Contributed photo
A local activist group called Sex Workers and Allies Network sent in the following release.
On Dec. 17, sex workers and their allies around the world will come together to recognize the International Day to End Violence against Sex Workers.
Here in New Haven, the Sex Workers and Allies Network (SWAN)—which recently became an independent project of the national organization, the Sex Workers Outreach Project—will be organizing their third-annual rally and march at 5 p.m. from the parking lot at Ferry Street and Grand Avenue (coverage of their first demonstration can be found here).
Beatrice Codianni, Executive Director of SWAN, founded the group in the wake of an undercover police sting in New Haven in 2016.
An organization created by and for people who’ve engaged in sex work, SWAN has been critical to increasing the safety and well-being of those on the streets by doing life-saving harm reduction outreach and advocacy.
SWAN has a commitment to meeting and supporting people where they are at: this means working with medical partners to provide street-based clinical care and safer use supplies; advocating for sex workers to receive voluntary, respectful and ethical services; and organizing trauma-informed, healing-based programming for members.
Through this important work, SWAN knows about the reality of violence directed toward sex workers, whether by clients, police, or other community members.
In recognition of the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers, SWAN now calls on all of us, including policy makers, to decrease violence against sex workers by addressing the stigma and discrimination they face.
The International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers began on Dec. 17, 2003 as a memorial for victims of a notorious serial killer in Seattle, Washington who targeted sex workers.
Although the sex worker community in Seattle knew about the serial killer for many years, the criminalization of sex work was a significant barrier to pursuing justice.
Many refrained from talking to the police because they feared getting arrested for engaging in sex work, and even when they did talk to the police, they weren’t taken seriously.
This year, SWAN’s demonstration on the International Day to End Violence against Sex Workers continues to underscore the criminalization and violence sex workers face, including in New Haven.
Although the former New Haven Police Chief agreed to suspend stings of sex workers in 2016, there are still many issues exposing sex workers to violence that need to be addressed.
A lack of access to housing for many sex workers means they are pushed into less safe situations on the streets.
They are also criminalized for trespassing or loitering because of this lack of stable housing (though, SWAN continues to work with the New Haven Police Department to reduce over-policing and abuse).
In health services, sex workers describe disrespectful experiences that prevent or dissuade them from seeking care.
They also experience a variety of barriers in getting help from social services, such as shelters and warming centers, that could address the circumstances that expose them to violence.
For example, shelters have limited hours of operation, forcing individuals out and back onto the street at six or seven in the morning.
Shelters also often lack a sufficient number of beds for women and have burdensome participation requirements that are incompatible with the realities of working in the sex sector (e.g., strict curfews at shelters).
In colder months, few warming centers operate for a sufficiently long period of time to meet the needs of people who don’t have housing, and people who try or connect to services for long-term housing solutions often experience incredibly long wait times. Ending violence against sex workers requires addressing all of these issues.
Some might say we should work towards eliminating sex work to end these harms, but the predominant models for trying to stop sex work — criminalizing sex workers or their clients — only exacerbates the violence sex workers face, as we saw with the tragic beginnings of the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers.
When sex workers face the threat of arrest for engaging in sex work, it becomes much harder for them to seek accountability for violence they experience. Also, when sex workers’ clients are criminalized and arrested, sex workers themselves move to more isolated areas for the sake of their targeted clients, which increases danger to themselves. In sum, trying to end sex work is not an effective way to end violence.
As we think about ways to heed SWAN’s call to end violence against sex workers, we need to get at the heart of why sex workers face extreme violence.
The campaigns in Washington DC and New York state to decriminalize sex work offenses are a first step in the right direction: as proven by international experience, such reforms would allow sex workers to come out of the shadows to get help from police when they experience assaults, engage in sex work in safer areas, and — contrary to what opponents say — this would not increase trafficking. With these reforms, sex workers could report incidents of trafficking to law enforcement authorities without facing arrest themselves.
And so, while these campaigns to protect the health and rights of sex workers play out in other states, the question for us is what are we willing to do in Connecticut?
While there is much to be done to end violence against sex workers, we can start by showing up on Dec. 17 to uplift and support the critical work of SWAN in New Haven.
Sexual relations between consenting adults should be a private matter. However, street vending is not private. It is public and interferes with others enjoyment of public spaces. Vending of sexual services should be regulated and zoned like other commercial activities are. The real issue here is not prostitution. It is desperate, addicted women.