New art for #InternationalWhoresDay this Saturday 6/2! Created by Micah Bazant with Jessica Raven & Nona Connor.
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From Micah: In April, the federal govt passed SESTA— a law that *claims* to protect survivors of sex trafficking. But SESTA doesn’t protect anyone. Its endangering youth AND adult sex workers, forcing folks back out onto the streets where people are being killed and brutalized by police, clients, and yes, traffickers. Learn more at SurvivorsAgainstSESTA.org [link in bio]!
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Jessica Raven is a survivor & a mama and the Executive Director of @safespacesdc. She said: “Survival sex was my alternative to sexual assault on the street and in foster care. I was a queer brown girl in the sex trade at ages 15, 16, 17 and the anti-trafficking movement does not speak for me…The safety of sex trafficking victims need not be pitted against the safety of sex workers. All people in the sex trade need the same things: housing, freedom from stigma & criminalization, and access to resources.“
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Nona is a poet, badass trans organizer & former survival sex worker. “For those who want to see sex workers climb up by their bootstraps to find alternatives, Nona’s done that and she’s built those opportunities for other people as well. Nona was stabbed 48 times in 2014, and she crawled bloody back to safety and rebuilt her life. This attack didn’t happen while she was engaging in sex work; it happened while refusing to have sex with a man who asked. For those who say that the sex trade is inherently dangerous, I can say the same about any work (or nonwork) activity that involves men. 90% of female restaurant workers experience sexual harassment on the job and no one is calling for the elimination of the restaurant industry as a solution; we’re calling for safety. For those who *don’t* want to work in the sex trade, we need to build alternatives and provide life-saving resources. For those who do, we need to make the industry safer.”