Sex work is work. It’s time to decriminalize.
Sex sells. And sex work—which includes a spectrum of services, ranging from exotic dancing and sensual or erotic massage, to fan sites, phone lines, fetish work, and escorting—is everywhere, and many LGBTQ people count it as their livelihood.
There are sex workers of every gender, orientation, and race, and in more tax brackets than you think. For some people it is a proud and favored profession, and for others it is merely a fact of life. And yes, some are forced into sex work, exploited by others or, like too many queer and trans women and femmes of color, left no conceivable option because of systemic inequality. But, whether trade of choice or act of survival, we believe that people doing sex work should be free to handle their business without indignity or prosecution; vulnerability around gender presentation, perceived queerness, or race; or fear of reporting threats they might face due to laws and a culture that devalue their agency.
As a foundation committed to resourcing the liberation, justice, and safety all LGBTQ people deserve, our stance is imperative: sex work must be decriminalized. We help people by taking the target off their backs. We also understand the physics of change; moving the needle nationwide will take a movement. So, below are a few ways you can support that and show solidarity with sex workers.
Give
El Fondo de La Señora Lorena Borjas, a fund at Stonewall dedicated to supporting LGBTQ people involved in survival economies, prioritizing undocumented people, people of color, TGNCNB people, and people involved in the sex trades.
Red Canary Song, a grassroots collective of Asian and migrant sex workers, organizing transnationally and the only grassroots Chinese massage parlor worker coalition in the U.S.
Sex Workers Outreach Project, 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.
Learn
Third Wave Fund's report Creating Community is a Threat to Power: Three Years of Resourcing Revolution and Liberation at the Sex Worker Giving Circle shares insights and lessons from their years of raising money for and with sex workers, and uplifts how the skills that sex workers bring to our movements benefit our collective liberation.
Advocate
Decriminalize Sex Work, a Stonewall grantee partner organizing nationally and pursuing a state-by-state strategy to protect people involved in the sex trades, and end the prohibition of consensual sex work.