SWOP-NYC and SWANK Press Release

April 8th, 2011 · · Press Release No comments

SEX WORKER GROUPS RESPOND TO LONG ISLAND MURDERS (New York)

Sex Workers Action New York (SWANK) and Sex Workers Outreach Project NYC (SWOP-NYC) are dismayed that four more bodies were discovered on Long Island earlier this week. Police believe that a serial killer is responsible for murdering at least eight people found on a remote Suffolk County beach since December. Reports indicate the murder victims were in the sex trade. As sex workers and allies, SWANK and SWOP-NYC mourn the lives of these individuals and extend our sympathies to their families and communities.

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Sex Worker Groups Respond to Long Island Murders

April 8th, 2011 · · News Archive No comments

New York City advocates respond to April 2011 press coverage of the discovery of the bodies of four more women murdered on Long Island. Read BPPP’s media analysis and the SWANK/SWOP-NYC press release.

Sex workers murdered on Long Island, New York, 2011

April 8th, 2011 · · Media Analysis No comments

Press coverage of violence against sex workers and people in the sex trade is often sensationalized and insensitive. In April 2011, the New York Times (NYT) chose to present the murders of women on Long Island differently. The article “Prostitutes’ Disappearances Were Noticed Only When the First Bodies Were Found” takes the time to illustrate the details of the missing women’s lives, humanizing them and critiquing the idea that they were “disposable.” Twenty four year old Shannan Gilbert was last seen in a community a few miles from where four bodies were found and is still missing. “Ms Gilbert was a prostitute, but much more,” wrote Manny Fernandez of the New York Times who added that “she was an aspiring actress, and the oldest of Mari Gilbert’s three daughters.” 

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Rights Concerns Acknowledged at the UN

March 18th, 2011 · · News Archive, Policy Updates No comments

U.S. sex worker organizations, organizations working with people in the sex trade and related communities participated in the Universal Periodic Review process at the Human Rights Commission at the UN in Geneva. After generating a report on human rights violations against these communities in the U.S., activists successfully advocated for inclusion of their issues in recommendations to the U.S. government.  Sex workers and their allies then worked to raise awareness of the recommendations and encourage the Obama Administration to accept them – which it did on March 18, 2011 in Geneva, stating, “we agree that no one should face violence or discrimination in access to public services based on sexual orientation or their status as a person in prostitution.” This statement is an unprecedented acknowledgment of the need to prevent human rights abuses against sex workers and to ensure their access to public services. On March 18 across the United States sex workers and their allies held public actions of support of Recommendation 86.