We spent 18 months preparing, speaking to folks and gathering information to submit not one but TWO reports to the United Nations for the review of the United States human rights record later on this year. Now we begin our plans for speaking to world representatives to get the word out about our organizing, rights and the violations our communities experience. We have also been working with 11 artists to create materials representing the issues in diverse ways. An artist’s work is featured below (this work is copyright to the artist and we share it with their permission).
Here is how to access the reports. A coalition of community organizations submitted a report documenting all the rights issues. Download a PDF and read the full report. Other groups submitted a report, focusing on trans rights and the impact of US policies globally, in partnership with the Sexual Rights Initiative. Download a PDF and read that report.
Featured art work by Huck Reyes – A Labor of Layers
As shown in the UN report, sex-working and transness are often intertwined and sometimes inseparable–whether we like it or not. As an artist who belongs both to the trans and sex-working communities, I am acutely aware of the reasons so many trans folks have found their way to sex work, while also understanding why state actors profile trans people as sex workers even if they’re not. There are many layers to these realities and I show this through four multiple-exposure photo pieces. I use color effect 35mm film and double (or triple) expose the film, layering different images on top of one another to express the inseparable nature of being trans and a sex worker–whether that inseparable-ness is imposed upon us externally or exists voluntarily.