sex work

Sex Workers Are “Trafficking Victims” Until Cops Don’t Want Them to Be

I started sex work in my early teens. Older boys in the foster care homes and group homes I grew…

August 14, 2024

What Options Does the Sex Offender Registry Leave Us, If Not Sex Work?

They say that time is money, but if that’s true then mine doesn’t seem to be worth that much. I…

July 16, 2024

HIV Rights Advance for Cops, Ahead of the Sex Workers They Criminalize

On March 23, the city of Nashville settled a federal discrimination lawsuit over barring people living with HIV from serving…

March 29, 2024

Sex Work, Anti-Trafficking Policies and the Continuum of Consent

Circumstantial sex workers often do sex work for a period of time to get by. During their time in the…

January 9, 2024

The Right to Consensual Sex—and Condoms—in Prison

Greg* has been incarcerated in Tennessee for about 18 months. He’s been on a waiting list for job placement for…

November 8, 2023

Tennessee’s HIV Sex Offender Law Discourages Testing, Not Transmission

In the mid-'90s at Washington State Penitentiary, a corrections officer (CO) and I had been yelling at each other for…

November 2, 2023

Re-Queering Harm Reduction Means Reclaiming Its Grassroots Spirit

When the harm reduction movement emerged, survival was front of mind: Policymakers were leaving drug users, sex workers and queer and…

August 15, 2023

FDA Blood Donor Ban Ends for Gay Men, While Staying in Place for Others

On August 7, the Red Cross implemented a new blood donor eligibility assessment that doesn't discriminate against men who have…

August 7, 2023

Sex Workers Got No Pardons. Decriminalization Is Overdue.

On October 8, President Biden pardoned thousands of people convicted of simple marijuana possession. In doing so, he took a…

October 18, 2022

Monkeypox Vaccine Rollout Reflects Deprioritization of Sex Workers

The monkeypox epidemic isn’t going anywhere, especially for street-based sex workers. NPR reports that cases of infection have slowed down…

September 13, 2022