Presidential Candidates Remain Mum
Both Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren released their platforms on criminal legal reform, and while both included general reforms which would impact the lives of people who trade sex, neither mentioned sex work, either in terms of decriminalization or FOSTA/SESTA. Bernie's plan includes a living wage to working incarcerated people and fund alternative first responder programs. Elizabeth Warren's plan includes repealing much of the 94 Crime bill, a huge catalyst for our current state of mass incarceration, and ending cash bail.
Juliàn Castro was the first release a criminal justice reform platform back in June, and was also silent on the topic of sex work, but does include items such as mandated community-led trainings for law enforcement and increasing funding for pre-arrest diversion (a complicated subject in and of itself).
This week Bernie Sanders, Cory Booker and Kirsten Gillibrand also sat down with National Center for Transgender Equality's Action Fund to speak specifically about what they're committed to do for the trans community.
The Internet Remains a Tricky Place
In the movement to push for changes to Section 230, which protects internet platforms from being legally responsible for what gets posted by others, the Electronic Frontier Foundation urges lawmakers to remember who's actually impacted by these changes.
Porn site Luscious found a data breach, exposing user's emails, some of which contain full names and connections to work.
Mourning Candy
As fans everywhere mourn the loss of Candy on this season of Pose, the way she passed brought up a lot of discussion about entertainment, representation and what stories are told. MotherJones digs into this discussion.
Sex Work Abroad
In Berlin, Germany, the Green Party candidate is looking to install "sex booths" in an abandoned airport, which sounds really hot.
Beyond Decriminalization and Non-Enforcement
Even in a place where prostitution laws are rarely enforced, sex workers still lack typical protections. This piece dives into demands of sex workers in Thailand to be protected under the country's labor laws:
Similar, the in United Kingdom, Helen Wood says that her history as an escort (selling sex is legal in the UK) has prevented her from becoming a foster parent.
This piece on how sex workers are failed by the criminal justice system in the UK, a process not dissimilar from the process in the US. The framing is an interesting comparison, but does include some panful stories of sex workers who were let down, and possibly further traumatized, by the process.
And while citizens who trade sex are seeking protection of the standing laws, migrants in Europe are being criminalized by the trafficking laws said to offer them "protection" (but often rooted deeper in xenophobia) and leading to the deportation of migrant sex workers.
Seeing Sex Workers
Inked magazine talks to Leigh Raven about being heavily tattooed in the adult industry.
New York's Museum of Sex is hosting the exhibit Stag, a look at the history of porn and how it reflects an uncomfortable amount of our collective imagination.
The visibility of sex worker organizing is growing every day. A new book highlights some of the different ways and places where we find community and work towards change:
Happy Birthday Marsha!
Saturday was the birthday of Marsha P. Johnson, an icon responsible for throwing the first brick (and maybe purse) at Stonewall, and changing the course of the LGBTQ movement in the United States.
Back to the grind. With so much gratitude for those who have come before to change the world.
K