continue reading Whores Day Weekend NYC
NEW: Pennsylvania Project
Torturing Sex Workers, with Melanie Dante: Ken’s guest is Melanie Dante, a self-identified active consensual adult sex worker, discussing various issues surrounding the sex trades, badly needed decriminalization, and holes in the law that create “viminals”, i.e., making criminals out of victims of sexual abuse.
Support: Amending PA SB 337 To Protect Sex Workers
Support: Amending PA SB 337 To Protect Sex Workers & Survivors
Support: The ESPLER Project CALI
ESPLERP Update for April 2019
OPPOSE FL 540: FL Senate Considers Creating Prostitution Registry
WE OPPOSE FL 540: Senate Considers Creating Prostitution Registry: Florida Senate Bill 540 with the Orwellian title “Human Trafficking” would create a registry for people found guilty of the loosely defined crime of “soliciting, inducing, enticing, or procuring” another to commit “prostitution, lewdness, or assignation.” #sexworkersagainsttrafficking
Sex Workers Are Human Resources
JAN 10 • Thank you so much for your fair and balanced coverage of the 15th Annual IDTEVASW. Since 2012 SWOP and SAFE have strived to stand up and speak out in Philly on issues specific to stigma and gratuitous violence against sex workers. Folks are always amazed at how hard and painful this event is to do, yet in the end how truly blessed we are to be able to come together to do it. Many households in most areas of Greater Philadelphia, if not all of PA, are touched somehow by this issue. Talking about sex work and prostitution is hard. Living in shame and silence is harder. D/17 is not fun, though it is full of love. Truly. We are here because we have been there, and we care. Our voice is their voice. Thank you for covering the memorial. Words cannot even express the gratitude I feel right now. Philly is proving we got LOVE!
Support Safety: Oppose SB 1204
Support Safety: Oppose Bill SB 1204 that criminalizes sex workers associating with each other or with supporters for safety, information and support.
Why Sex Workers are Fighting the Anti-Sex Trafficking Bill
Guest post by collaborators: M. Dante, Lola Li, and Heather Berg. On March 12th, the Senate votes on SESTA, the Stop Enabling Sex Trafficking Act. SESTA would criminalize the online advertising, information sharing, and support networks that sex workers use to do their jobs safely. Readers can support the #LetUsSurvive campaign by calling their Senators. WE ARE: #SurvivorsAgainstSESTA
3/12 EMPOWER Collective Visiting Philadelphia
3/12/2018: EMPOWER Thailand in Philly: MORNING - U Penn event Mon March 12 from 8-9am sponsored by the Nursing school, with co-sponsorship from School of Social Policy and Practice thanks to Dorothy Roberts and TJ Ghose. EVENING - Crossroads Women's Center Mon March 12 at 6pm
Stop SESTA/FOSTA
Hybrid FOSTA/SESTA Hinders Law Enforcement, Hurts Victims and Speakers | Center for Democracy & Technology
2018 Women’s March Rhode Island Includes Sex Workers
2018Women March Rhode Island Includes Sex Workers. COYOTE had a 60 people sign up for our email list, and over 100 people stopped at our table. Bella shared that, "We had strippers from Westerly, and we had students from 3 universities and several communities members asking how they can volunteer with Coyote RI. Most importantly we got to educate our community and explain how Uncle Sam is the biggest pimp in the USA."
Re/Visiting The Invisible John Interview About Jane
The Invisible John Interview About Jane
ORIGINAL POST ON SWOP PHL SEPTEMBER 30, 2015 Journalists ask the darndest questions then don’t publish the answers sex workers give them or purposely don’t share all viewpoints if the views don’t fit in with the desired angle of an expose. So – we’ve decided to publish an unpublished and unquoted requested dialog by a journalist who interviewed SWOP Philly’s M. Dante.
Hit & Run: Homeland Security Raid Eros
"That [Homeland Security raid] is going to expose a whole bunch of innocent people," Maxine Doogan, president of the Erotic Service Providers Legal, Education, and Research Project told Raleigh-Durham's ABC 11. "There's a big question about how the government will honor people's privacy. People have the right to their privacy and they should not be convicted or set up for moral judgment for adult activity."
E v G 9 Covered On Fox News
The legal challenge was brought by three ex-prostitutes, a would-be client, and ESPLER (Erotic Service Providers Legal, Educational and Research Project). They received good news Thursday after the 9th Circuit judges hinted that some scrutiny of the law was needed. “Why should it be illegal to sell something that it’s legal to give away?” asked, as the Chronicle reported.
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White rejected the challenge last year, saying the 2003 Supreme Court ruling was concerning intimate personal relationship and did not apply to commercial sex, adding that California justified the law against prostitution as a deterrence to violence against women, sexually transmitted diseases and human trafficking, according to the Chronicle.
M Dante: I Support ESPLERP v Gascon
M. Dante explains why she supports ESPLERP v Gascon.
E v G In The 9th Circuit
After nearly 30 months working through the US Federal Court system, we finally get to stand up before a panel of judges and argue that California Penal Code 647(b) unfairly deprives consenting adults of the right to private activity, criminalizes the discussion of such activity, and unconstitutionally places prohibitions on our rights to freely associate.
Oral Arguments Set Before US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Constitutional Challenge to California’s Prostitution Law
Date for Oral Arguments Set Before the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Constitutional Challenge to California’s Prostitution Law. Sex workers argue prostitution laws infringe on adults’ constitutional right to private consensual activity. Contact: Maxine Doogan 415-265-3302, info@esplerp.org
AK Ordinance 84
Stop Prosecuting Prostitutes For Reporting Violent Crimes
Open Democracy: On Why Sex Workers Should Be Involved In Anti-Trafficking Efforts
Wendelijn Vollbehr is a sociology graduate of the VU University of Amsterdam. For her masterthesis she conducted qualitative research on sex worker-led organizations in collaboration with the Red Umbrella Fund. Her research interests are human rights, especially minority rights, marginalization and empowerment.
SWOP Behind Bars | Community for Incarcerated Sex Workers
“At SWOP Behind Bars (SBB), along with COYOTEri and ESPU-Philly, we know these are not easy situations to understand and to determine the right and wrong of — “, offers M. Dante, who believes: “Protecting our youth from punitive abuse is as essential as protecting them from predators.”
SWOP Behind Bars Will Be At “Beyond The Walls”
Through panels, presentations, and interactive workshops, the Summit explores innovative approaches to the health and reentry challenges facing our communities, brings relevant policy issues to the forefront, and provides attendees with the opportunity to become involved in local and national advocacy work. With a focus on community led responses to the crisis in the criminal justice system, workshops reflect the needs of prisoners and former prisoners and will highlight the work being done to improve conditions inside the prison walls and in the communities to which prisoners are returning.
Registration Required for 6/28/2017
The ESPLER Project Summer Happenings
Status of ESPLERP v Gascon: ORAL ARGUMENTS scheduled for OCTOBER in CALI FEDERAL COURT We would not be this far along without you! Date TBD. Administration:We are registered with the California State Attorney General’s Charitable Registry. Ironic, I know! Folsom Street:We are honored to be selected as a supporting beneficiary by Folsom Street Events for 2017. We … Continue reading The ESPLER Project Summer Happenings
