Sex Workers Outreach Project USA
Welcome to the new and improved SWOP-USA website! We’re going through many changes as an organization and a digital overhaul is part of that. You’ll find an entirely new resource section, our Chapter Hub site has moved here, and we’ll also be producing significantly more resource sheets in the coming months.
Sex Workers Outreach Project-USA is a national social justice network dedicated to the fundamental human rights of people involved in the sex trade and their communities, focusing on ending violence and stigma through education and advocacy.
We have launched our CODIV-19 resource page, it's still very much a work in progress, but includes our most recent statement and links to some of the sex worker relief funds available in the US. https://covid19.swopusa.org/
We have lost one of our NY based trans community leaders to COVID-19. Rest in power Lorena Borjas
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All that said, throw down some $. I haven't seen a local mutual aid fund for SWers yet, but the @SisTersPGH fund specifically includes sex workers.
@SWOPUSA is constantly sharing out fundraisers for other cities.
https://twitter.com/SisTersPGH/status/1244761373395103744
SWOP-USA fully supports #BlackLivesMatter protestors and all other anti racism activists who have taken to the streets across the country after the tragic murders of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Sean Reed, Tony McDade, and countless other members of the Black community. As an organization that has focused on working with the most marginalized members of our community, anti racism education and training is at the forefront of our core mission. For this reason, we are proud to stand in solidarity with communities of color, and especially with the Black community in these times. Our primary goal is to create an anti oppression framework while advocating for social justice for all. This goal simply cannot be achieved if we do not include standing with victims of police brutality and victims of racism.
While SWOP-USA has historically focused on serving sex worker based communities, we still recongze the importance of intersectionality, and the need for broad, coailtion based anti racism activism; therefore we stand with all anti racism protestors in these times. Many of our own community members have consistently been in danger of police violence and over surveillance due to their work, activism, and their very public presence. Many sex workers have long suffered from police violence for merely existing. Sex workers, especially the Black and Trans sex workers within our community are all too familar with being targeted, abused, and dehumanized by law enforcement. We refuse to be silent about these abuses. We refuse to be silent about police brutality. Our stance is that ALL VICTIMS OF POLICE VIOLENCE DESERVE JUSTICE.
The history of anti Blackness in America runs deep, and there is no immediate end in sight. Black Americans have survived a history of chattel slavery, the lynchings of the Jim Crow era, being denied basic access to equal wages, housing, and education, and all of these heinous acts of racism have hisotrically been defended by the same law enforcement communiites are being protested today. Racism in policing has been evident, and the results are mass incarceration of the Black community, murders of Black civilians, innumerable cases of police brutality and extreme surveillance of Black communities.
Despite the inherent racism of law enforcement and the legal system, the Black community has survived,and will continue to fight for freedom, dignity and respect. The struggle is far from over, and SWOP-USA is proud to stand among our friends and allies in this fight.
Our work must be more than to simply acknowledging that racism is bad; we must actively engage in anti racist work, and one of the ways to do so is to stand with our community, allies, and those who need our support in this era.
We stand with the Black community and all protestors. And we do it proudly.
#BlackLivesMatter
He fought to protect sex workers from COVID-19 and much more. Then the virus came for him
www.latimes.com
For decades, Jaime Montejo fought to bring dignity to sex workers in Mexico City, protecting them from police, pimps and eventually the coronavirus. Then he got sick.May 7, #IHRD20: This will be an opportunity to pay tribute to #HarmReductionistHeroes: peer drug users, professionals, volunteers who, every day and especially during the #CODIV19 pandemic, care about people who are left behind of society.
#HarmReduction #DrugPolicies #PublicHealth #HumanRights.