North America and the Caribbean

Sex Worker Fest - San Francisco Bay Area Sex Worker Film & Arts Festival

(Image: Laure McElroy and Carol Leigh of the Sex Worker Festival. Laure passed away in 2018.)

The San Francisco Bay Area Sex Worker Film & Arts Festival has provided a forum for sex worker film and video makers since 1999. The Festival has since expanded to become a vibrant venue for performances, workshops, visual arts, political organising, skills sharing and ever-expanding events for sex workers from San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley and from around the world.

Sex Workers Project of the Urban Justice Center issue statement on prohibitionist ‘Nordic Model’ legislation in New York

Submitted by NSWP on 18th February 2021

NSWP member organisation the Sex Workers Project (SWP) of the Urban Justice Center (UJC) provides legal advocacy to survivors of human trafficking and people who engage in sex work. They engage in advocacy, education, and organising to build a movement to protect the human rights of sex workers.

The Sex Workers Project of the Urban Justice Center have issued a statement opposing the harmful “sex trade survivors justice and equality act”, a new bill introduced to state senate in January.

Guyana Sex Work Coalition (GSWC)

Introductory sentence on your organisation:

The Guyana Sex Work Coalition (GSWC) is a non- profit, non- governmental organisation that was established on the 11th October, 2008. The GSWC is one of the first established sex worker-led organisations in the Caribbean.

Tell us about your organisation

Vision

Empowering and Organising Sex Workers towards Achieving and Maintaining Progressive Self- Development and Increased HIV Preventative Actions.

Mission Statement

COVID-19 Impact – United States

Submitted by NSWP on 5th May 2020

The United States this week announced that they had passed 1.2 million recorded COVID-19 cases, and nearly 70,000 deaths. Despite these somber milestones, the country has been divided between those eager to get back to ‘business as usual’ and those who wish the lockdown to remain in effect. Left out of this debate are the sex workers who have had no choice but to continue working due to their exclusion from any government relief package.

Impact of COVID-19 on Sex Workers in North America and the Caribbean

Submitted by NSWP on 15th July 2020

In April 2020, NSWP launched a global survey to understand the impact of COVID-19 on sex workers. The survey received 156 responses in total from 55 different countries out of which 53 responses were from 6 countries – Canada, Guyana, Mexico, Suriname, Trinidad, and the United States – in the North America and the Caribbean region.

“People are going hungry. People are scared to work, or not to work.” – PACE Society, Canada

‘If they can have her, why can’t we?’

Submitted by NSWP on 28th March 2019

Amnesty International has released a new report highlighting the routine use of rape, violence and torture by police to punish women sex workers in the Dominican Republic. The report - ‘If they can have her, why can’t we?’ - uses testimony from 46 Dominican cisgender and transgender women sex workers, and reports them suffering various forms of violence at the hands of police.

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‘If they can have her, why can’t we?’, Amnesty International - 2019
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