We’re so grateful to everyone who came out—full of love and rage—to our International Whores Day gathering in Chicago this year. We shared food, work safety tips, harm reduction resources, zines, art, and so much cake. Taking time to connect, rest, and strategize in person, especially on a day like International Whores Day, is vital to our movements for sex worker justice.
What struck us most was the breadth of movements represented by the comrades and co-conspirators who attended. The fights for tenants’ rights, affordable housing, overdose reversal and prevention, abortion access, trans liberation, environmental justice, migrant rights, prison abolition, and against tech-fascism aren’t just on our hearts and minds—they’re woven into the daily organizing practices of the people who were there.
This is what we mean when we say sex workers are integral to broader strugglers for social, cultural and political change. We are already thinking and taking action within every movement imaginable, call us comrades.
We’re opening up our Sex Working Parents & Care Givers cohort again! If you know someone who’s currently incarcerated and in need of commissary support, who identifies as a sex working/trading/hustling person, and also is a parent/care giver please fill out this form on their behalf (after you get consent to do so). We’re accepting 3 additional people into the cohort, on a first applied, first served basis. Want to show your support for sex working parents and care givers? Snag one of our benefit tees!
Upcoming Summer Events & Where to dish with us next!
- Late JUNE / Find us at the American Library Association‘s Zine Pavilion! This will be our second ALA tabling experience, and we’re thrilled and honored that the rad librarians wanted us back! Public libraries are at the forefront of resource distribution and harm reduction and are committed knowledge-workers against white supremacy and fascism. When and where? We’ll be tabling on both Sunday, June 28th, from 9:00am-5:00pm & Monday June 29th, from 9:00am-12:30pm at the McCormick Center. We’ll have our zines and harm reduction supplies available!
- JULY / Our pals over at Midwest Perzine Fest are hosting their bi-annual zine fest on July 11th at the Chicago Athletic Association from 12-5pm! We’ll be there tabling and talking about the importance of political perzines! We’ll have our full run of zines and harm reduction supplies to distro. See y’all there!
Remembering Emi Koyama
Emi Koyama passed away, Wednesday, June 10th 2026, surrounded by chosen family. Emi is/was such a source of wisdom, care, and community. Our world is assuredly less dim without her living light, but her legacy and works will continue to burn brightly.
Emi is/was a movement elder, zinester, organizer, self-proclaimed rogue intellectual and cherished comrade. I always loved how she introduced herself in her site’s faqs: “Emi is a multi-issue social justice activist and writer synthesizing feminist, Asian, survivor, dyke, queer, sex worker, intersex, genderqueer, and crip politics, as these factors, while not a complete descriptor of who she is, all impacted her life.” She authored the groundbreaking TransFeminist Manifesto, in the summer of 2000, but then continued revisiting it, updating it, and wrestling with her own theory-making alongside others in pursuit of even more liberatory thought and politics. Emi was brave and honest like that.
The last project I had the honor of working with Emi on, was now years ago–a sex worker focused toolkit for supporting criminalized survivors that Survived and Punished & Justice for Alisha Walker helmed. Our authoring crew, Dani Boachie, Zara Raven, Kate D’Adamo, Alisha Walker and I knew we had to have both Elene Lam and Emi as readers–and emi thoroughly and supportively filled that role alongside Elene, and made this resource even more rich. Now Emi joins Dani Boachie aka Mistress Velvet as an ancestor. You can access the toolkit we co-created here.
I am so grateful for all she taught me, and taught the movement spaces I’ve been apart of for the past fifteen years. Her zines are essential reads, her organizing work full of lessons. Emi’s thought work and theory on transfeminism, coupled with her work building Aileen’s and other organizations, she laid many foundations and offered robust models to think and act with for sex working people, criminalized survivors, drug using people and of course trans fam. There is/was no one like emi. If you haven’t yet or it’s been a minute, please revisit her site, and read her powerful words: http://eminism.org
Emi Koyama, presente! Eminism, forever!
In love & remembrance, Red
Mutual Aid calls:
- We’re in need of urgent funds to support THREE workers who are currently struggling to support themselves after a car accident, unintended pregnancy + loss of work, and emergency relocation respectively. If you have $5 -$20, or more, to spare please Venmo us @SxHxCollective or Cashapp us $SxHxCollective (and put a 🌹in the memo line). Everything helps.
- We also hope you’d consider donating to support a Cleveland sex worker facing thousands in legal fees after a recent arrest, her CashApp is: $daizshmoney