Category: Uncategorized

BREAKING: Monica Jones’ Trial Postponed due to Constitutional Challenge

March 14th, 2014 · · Campaigns, Press Release, Uncategorized No comments - Tags: , , , , , ,

Trans Activist Monica Jones’ Trial Postponed due to Constitutional Challenge of ‘Manifestation of Intent to Prostitute’ Statute

Contact: Margie Diddams, Sex Worker Outreach Project, 480-553-3777, swop.phx@gmail.com

PHOENIX, AZ— Dozens of supporters packed the courtroom this morning in support of ASU student and anti-SB1062 activist Monica Jones. Ms. Jones is facing unjust charges of “manifestation of intent to prostitute,” a vague and discriminatory law that criminalizes activities like waving at cars, talking to passerbys, and inquiring if someone is a police officer. Ms. Jones’ lawyer filed a motion to challenge this statute on constitutional grounds, resulting in the trial being postponed until April 11th. Ms. Jones states, “We will be back with twice as many people.”

In Arizona and across the country, trans women of color like Ms. Jones are routinely profiled and swept up in the criminal justice system on prostitution-related charges, due to a phenomenon many call “Walking While Trans.” An unjust lack of community and legal support leads most people to take please against their best interest. That’s why Ms. Jones decided she was going to fight the charges, so that no more trans women, sex workers, or people profiled as sex workers will have to face these injustices.

Sex Workers’ Outreach Project (SWOP) of Phoenix is continuing to build momentum for Monica Jones’ case with the support of the ACLU motion against the ‘manifestation’ statute. If the statute is overturned, it will be a victory not only for Ms. Jones, but for trans women, sex workers, and people profiled as sex workers throughout Arizona and the nation.

Ms. Jones states, “It’s time that we end the stigma and the criminalization of sex work, the profiling of trans women of color, and the racist policing system that harms so many of us.”

Nationally and internationally, over 1,000 individuals and numerous organizations have publicly declared support for Ms. Jones; organized solidarity protests around the country and participated in a campaign to demand that Phoenix city prosecutor Aaron Carreon-Ainsa drop the charges against Ms. Jones. Advocates from SWOP Phoenix are currently in Geneva, Switzerland at the UN sharing Ms. Jones’s story as emblematic of how police in the U.S. routinely violate human rights.

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Phoenix Update: Monica Jones interviewed on MSNBC’s “All In with Chris Hayes”

March 14th, 2014 · · Campaigns, News Archive, Uncategorized No comments - Tags: , , , , , , ,

Tonight Monica Jones got to speak about her fight for justice to an nationwide TV audience via an appearance on the MSNBC show “All In with Chris Hayes.” It was a very short segment, but she did a great job. To have a mainstream media TV show feature Monica’s efforts and conversations about sex worker rights, walking while trans, and police mistreatment of people of color feels like quite a victory!

Prior to Monica’s interview, our friend Sienna Baskin from the Sex Worker Project at Urban Justice Center discussed sex work legal policy issues. You can see her segment here.

Huge victory for human rights–Canada high court strikes down prostitution laws

December 20th, 2013 · · Policy Updates, Uncategorized No comments - Tags: , , ,

This morning sex workers, people in the sex trade, and allies around the world were moved to cheers and tears by the decision of the Canadian Supreme Court in the Bedford case. In a unanimous ruling, the high court struck the entirety of Canada’s prostitution laws from the books, finding that the

“provisions, primarily concerned with preventing public nuisance as well as the exploitation of prostitutes, do not pass Charter muster: they infringe the s. 7 rights of prostitutes by depriving them of security of the person in a manner that is not in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice.”

The sex workers who brought the case were visibly overjoyed and emotional on television after the decision was released.

The justices gave the Canadian government a year to react to the judgment–and already anti-sex worker rights groups have discussed introducing the so-called Nordic system of criminalizing clients. But human rights groups in Canada have already rejected that approach, and the Bedford plaintiffs and their lawyers strongly cautioned the government against such laws as well.

While it takes time for laws, and society, to change, meaning many folks involved in commercial sex will not immediately benefit from the Court’s ruling, the decision is nonetheless momentous. It has the potential to affect the fight for recognition of sex workers’ rights well beyond the borders of Canada. We send a salute to the tireless advocates and activists who fought this battle and won.