Feeling so much gratitude for everyone who came out to our talk “Learning Survivor Support from Sex Workers”, which took place during the Phoenix Survivors Alliance Symposium at the University of Chicago, today, April 20th!
Red gave an overview of the history of our collective organizing, and Alisha (via video) and Red shared reflections on institutional and state violence, whorephobia, and why sex workers know best how to show up for ourselves and other survivors of gender based violence–and this conversation turned into a visioning session about the kinds of worlds we want to build! Then Red shared about the toolkit we co-created with Survived and Punished and other trusted comrades, and talked about organizing strategies and current mutual aid efforts (supporting our trans women + femme comrades in Cook County Jail, and letter writing for Rene, for example) that we are involved with.
We also met some powerful campus and community organizers **and some are community members in need of immediate support** like Sul*
Sul* is a Black trans woman from Colombia, who recently arrived in Chicago and is struggling to find work and SWer community. She’d rather try working in other ways, but nothing is panning out. She’s nervous about working in this new place, and URGENT support is needed. Please help us welcome Sul* to Chicago! [Español aqui] If you’re a Spanish speaking SWer, she wants to meet up and talk! Please email us (sxhxcollective@gmail.com)! If you have money to share, please send to us on CashApp so we can forward to her friend/translator: $SxHxCollective (usein the note so we know it’s for Sul*)!
Also, a couple comrades who attended are in need of legal support to help navigate a workplace / harassment situation, please get in touch if you have leads on SWer friendly lawyers who are accepting new clients/cases right now!
