After several years of working in nonprofit agencies that take a harm reduction approach to working with drug users and sex workers, I’ve observed many similarities between the war on drugs and the war on trafficking. As the drug war has lost popularity, the war on trafficking has gained momentum. Both the war on drugs… Continue reading Casualties of War: The Wars on Drugs and Trafficking
Tag: PEPFAR
“Dragged Off By The Hair”: An Indian Sex Worker Recalls a Raid
Sitting in a warm room in Phnom Penh with several other women from the Asia Pacific region, Kamalabai Pani, a sex worker and a board member of Veshya Anyay Mukti Parishad (VAMP, Prostitutes’ Collective Against Injustice) in India, became visibly upset when discussion turned to the efforts of U.S.-led feminist groups to discredit several United… Continue reading “Dragged Off By The Hair”: An Indian Sex Worker Recalls a Raid
Equality Now, Or Else?
While Western-led feminist groups such as Equality Now continue to conflate consensual sex work with trafficking and violence, where do sex workers themselves fit into concepts of feminism and gender equality, especially if they live in countries like India? “When you are coming from a place like India, you have the whole caste system, stigma… Continue reading Equality Now, Or Else?
Activist Spotlight: Melissa Ditmore on Responsible Advocacy and No-BS Research
Dr. Melissa Ditmore is one of the sex workers’ rights movement’s most cherished academics. For twelve years, she has worked as a freelance research consultant, with an impressive list of clients that includes AIDS Fonds Netherland, UNAIDS, The Sex Workers’ Rights Project at the Urban Justice Center, and The Global Network of Sex Work Projects (NSWP).… Continue reading Activist Spotlight: Melissa Ditmore on Responsible Advocacy and No-BS Research
The Week In Links—August 16th
Help out a sex worker-run research project, Adult Industry Truth, by taking this survey on trafficking. The survey is for current and former sex workers, clients of sexual services, staff management of industry establishments, and/or social service workers that work with sex workers, to record their observations of trafficking in the industry. xojane disappointed us by posting… Continue reading The Week In Links—August 16th