All set to attend a decriminalization panel in Manhattan I was -- indirectly -- asked not to attend the event hosted by Best Practices Policy, New Jersey Red Umbrella Alliance, and Black Coalition of Sex Workers for the U.N. Commission on the Status Of Women. This is now the third year I have been banned from what is supposed to be an open forum. I believe the best thing to realize is that our goals as sex workers and sex trade survivors as have similar language and meaning though are not shared or inclusive to each other when we are from different cultures. The U.N. seems the place to being us together. Realistically - Perhaps we are not stronger together.
NACDL’s Webcast: HIV Criminalization Webinar
U=U is Undetectable = Untransmittable: M Dante sat in on the National Association Of Criminal Defense Attorneys (NACDL) Criminalization Webinar to see how this topic addresses and affects sex workers, and how the Positive Justice Project helps.
Bella Robinson on Sex Trafficking Inside the Trump Campaign
The gig is up. The government now admits that they don’t see any difference between trafficking victims and sex workers. They see both as criminals; women who refuse to conform. Poor women that refuse to live in poverty and become homeless. Mothers that struggle to pay their rent and feed their kids are all seen as criminals. Services should never have required anyone to prove that they were a victim. Services should be for all people who are living in poverty. However, the government invented the trafficking narrative so they wouldn’t have to provide any services for sex workers and they only had to pony up when it came to legal services for victims. - Bella Robinson
Support: RI HB 5354
H 5354 STATE OF RHODE ISLAND IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2019 HOUSE RESOLUTION CREATING A SPECIAL LEGISLATIVE COMMISSION TO STUDY THE HEALTH AND SAFETY IMPACT OF REVISING COMMERCIAL SEXUAL ACTIVITY LAWS
Philadelphia Free Press On: #IDTEVASW
"We, as one global community renew our commitment to solidarity on December 17,” said Melanie Dante, former sex worker who was one of the organizers at the Philadelphia events this year. "December 17 Events aim to raise outrage at violence against sex workers and strengthen sex worker communities and responses to the systematic, daily violence and exclusion sex workers experience.” Philadelphia Free Press. Article by David Block
Action Alert: 3/8 Leicester
UK ACTION ALERT: 3/8 Global Sex Work March 8th 7P Leicaster Square London UK Get Yourself There Wear Red Stand Up! Speak Out! FIGHT BACK.
FOSTA: A Death Sentence for Sex Workers
FOSTA: A Death Sentence for Sex Workers By Meghan Peterson and Bella Robinson Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics (COYOTE) Rhode Island Introduction On April 11, 2018, the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA) and Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) were signed into law. While outside the Capitol building sex workers condemned the bill for its inevitable impact on safety, the bipartisan FOSTA-SESTA package sailed through the United States House and Senate. FOSTA/SESTA outlined new provisions to amend the Communications Decency Act to note that websites can be prosecuted if they engage “in the promotion or facilitation of prostitution” or “facilitate traffickers in advertising the sale of unlawful sex acts with sex trafficking victims." While supporters of the law claimed to target sex traffickers, its text makes no effort to differentiate trafficking from consensual sex work. Its passage was hailed by abolitionists as a victory in the fight against “sex trafficking,” an invisible force that anti-trafficking lobbyists claim victimizes innocent women and coerces them into the evils of sex work. Among actual workers, its passage was denounced as a death sentence for sex workers who were then further pushed underground and away from tools used to maintain safety and screening.
US Approves $430 Million for Human Trafficking Fight
Sex workers across the US have previously protested against legislation intended to fight sex trafficking when US President Donald Trump signed controversial bills: the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) and the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA) last year. Sex workers claimed the bills made them more vulnerable to exploitation.
2019 FEATURE: 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!
IDTEVASW 2018
The date of December 17th was selected for the observance because it was on that date in 2003 that Gary Leon Ridgeway, the notorious Green River Killer, was sentenced for his crimes. “Between July of 1982 and January of 1998 Ridgeway was responsible for the deaths of dozens of women and girls in King County, Washington, the county that includes the cities of Seattle and Tacoma. Many of his victims were prostitutes and others marginalized by society, such as runaways. Ridgeway was sentenced to 48 consecutive life terms for his crimes plus 480 additional years; a plea agreement eliminated the possibility of the death penalty. The first International Day to End Violence against Sex Workers was observed on the day he was sentenced and utilized art as sublimation through the conflicting emotions of relief, grief, anger and fear.
The Red Sand Project
At the intersectionality of sex work and trafficking are the people who lived it and no longer fit any of the definitions others are creating except by saying: We too are here. Photo of Mistress Lilith, Miss Gabrielle Monroe and M. Dante sharing some love taken by Blind Filmmaker David Block at the 15th Annual International Day To End Violence Against Sex Workers (IDTEVASW) at Thomas Paine Plaza Philadelphia.
4 ways the US can take the lead in the fight against human trafficking | World Economic Forum
4 ways the US can take the lead in the fight against human trafficking | World Economic Forum
Donate Your Bras For Survivors Empowerment
This October, Rigby & Peller is proud to support Free the Girls, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that provides job opportunities for survivors of sex trafficking in developing countries. Gently used bras are collected* and donated to these women as starting inventory for their own business selling bras. Through the collection of bras in Western countries, Free the Girls is able to educate people and organizations about human trafficking issues globally. *Boutique exclusive event, store credit earned can be used in boutiques only.
Worker Survivor Community Archive 
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