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Sex Workers Respond to Gilgo Beach Arrest

Press Release: August 2023

Re: Sex Workers Respond to Gilgo Beach Arrest

U.S. Sex Workers rights organizations have gathered in response to the arrest of the Gilgo Beach suspect, Rex Heuremann. We hope that the families affected by this case can gain some comfort in knowing that a suspect is being held in custody and we may be one step closer to keeping our communities safe. 

However, as many family members and Sex Worker rights advocates know, the investigation into who has been murdering community members and leaving their bodies at Gilgo Beach has been botched for years. The fate of those left on Gilgo Beach has been overshadowed by ongoing violence perpetrated by law enforcement enabled by political corruption in Suffolk County. 

Rex Heuremann is far from the first serial killer that has harmed Sex Workers at their leisure for years/decades at a time. This will continue until law enforcement and the government recognize that violence against us is condoned, and at times, perpetrated by the very people sworn to protect everyone in every community. This case is a reminder that law enforcement continues to harm Sex Workers and the injustice system is still not a safe place for survivors and families of victims. 

It is deeply traumatizing that our communities face this on a daily basis due to criminalization, stigma, misogyny, and hate. It is a great emotional cost to be asked for a quote, an interview, a blurb, etc., as a community and our  families have lived in fear from those who can easily maneuver murderous activities. Since Heuremann’s arrest another victim’s body has been found and her name was released before her family was notified. Journalists can do better. Please take the time to listen to Sex Workers about what the issues are here, and  do so in ways that are not triggering and traumatizing.

We ask that the press and social media handle coverage of Gilgo Beach with depth and sensitivity rather than painting a tragic picture of who Sex Workers are and uncritically depicting police in Suffolk County as heroes and saviors. The real heroes here are the families of those found at Gilgo Beach who have fought for years for the cases to be investigated, and Sex Worker rights organizers who have been in solidarity with this case all along.

Desiree Alliance

New Jersey Red Umbrella Alliance

Best Practices Policy Project

The Black Sex Workers Collective

The Outlaw Project

Sex Worker Rights are Labor Rights (biting the hand)

This is real world advice about concrete issues. Change is very straightforward. For a long time BPPP has thought of sharing about what should change on a fundamental level in relationships between those who have and give money and the recipients. This is the first posting. We call this impromptu series “Biting the Hand (that did not feed us).” We know it is hard for those without funds to say anything to those in power because the fear of being defunded or systematically shut out of circles and opportunities is very great. We also internally police ourselves, concerned that if one group or person says something, the funding “opportunity” will be “ruined for everyone.” The reality is that the only reason that sources of funding and donations exist today is because of those who fought for recognition, payment, spaces and so much more. The ones who were and are a “problem.” We honor all such disruptors. And we thank you. We need to keep going to create the change we seek.

Today’s suggestion: sex worker rights are labor rights.

We received an email from a funder asking for us to fill out a survey to provide feedback on their funding guidelines. That is a great suggestion. The survey is a highly detailed set of ten questions. Once again, great. Dig deep. Change. The problem? Asking sex workers to do this work without payment and/or any social capital to build our renown. Our response is below, anonymized. To be clear we have received many such requests from funders to fill our surveys without compensation. We hope this is helpful for funders and others with cash to give out, in the future. No. No. We do not dance for free.

Dear Colleagues: We really want to help you but we cannot do this work unpaid. Nor can we ask any unpaid individual sex worker to do this.
We have already given many hours of our time helping [insert name of just about any funder globally] and we have raised this issue ever since [your fund started being interested in funding sex workers].
We looked over the survey, it requires our professional input as sex workers, fundraisers and organizers.
A funder [insert any of the following: dedicated to justice/labor rights/gender equality/set up in our name/working with sex workers] should model Sex Worker rights from the ground up. That would include paying Sex Workers their hourly rate for this labor. Sex Worker rights are human rights and labor rights. Pls live these values.
Pls [insert name of funder] and co, refrain from explaining all the reasons why [insert the name of any funder or donor] can’t pay Sex Workers as consultants. We already received those emails and we don’t need to read them again. We want [you, the funder] to change. And when [you, the funder] changes, pls publicly acknowledge the groups that pressured for this with a thank you. That helps us build, be acknowledged as the thought leaders we are and be acknowledged for the advocacy we have to do (amid the trauma of lack of funding). You did not come up with these ideas on your own, we developed these ideas and work-shopped so many ways to be clear when speaking to you. We and others like us had to take a risk to speak back to you. You might see us as the “angry ones who can’t be nice.” Yet we had to struggle to make you change: painfully many times we have had funders dismiss us to our face when we stated that our work is of equal value. We will be so happy when these attitudes change and you give us our due.
This is our feedback.
BPPP

The Rights of Sex Workers in the Digital Age #CSW67

Our sex worker coalition holds space at the UN Commission on the Status of Women and this year our session will be moderator by Monica Jones (Founder and Director of the Outlaw Project). She will welcome international and local advocates including Sinnamon Love of BIPOC-AIC, N’Jaila Rhee of NJRUA, Beyonce Karungi, Trans Equality Uganda and Nosipho Vidima representing The BSWC.

Time: 6.15pm, March 9, 2023

Location: 777 United Nations Plaza, New York, NY 10017 (on the corner of East 44th Street)

Room: CCUN 2nd Floor

How to reserve your spot? Be there at 6 pm to get your spot. We may also update with an Eventbrite to assure seating. Keep an eye on the FB Event Page for more updates

More about the event: Sex workers’ rights are at the forefront of many social movements that are central to human rights for women and sex workers are innovators in technologies in the digital age for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all. This in-person panel discussion will showcase sex worker leadership from across the globe to discuss digital technologies, online spaces and rights questions pertaining to access for women. We will describe how laws restricting sexuality, including sex workers, but more generally, limit women’s right to digital assembly (a vital way in which we all globally organize due to the COVID-19 pandemic), strategies for women’s rights in online spaces that defend our bodies, our speech, and the free flow of ideas. We will also review areas of multilateral and global policies that affirm the rights of sex workers and how fears about digital life are challenging these rights.


Generation Equality, hear sex workers’ voices

Due to whorephobia and transphobia, parts of the United Nations system and some women’s organizations attempt to deny our advocacy in participatory spaces dedicated to the rights of women. US sex workers are documenting our participation in the 2021 Generation Equality Forums held Mexico and Paris.

In 1995 representatives of the fourth world women’s conference in Beijing created the Beijing Declaration stating that “women’s rights are human rights.” Sex workers globally have the least resources to attend UN meetings and to advocate within the admittedly hard won spaces for women’s rights globally. Barriers are deliberately thrown in our way. Yet, representatives of communities of sex workers were there in Beijing in 1995, demanding to be heard and challenging attempts to denounce sex work due to machinations by people with anti-sex worker and anti-trans agendas (1).  Since that time sex workers have fiercely defended our rights at many UN meetings following the Declaration. This includes advocacy in spaces that have been sites of anti-sex worker policy attempts, such as those organized by UN Women as well as around the Women’s Convention (the Convention to End Discrimination Against Women or CEDAW), preventing the codification of harmful language about sex work in the world of human rights.

The Generation Equality Forums were held virtually due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the groups listed below in our coalition attended. The Forum kicked off in Mexico City from 29 to 31 March and ended in Paris from 30 June to 2 July 2021. According to the Forum’s own publicity it was a “global gathering for gender equality, convened by UN Women and co-chaired by France and Mexico, to chart the way forward and to accelerate the implementation pace of the gender equality commitments made in Beijing in 1995.” The Forum said it would enable “feminist agenda setting and the launch of Action Coalitions that have concrete measurable targets and funding for gender equality for the upcoming five years.” 

Access was limited. Many of our groups applied to attend the Mexico City Forum but never received registration permission. However, Desiree Alliance, a national sex worker rights organization, attended the forum sessions in both Mexico City and Paris. Desiree Alliance noted that Mexico City was problematic in that no mention of marginalized populations such as sex workers was upheld the message of Gender Equality’s “mission of inclusion.” 

We experienced the same deliberate silence in France. Translations were nonexistent for some sessions, there was no access to respond in community forums and discussions, and navigation around the conference sites was difficult. We understand that complications arise with virtual formats. However, the organizers of the Gender Equality Forum clearly have the financial power to create a global event. Accessibility was a problematic limitation for those who were trying to be fully engaged with the conference. Sex workers who committed to be a part of this forum became invisible with no means to interact due to these malfunctions.  

To counter, we made ourselves very visible on social media using the official hashtag #generationequality and #generationequalityforum 

We would like to thank the Urgent Action Fund for supporting our UN work and for providing valuable information about participation in the Generation Equality Forum. We would like to also thank Desiree Alliance for these policy statements on the Convention to End Discrimination Against Women(CEDAW), statements that were released 2019 and in response by coalition in 2020.

Attending

BPPP

Desiree Alliance

The BSWC

NJRUA

The Outlaw Project

FOOTNOTES:

(1) for example, the advocacy of  Sue Metzenrath and others. Scarlet Alliance https://scarletalliance.org.au/who/history/ recalls that the organization had to advocate at the highest levels for the right of sex workers to enter China at all.