Transgender Day of Remembrance was this past Tuesday, the 20th, and it’s hard to observe without highlighting that trans women are a particularly vulnerable group, doubly so if they’re women of color, and even more so if they engage in the sex trade. TDOR was founded in 1998 to memorialize the still-unsolved murder of Rita Hester, a black trans woman and sex worker. Recently, in late October, a DC police officer was convicted of assault for firing his gun into a car where three trans women were sitting, after the women refused his offer of money for sex. On the 19th of this month, in Miami, a man was arrested and charged with the murder of a Latina trans sex worker.
We Are Dancers, a group helmed by several activist superstars including Tits and Sass contributors Rachel Aimee and Mona Salim, is raising money to further their outreach goals. In other New York activism news, Persist Health Project—an organization our Ask A Pro Sarah Patterson helped found—is holding a benefit to open the city’s first clinic run by and for sex workers.
The hits from our overachieving contributors just keep coming. Melissa Gira Grant published a fantastic piece on strip club labor disputes for The Atlantic, with liberal quoting of our own Bubbles.
The current owner of Nevada’s famous Mustang Ranch was elected commissioner of his county. Of brothel-based prostitution, he says: “The industry is so much more about providing care and human nurturing than anything else.” Guess it would be a good time for us to run a review of Love Ranch. Any volunteers?
The BBC speculates as to how many porn stars can switch from adult to mainstream films.
An Australian escort reacts to the notion that no mother would ever encourage or allow her daughter to become a sex worker.
Two men were sentenced to 5 and 7 years of prison after raping a Glasgow prostitute. It’s possible the two men would have killer her if a passer-by had not intervened.
A post at Feminist Ire ties together the “would you want your daughter to do it” refrain and violence against prostitutes in Scotland.
Sex workers in Kenya are rallying for rights in the wake of a string of murders. In South Africa, one sex worker died during a violent police raid on street activity.