All We Want For Christmas Is Stacks
Feeling a little flush this holiday season? Put your money where your politics are.
Tis the season to lighten your load — of cash. And as we move closer to the 2020 presidential elections (and hence the time of *platforms*, typically involving marginalized folks), we can use our resources to help supplement communities and organizations fighting the good fight — and getting very little fiscal support for it.
One segment of marginalized folks that has been glaringly missing from any of the candidates’ advocacy (the Democratic candidates, in particular) has been sex workers. Not a single candidate as of yet is pro-decriminalization (although Elizabeth Warren did say she was “open to it”), and every single one has come out swinging in support of FOSTA/SESTA.
Don’t know what FOSTA/SESTA is? VICE does a pretty great job of summarizing it:
“One area where several candidates have made their views known is FOSTA-SESTA, the controversial set of laws that censors and deletes sex work advertisements on websites like Craigslist and Backpage — every lawmaker and ex-lawmaker who was able to vote on these laws voted in favor. But, sex workers, broadly speaking, oppose the bills.
While proponents of the laws say they’re meant to prevent trafficking, opponents say FOSTA-SESTA undermines sex workers’ ability to do their jobs safely, and there’s plenty of research and evidence to show that platforms like Craigslist actually keep sex workers safer than having to take their work underground or to the streets.”
I know what you’re thinking: it shouldn’t be the job of the people to have to (financially, intellectually, emotionally, spiritually) compensate for a government that should be advocating for its most disenfranchised. However, that’s the world we live in at the moment.
So loosen your wallets in ways that pack a serious punch, and consider donating to the following organizations (or volunteering. Your time is valuable).
The Sex Workers’ Outreach Project
The most well-know sex-workers advocacy organization (in the United States) is probably SWOP USA, who provide media justice, education, and assistance to communities of sex workers.
On the national scale, SWOP “helps build stronger communities and a stronger movement through technical assistance, funding, and direct support and advocacy.”
Locally, SWOP works to “address structural, cultural, and interpersonal violence individuals in the sex trade face by working to change attitudes, change policies, and create alternative community-led systems of support.”
Additionally, the website offers a national crisis hotline, and a bevy of educational materials that folks can use in their respective communities.
The Desiree Alliance
From their mission statement:
“The Desiree Alliance is a national coalition of current and former sex workers working together with supporting networks for an improved understanding of sexual policies and its human, social and political impacts of criminalization surrounding global policies in sex work. Our priorities are building national and worldwide leadership to constructively advocate sex workers’ human, health, labor and civil rights.
We commit ourselves to the tenets of human rights and base our foundations upon equality, empowerment, and agency, that bring those voices into constructive and productive leadership roles in the sex worker rights movements and umbrella issues unique to sex work. We advocate for the full anti-criminalization of all forms of consensual sex work.”
Desiree Alliance also tends to have a yearly conference for providers, advocates, and educators, but FOSTA/SESTA has been making that nearly impossible over the last few years.
Still, even sans the cost of hosting a massive conference, DA needs assistance in continuing to do the advocacy work — for sex workers, by sex workers.
St. James Infirmary
Located in San Francisco, St. James Infirmary is a clinic, community center, and “a peer-based occupational health and safety clinic for sex workers of all genders. It is our mission to meet the needs of people engaged in the sex trade through advocacy, direct services, and social justice.”
Offering health services, psychological support, and education, St. James is also the largest employer of trans folks of color in the Bay Area. At the moment, they’re running a fundraising drive for the following purposes:
“First, St. James Infirmary is bringing its HIV services to Oakland. We have long desired to bring our services to Sex Workers to the East Bay, and we have finally decided that we are going to make a dedicated effort to gather the resources necessary to make it happen, starting with our HIV program.
Second, as the largest employer of Trans Women of Color in the Bay, St. James Infirmary has a responsibility to ensure that the services provided to the Trans community of Color are appropriately run. Towards that end, we are launching a new housing program specifically for the Trans Community. Details to follow!!
Third, St. James Infirmary is expanding its outreach program in the Mission. Thanks to a grant from the City of San Francisco, St. James Infirmary will have increased presence in the Mission on weekend nights, additional resources, and, importantly, a newly-formed emergency housing program for Sex Workers at risk of harm. With your help, we can continue to build out our program and serve as a model for the rest of the country!
Fourth, St. James Infirmary is conducting a needs assessment and launching a leadership development program. We are privileged to be in a place where we can use our resources to amplify the voices of marginalized sex workers in the Bay Area, and look forward to providing those interested with what they tell us they need to bring their work to the next level.”
The best way to donate is to become a monthly patron here.
Don’t have the cash but still want to help? Your time is worth a million bucks. Educator, writer, activist and once sex worker Lola Davina has put together this most excellent list of advocacy organizations looking for support — cash or labor.
No matter what your holiday landscape is — or isn’t! — it feels good to give back to the world. Make sure you’re giving to organizations who truly need it.
