Rights vs. Rescue: Sex Worker Rights, Harm Reduction and the Law

Date: Saturday, March 3, 2012
Time: 3-5pm
Location: Capitol Hill Library Branch, 425 Harvard Ave E, 98102
2nd floor meeting room

Note: This event is not sponsored by The Seattle Public Library

Panel description:
Human rights violations against sex workers– including violence, mistreatment, and/or misguided “help” from state and social service agents – are all too common. These violations have recently been addressed by the United Nations and US State Department. This panel, comprised of human rights and social justice workers/activists in Seattle, will discuss how people from the progressive community can work together for sex workers’ rights within a broader framework of social justice.

More information:
Sex workers—that is people who engage in sexual commerce for income and subsistence needs—are members of families and communities in all parts of the United States ???. Because of stigma and criminalization sex workers—and those profiled as such—are subjected to violence and discrimination, and are impeded from accessing critical services, such as healthcare, and the right to equal protection under the law. State agents themselves, specifically police officers, commit physical and sexual violence against sex workers. These abuses are particularly rampant in poor and working class, urban, majority African-American and immigrant communities and also greatly affect lesbian, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. Globally, the U.S. federal anti-prostitution policies, such as the “anti-prostitution pledge,” have had dire consequences for international HIV/AIDS efforts. Globally, there is also a movement to reverse these trends. Come learn more about these issues on March 3.