STOP DISCRIMINATION AGAINST SEX WORKERS IN CORONAVIRUS BAILOUT

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Hundreds of thousands of people in the US rely on the income from sex work to survive and have been thrown into a crisis by the coronavirus.

Sex workers are deliberately excluded on moralistic grounds from loans or grants in the coronavirus bailout bill if their work is judged to be of a “prurient sexual nature”. Sex workers can’t get the cash payment of $1200 per person and $500 for each child like other workers, unless they have filed tax returns, which many do not because of the illegality and stigma associated with their job. Sex workers are not eligible for unemployment compensation or sick pay because they are denied status as workers.

Most sex workers are mothers, primarily single mothers, who are 30% of families living under the poverty line. Instead of support sex workers are met with harassment and arrest by police with street-based workers, trans, Black, immigrant and other women of color particularly targeted.

We the undersigned therefore demand

• Immediate financial support for sex workers in crisis.
• Removal of the moralistic clause of a “prurient sexual nature” in the coronavirus bailout package that excludes sex workers from financial relief.
• An immediate moratorium on arrests of sex workers and an end to criminalization.
• Sex workers to be recognized as workers and therefore entitled for the same benefits as other workers.
• Release sex workers and others in prison for non-violent offenses. Women’s safety is our priority.
• Stop evictions and provide emergency housing for homeless sex workers.
• End to children being taken from sex working mothers and put in foster care or adopted.
• We support demands for financial help for all to address this unprecedented crisis specifically: rent forgiveness; emergency housing for homeless people; for an increase in the social safety net including welfare, SNAP (food stamps), and free healthcare.

Issued by US PROStitutes Collective
uspros@prostitutescollective,net;      www.uspros.net

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Joined by: BAYSWAN (Bay Area Sex Worker Advocacy Project); COYOTE Rhode Island; Cristine Sardina BWS, MSJ, Director, Desiree Alliance; Dominatrixes Against Donald; Erotic Service Providers Union; HIPS-Tamika Spellman (HIPS Policy and Advocacy Associate); Red Canary Song; Sacramento SWOP; Social Justice Queer Trans; Soldiers of Pole Antonia Crane (Founder) + AM Davies (Head Organizer, Coordinator); CWA Local 9003: Soldiers of Pole Strippers’ Union; SWOP Behind Bars; The Sidewalk Project

Endorsers so far: Bay Area Poor People’s Campaign; California Coalition for Women Prisoners; Global Women’s Strike; Legal Action for Women; Margaret Prescod, Founder, Black Coalition Fighting Back Serial Murders/Women of Color Global Women’s Strike; National Lawyers Guild/San Francisco; Payday men’s network; Queer Strike; San Francisco Living Wage Coalition; Western Regional Advocacy Project.