SWAN Program Manager Jaclyn Lucibello reads the names of murdered sex workers; at right, group founder Beatrice Codianni.
Twenty community members gathered in a Fair Haven parking lot to remember sex workers who have died or gone missing — and to call on New Haven to protect the lives of every person who shares the city’s streets.
Codianni shares a Facebook memory of Dec. 17, 2018 — when, a few hours after the vigil, a sex worker in New Haven was almost killed by a supposed client.
The rally was held Friday, marking the fifth year that supporters of the local harm reduction organization SWAN (Sex Workers and Allies Network) have come together as part of the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers. The national event, originally conceived in Seattle as an opportunity to remember the dozens of sex workers murdered by the Green River Killer between the 1970s and mid-2000s, has taken place every Dec. 17 since 2003.
At 3 p.m. Friday, affiliates of SWAN formed a circle of solidarity and read aloud the names of 37 American sex workers who died across the country this past year, primarily through violent homicides. Then attendees shared stories of personal losses here in New Haven.
John Burroughs, a SWAN outreach worker, asked everyone to keep thinking of his presumed-late partner, Lisa Ann Calvo, a New Haven sex worker who went missing in 2005. “I miss her… She was the mother of my kids,” he said. “And I still don’t know what happened.”
Others recalled Evelyn Frisco, another woman who disappeared in 2004 and whose case has remained unsolved, alongside deceased New Haven sex workers Inez Perez and Leila Rivera.
“These are our sisters, these are our mothers, our cousins” said SWAN Founder Beatrice Codianni. “Our friends!” pitched in another. And, everyone agreed, human beings.
“We have to keep those names alive,” said a SWAN member who goes by the name Seagull, following a moment of silence from the group.
The ceremony was half vigil and half rally, aiming not just at honoring those who are gone but at lifting up the sex workers who are still here.
Swan Program Manager Karolina Ksiazek also stressed the importance of holding accountable “the people who criticize them [sex workers], who ostracize them.”
“And criminalize them!” Seagull stated.
Even as the group spoke to violence experienced by sex workers around the globe, their words rung out in a New Haven neighborhood where multiple cops have recently been arrested or put under investigation for, in one case, raping Fair Haven sex workers, and, in other cases, allegedly and repeatedly pressuring immigrant women into sexual relationships.
In past years, the group has held evening vigils and lit candles. Friday’s event took place in daylight.
The group marched down Ferry Street holding signs reading “Decriminalize Sex Work,” and “Stigma Kills.” They chanted: “Sex work is real work!”
“Being a sex worker is one of the most dangerous jobs out there,” said Ksiazek. “But the work does not have to be dangerous. Sex work is real. It’s up to us to care.”
SWAN fights for policy changes at local, state, and federal levels — like the decriminalization of sex work, police accountability, and strong health infrastructure — while also providing resources like counselors, lawyers, and safety supplies directly to sex workers in Fair Haven.
SWAN members Christine, Sally Graveline, and John Burroughs.
As she walked, sex worker and SWAN outreach member Christine remembered meeting Beatrice Codianni for the first time several years ago. She had been standing on that same stretch of sidewalk when Codianni approached her with a bag of free clothes.
After that exchange, Christine started volunteering with the sex worker advocacy group, distributing condoms, clean needles, glass pipes, Narcan, and toiletries throughout Fair Haven via a van that typically sits in the Dollar King parking lot at the intersection of Grand Avenue and Ferry Street.
One time, Christine donated Narcan to a friend who later ended up saving Christine’s own life after a heroin overdose. “We didn’t have these people” before SWAN, Christine reflected. “They’re saving lives every day.”
Soon, Christine began traveling to conferences across the country as a representative of SWAN, telling her story as a sex worker experiencing and confronting violence within New Haven.
“I’m a small person,” she said, “but I have a huge voice.”