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.
June 25th, 2024 · bppp · Art, CampaignsComments Off on Sex Workers’ Human Rights Matter
This past week Erika Smith and N’Jaila Rhee traveled to Geneva to attend the 56th Session of the Human Rights Council. They were there to be part of organizing to affirm the rights of sex workers and trans people, in the wake of some pushback in the United Nations system against the progress made by our communities. This is the first time that BPPP has been able to use our UN Consultative Status to enter the United Nations in Geneva. Erika took photos and videos to tell the story of the journey.
Monday June 17, 2024
After a smooth flight out of Newark airport, Erika and N’Jaila arrive in Geneva.
Tuesday June 18, 2024
Erika documented the first meeting of the trip, a meeting with representatives of the Sexual Rights Initiative (SRI). SRI supported BPPP and Desiree Alliance at a crucial phase way back when, encouraging us to get involved in the first Universal Periodic Review of the United States in 2010. This led to Recommendation 86, the first and only (to date) recommendation to the United States on sex work. Read a guide this current UN session HRC 56 produced by SRI and the importance of affirming sex workers’ rights at the UN at this time.
Wednesday June 19, 2024
Meeting with sex worker and allies delegation. Erika and N’Jaila were invited as part of the delegation to a full day session organized by the Network of Sex Work Projects to plan for engagement with the UN Session.
Thursday June 20, 2024
30 community members came out to make art, including poster making for a planned public action, at an art zone and bar in Geneva. N’Jaila and Erika came up with this slogan, Sex Workers’ Human Rights Matter, starting out with Erika’s idea of “sex worker rights matter” combining with N’Jaila’s thought about about human rights. This art work was created by N’Jaila and documented by Erika.
Friday June 21, 2024
On Thursday and Friday Erika and N’Jaila were able to enter the United Nations but given the current questioning of sex worker rights and trans rights, the experience was mixed. Mixed with “rage, anger, disgust” Erika noted when reflecting on the photos she had taken on this day. People walked out of the Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women’s speech. Why? “The Special Rapporteur pushed for approaches that criminalize the lives of sex workers.” “It was hot inside the UN,” Erika continued. “We are in this important place, standing up for ourselves. Yet regardless of what we say, some delegates have already have their mind made up. And those that are in support of us, their statements are muted.”
Erika and N’Jaila joined a protest was across the street from the UN. At the broken chair.
African activists started chanting. The microphone was passed to the Latinas. Crowd participation. Delegates began leaving out of the United Nations at the end of the day, heading for the train station opposite the protest. Many left with a police escort, but they had nothing to fear. We held up signs with our rights messages.
Monday June 24, 2024
Erika and N’Jaila left Geneva on Sunday. The following day numerous speeches were made in defense of sex worker rights during the HRC session. Video response in defense of sex workers can be viewed at this link: https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1o/k1onom08en
Erika had one word to describe how the sex worker delegation operated. “Inclusion.” Erika and N’jaila were also honored to spend time with Sinnamon Love of BIPOC-AIC, building community among Black sex workers and being together.
Spoken Word/Poetry/Song Competition for International Whores Day 2024
Entries are due by 11.59 pm ET on May 30, 2024
This year’s theme will be in celebration of luminary trans
sex worker activist, actress, writer, and performer Cecilia Gentili who
we lost on February 6th. Cecilia, an Argentine-American, was a fierce
advocate for the rights of sex workers and the end of stigma around
HIV/AIDS. Her beautiful life was celebrated by over a thousand people at
the historic St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Feb. 15th. The Mourners loudly
identified as sex workers and stormed a sanctuary to hold up the
humanity of Whore Mother Cecilia. This celebration of her is perfectly
reflective of the original International Whore’s Day in France in
1975.
If you are a sex worker/person in the sex trade and have a
connection to New Jersey (live here or work here, or come from here, or
have good friends here, or similar), then contribute a poem or music to
the International Whores Day podcast competition by May 24, 2024. We
encourage everyone to be inspired by Cecilia’s example in what is
contributed, but contributions do not need to be directly about her life
per se. The prompt is “dream big, just like she did.” New Jersey Red
Umbrella Alliance (NJRUA) will select several of the pieces to read for
our International Whores Day podcast (produced in collaboration with
Moral High Ground Productions). Contributors maintain the copyright of
their art and will provide permission for it to be shared on our
podcast. All selected entrants will receive compensation for their
participation.
Members of NJRUA will judge the competition. The NJRUA
poetry podcast will be recorded/edited by PJ Starr and N’Jaila Rhee and
released on SoundCloud on June 1, 2024. The podcast builds on a
tradition begun by Robyn Few, who read a poem created by her friends for
International Sex Worker Rights Day in 2010. Check out our previous podcasts here:
Contribute your poem, words, lyrics, songs, music, etc to
newjerseyrua@gmail.com by May 24, 2024, by 11.59 pm Eastern. If you
would like to record a reading of your poem for consideration, we can
receive the recording via email or any other file transfer service you
would like to use. We can also assign someone to read out submissions
for the podcast if you prefer to send in text only. If poetry does not
interest you, you can send us original music for consideration for the
podcast, lend your voice to reading a poem, or donate to our cause. All
are welcome. You may contribute anonymously (i.e. we don’t have to read
any name on the podcast) or provide us with a name and short bio if you
wish. Also please indicate that we have your permission to use your
art/poem/words/song for our podcast.
May 5th, 2023 · bppp · ArtComments Off on Spoken Word/Poetry/Music Competition for International Whores Day 2023 - Tags: New Jersey, WhoreGaze
Entries due by 11.59 pm ET May 19, 2023
If you are a sex worker/person in the sex trade and have a connection to New Jersey (live here or work here, or come from here, or have good friends here, or similar), then contribute a poem to the International Whores Day podcast competition by May 19, 2023. New Jersey Red Umbrella Alliance (NJRUA) will select several of the pieces to read for our International Whores Day podcast (produced in collaboration with Moral High Ground Productions). Contributors maintain copyright of their art and will provide permission for it to be shared on our podcast. All selected entrants will receive compensation for their participation.
This year’s theme will be “Storming the Sanctuary” in celebration of the original action that inspired International Whores’ Day in 1975. It is also a call to action that our allies need now more than question how safe any of us are. We have to fight for and maintain our safe spaces. Our rights and all civil rights are under attack, Sex workers need collaborators and co-conspirators.
The competition will be judged by members of NJRUA. The NJRUA poetry podcast will be recorded/edited by PJ Starr and N’Jaila Rhee and released on soundcloud on June 1, 2023. The podcast builds on a tradition begun by Robyn Few, who read a poem created by her friends for International Sex Worker Rights Day in 2010. And our own podcast in 2022 and in 2016
Contribute your poem, words, lyrics, music, etc to newjerseyrua@gmail.com by May 19, 2023 by 11.59 pm Eastern to be in the running to win a t-shirt and/or have your poem read for inclusion on the podcast for which you will be compensated If you would like to record a reading of your own poem for consideration, we can receive the recording via email or any other file transfer service you would like to use. You may contribute anonymously (i.e. we don’t have to read any name on the podcast) or you may provide us with a name and short bio if you wish. Also please indicate that we have your permission to use your art/poem/words for our podcast.
If poetry is not something that interests you, you can also send us original music for consideration for the podcast, lend your voice to reading a poem or donate to our cause. All is welcome
