Capitol Hill was sexier than usual when sex workers met with congressional representatives to lobby against FOSTA and SESTA, new laws recently signed by President Donald Trump.
"Just waiting with a folder of sex worker lit in Nancy Pelosi's office," tweeted Liara Roux, a sex worker and organizer for human rights for sex workers.
"Here in the Capitol with @preston.mitchum talking to our elected officials about sex work," porn performer Lorelei Lee tweeted.
Sex workers from coast to coast came together to participate in the first National Sex Worker Lobby Day. Activities such as meeting with congressional representatives, hosting workshops on legal aid and gender justice and community outreach initiatives were planned across the country in cities including Baltimore, Chicago, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York, Providence, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C.
The goal of the event is to draw attention to misconceptions surrounding sex work and the challenges sex workers face in the wake of FOSTA and SESTA, two bills signed in April by President Donald Trump to curb sex trafficking, and the dangers the anti-trafficking bills are creating for the sex work industry.
Both bills — the House version known as FOSTA, which stands for Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act, and its Senate companion, Stop Enabling Sex-Trafficking Act (SESTA) — were met with bipartisan support in Congress. On February 27, the House passed FOSTA with a final vote of 388-25. The Senate followed by passing SESTA by an overwhelming 97-2 margin.
In spite of the bipartisan support, the anti-trafficking legislation has received strong pushback from sex workers, whom advocates of the bill purport to be protecting, for its destabilizing and demoralizing effect.
Valentina Mia, a transgender porn star and advocate for queers, racial, and ethnic minorities and sex workers, said the legislation highlights misconceptions surrounding sex work.
"One of the biggest things the public gets wrong that's tied to the stigma of sex work is that it's often conflated with sex trafficking, and people just think that we have pimps that are telling us what to do, and we're forced into it and there's no escape," Mia explained to Salon. "The majority of the sentiments that have been expressed in favor of SESTA and FOSTA have come from that misunderstanding, that conflation between sex work and sex trafficking, and I think that distinction really needs to be made clear."
For Mia, sex work has been empowering. She said it has "positively impacted my life as it has enabled me to gain of better understanding of my relationships and my own body."
"For the longest time I've felt trapped in the wrong body, for lack of a better word, and this has enabled me to have a very public development of my understanding and my respect and love for my own body," Mia said. "Also it's empowered me in the sense that I'm capable of making my own income and living life on my own rules."
With FOSTA-SESTA, many sex workers fear for their future and are worried they'll be forced to go back on the street.
The House bill (FOSTA), which was introduced by Missouri Republican Rep. Ann Wagner, makes it a federal crime — punishable by up to 10 years in prison — to operate "an interactive computer service" with "the intent to promote or facilitate the prostitution of another person." That means online publishers would be responsible if third parties are found to be posting ads for sex work — including consensual sex work — on their platforms.
Survivors Against SESTA has tracked nearly thirty websites that have shut down or updated their services since the bill passed on March 21. The list doesn't include the dozens of actions taken by online platforms that occurred while law was being written to preemptively self-censor in preparation of the bills' enactment.
Now, in a rare lobbying effort, sex workers and allies are ready to fight back.
Around the country, sex workers and allies are participating in a day of political action and are marching to protect sex workers' rights.
Saturday marks "International Sex Workers Day," which is held annually on June 2 to commemorate the anniversary of the day in 1975 when hundreds of sex workers occupied a church in the French city of Lyon to draw attention to their inhumane working conditions and police brutality.
This year, sex workers around the world will gather to call for the decriminalization of all sex work, the end of police brutality, expanded access to housing and aid to survivors of trafficking, and the immediate release of all incarcerated criminalized survivors and incarcerated persons serving time for prostitution related crimes, Mia said.
She will be speaking at the Las Vegas march and plans to discuss de-stigmatizing sex work and emphasize that sex workers are not victims. One of her main points, she said, is to mention that LGBTQ rights, minority rights and women's rights are directly tied to sex workers' rights.
Elizabeth Edwards, a Democratic member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives and the first U.S. elected official to submit a bill that would fully decriminalize sex work, will also be speaking at the Las Vegas event. She hosted a political outreach workshop on Friday to advise sex workers on how to reach out to elected officials and provide general advice on where she thinks the movement is headed and what is necessary for community cohesion, Edwards told Salon.
"A lot of people in this community have a lot of anger, and it's justified anger, but you need more than anger," Edwards said. "You need the ability to be patient with people and give people second chances."
The New Hampshire Democrat explained she was inspired to become an advocate for sex workers rights after reading the 2015 Amnesty International report on the protection of sex workers rights. After the report came out, Edwards said she was disappointed she "didn't see one elected official stand up and say 'We need to decriminalize sex work.' This is evidence-based policy."
"To me, it's really just simple: All sex workers are human beings," Edwards continued. "We can be doing so much better than we're doing now."
She will participate in the International Sex Workers Day protest on Saturday.
In Canada, trans porn performer, model and dancer Jelena Vermilion will also take part in the rally.
"I'm part of a group who are setting up sex worker presence through International Workers of the World," Vermilion told Salon. (Industrial Workers of the World is an international labor union.)
"The main call to action is, honestly, just getting our foot into the door as sex workers in the union sphere, making grievances and other legal defense more feasible, to be a part of the international network of workers in every industry who will fight with us," Vermilion said. "This will legitimize sex work as a real profession, because it is, and provide a base to advocate for sex worker liberation from the bottom up."
"We need to advocate for reform and rebuilding the system in a way that empowers sex workers and allows them to choose what to do with their bodies and sexuality," she continued.
Vermilion also noted that sex work is "the most unsafe now, because the majority of the sex workers I speak to online, who are connected from around the world, are being affected deleteriously." She said many sex workers are "already marginalized workers are being disproportionately affected because of how many the websites they have historically relied on have change, since the passing of this recent insidious legislation."
Vermilion added that many performers "have seen fewer bookings, more restrictions on websites, increased fees and more discriminatory practices," and that "equity measures being taken in other industries are just not being seen on the same scale here."
"When your job is illegal, your means of living are illegal. How do you tell someone about your career? Even telling someone that basic fact can endanger your life. And SESTA-FOSTA is doing nothing but validating that hatred," Vermilion concluded.
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