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.
This is the recording of our March 3 webinar about our UN report progress to date and the art that will be created to illustrate the issues that sex workers face because of US policies. Chaired by Beyonce Karungi with our researchers and artists from across the United States and around the globe.
March 5th, 2025 · bppp · EventsComments Off on #CSW69 here and queer in 2025 - Tags: CSW
Would you like to spend time with the Sex Worker Rights Working Group during the 2025 Commission on the Status of Women? This year at the Commission our work will be educational and link folks to celebrate the night life that NYC is famous for. Sterling Starlets Burlesque will host a show to celebrate every element of community on March 16. The show is free for swers and trans/gender-expansive folks but please don’t miss out if money is a concern. We can provide some free tickets and CSW attendees get a discount. We are hosting parallel sessions too, online and in person!
IN PERSON Panel discussion on Friday March 14 at 12.30 – 2 pm US ET – Present – Trans and Sex Worker Rights Organizing for Beijing+30 and CSW69, Drew Room/8th floor of the Church Center of the United Nations, 777 United Nations Plaza, New York. Organized by the Sex Worker Rights Working Group. Free and open to everyone (no UN Pass needed).
SHOW – Sterling Starlets Burlesque – the Commission Edition, Sunday March 16 doors open at 7 pm with show at 8 pm (food and drinks available for purchase). Join the Sterling Starlets for a global celebration (and queering) of the 2025 Commission of the Status of Women aka CSW69. A spectacular night affirming our queer, trans and femme existences, everyone welcome, wheelchair accessible, FREE for swers and gender expansive folks, tickets $12 otherwise (discount codes available if needed). Crystal Lake Brooklyn, 647 Grand Street (coming from the UN – 4/5/6 downtown from Grand Central to Union Square and then change to the Brooklyn Bound L, exit at Grand Street and walk to venue). Sign up here – https://tinyurl.com/BurlesqueCSW69
March 3rd, 2025 · bppp · CampaignsComments Off on #UPR2025 focus on policing - Tags: UPR
For the last 18 months BPPP and other coalition members have been documenting the human rights impact of policing on our communities and organizing to change these circumstances. This material will be presented to the United Nations in April 2025 and provide organizing impetus throughout this year. Today March 3rd — International Sex Worker Rights Day — some of the multi-person research collective and artists illustrating the issues hosted a webinar. Two of the topics we presented today considered policing and criminalization. The following is a summary of the presentations.
Sex workers are everywhere. We live and work in every social strata in the United States of America and represent every social group. Just like any other human being. We are here. We are seeking to enjoy all our human rights and to live our lives. We are in solidarity with oppressed communities worldwide.
From our research and our lives we know that criminalization is an overarching and intersecting issue that impacts all issue areas in this report.
Street-based or outdoor workers, transgender or gender expansive people, BIPOC, migrants, youth, and incarcerated sex workers, consistently bear a particularly heavy burden of law enforcement abuse and harassment, institutional discrimination, and violence. The current U.S. administration is hostile to human rights, violating in particular the rights of migrants and transgender people.
Criminalization leads to policing, which leads to arrest and incarceration. Involvement with the court system in the US is extremely harmful to low income people and all other groups of folks who don’t have access to power and privilege. As advocates we have seen court rooms dedicated to processing arrests for prostitution that are set up for all to plead guilty. The risks of pleading not guilty are enormous and lead to ongoing police harassment, legal threats and enormous monetary costs. Criminalization of our lives is insidious, stigmatizing us and forcing us to the margins. Current forms of criminalization impinge on our right to organize and digital assembly
This is why global recognition of the rights of sex workers is important to note and affirm. And the hope of Recommendation 86. During the 9th Round of the Universal Periodic Review, the U.S. accepted Recommendation 86 from Uruguay to “undertake awareness-raising campaigns for combating stereotypes and violence against gays, lesbians, bisexuals and [transgender people], and ensure access to public services paying attention to the special vulnerability of [sex] workers to violence and human rights abuses.”
Policing (including defunding the police)
Globally and in the United States, the number one concern for sex workers is policing.
In human rights terms police are considered “State agents” and governments are responsible for their actions and impact on our rights. Other state agents are ICE and border guards.
We should be protected from police violence and abuse and torture while detained. However, being treated “well” by law enforcement/ICE is not enough.
What we want is an end to the criminalization and policing of our lives. We consider every arrest for sex work a rights violation. In gathering information about activities to change patterns of policing, we heard from our communities that “we have always questioned police motives.” The public outcry about policing occurring in 2020 and onwards via Black Lives Matter, has opened new strategies for sex workers and trans folks and new engagement.
What have our experiences been in the last 4 to 5 years from the survey? 18% of folks surveyed said that they had been detained by the police. Folks shared that they had been caught up or arrested in stings, by undercover, for walking down the street and while advocating for rights of others. Some were detained for hours/days and some arrests led to years in prison.
12% of folks said that they had been forced to have sexual contact with police in order to avoid arrest etc. 10 people gave detailed accounts of these situations. We also received reports of security guards exhibiting the same abuses.
Run ins with the police leads to incarceration (25% said they had been incarcerated for issues relating to sex work, but also for being involved in protests, for defending themselves, for protecting other sex workers, for outstanding warrants and the like).
Substance users have specific issues. We have a great report from Philly that we will be citing
32% (about one third) of folks said that they had been part of the outpouring of campaigns in the United States to change or end policing since 2020/the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Folks were inspired to challenge the ways in which policing is carried out and in some cases to defund the police.
In May 2020 George Floyd was killed by the police and what he said with his dying breaths was the whole pandemic and its intersections – I can’t breathe. I see pandemics of COVID, policing, anti Black violence, and anti-sex worker and anti-trans sentiments. I believe now that more people see that these are all linked. I am heartened that sex workers are being included as essential in organizing to end policing as we know it. I was also very pleased to see donations of actual money coming in for Black led organizations.
