DSW Newsletters Archives - Page 23 of 31

OnlyFans’ New Policy Endangers Sex Workers During COVID-19

OnlyFans, a subscription service that online sex workers use to post content, recently instituted sweeping policy changes that will cost creators thousands of dollars each month, at a time when they can least afford it. The website recently changed payouts from weekly to monthly and capped pay-per-view prices at $50 and tipping at $100, both of which used to be without a maximum. In-person sex workers who lost their primary source of income due to the pandemic have been left out of government aid plans. Many have pivoted to online platforms to survive. These regulations are catastrophic.

Many content creators suspect that these changes are a result of the actions of Bella Thorne, an actress and celebrity who joined the website in August and defrauded customers on OnlyFans. Thorne’s public image has been vocally pro-sex-work. She directed an adult film entitled “Her & Him” last year for which she received a Pornhub award. Thorne reportedly made $1 million in her first day on OnlyFans and $2 million by the end of the week. The actress, worth between $5-12 million, justified her presence on the site as research for a movie she claimed to be collaborating on with director Sean Baker. Baker later denied these claims. In an interview with LA Times reporter Amy Kaufman, Thorne said she wanted to dedicate her OnlyFans earnings to starting a production company and would be donating the rest to charity.

The actress also advertised a nude pay-per-view image for $200 a view to her 50,000 followers. The photos were not nudes but pictures of Thorne in lingerie, sparking a record number of refund requests issued to OnlyFans. The platform stated that the payout changes were not due to any individual user’s actions, and “transaction limits are set to help prevent overspending and allow our users to continue to use the site safely.” Still, creators link Thorne’s involvement and the subsequent changes.

Thorne issued an apology on Twitter for joining OnlyFans. She said that she had been trying to “remove the stigma behind sex, sex work, and the negativity that surrounds the word SEX itself by bringing a mainstream face to it,” and “help bring more faces to the site to create more revenue for content creators on the site.” She apologized for the harm she caused in the process and said she was meeting with OnlyFans to understand the changes.

Interviews with sex workers who use OnlyFans reveal that adult content creators stand to lose a large percentage of their income. Canadian-based sex worker Rebecca Madison told VICE that she’s worried creators will be forced to sell “content at prices lower than what they are comfortable with due to these new financial pressures,” depressing the market long-term.

While this might have been “research” or a statement for Thorne, OnlyFans is how many creators pay their rent and buy food. The presence of celebrities like Thorne increases competition on the website and threatens that income. TS Jane, a trans sex worker from California and president of the Sex Workers Outreach Project, says that price caps will force some into street-based work where their lives are endangered. On OnlyFans, “I’m empowered with what I do; I can set my own prices, create what I want; I’m my own boss,” Jane told VICE. But that empowerment is jeopardized if sex workers are forced to sell their content for less than it’s worth.

OnlyFans has done a lot for sex workers, but if we do not listen to those most impacted and prioritize their needs, it may fail the community it aims to support.

DSW Newsletter Archive

NY Senate Fails Trafficking Survivors, Again

Through our work with the New York Anti-Trafficking Network (NYATN) and the START Coalition (named for this bill), DSW has been tirelessly advocating for the Survivors of Trafficking Attaining Relief Together (START) Act, a bill allowing survivors of trafficking to clear their criminal records of arrests stemming from exploitation. NY-AB 6983 (Gottfried) passed the Assembly 104–38. Despite urging from advocates and activists, Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins failed to bring the Senate version of the bill, sponsored by Sen. Jessica Ramos (D-Queens), to a vote.

The 2019 version of this bill, also sponsored by Assemblymember Richard Gottfried (D-Manhattan), passed the Assembly last June. Despite support from immigrant rights groups, public defender organizations, numerous district attorneys, and the NYC Bar Association, the Senate never brought the bill to the floor.

Criminal convictions create enormous barriers in the lives of trafficking survivors. For many, criminal records preclude them from most employment opportunities, public health benefits, and other resources. They also increase the risk of deportation for immigrant survivors, all because they were trafficked. That the Senate continues to stall on this urgent issue, despite having the votes, is a glaring failure of leadership.

In 2010, New York became the first state in the U.S. to allow victims to clear their records of prostitution-related convictions. While working as a staff attorney at the Sex Workers Project in NYC, DSW’s Melissa Broudo won the first motion in the nation to offer relief to survivors of trafficking with criminal convictions. Attorneys for survivors say that, although district attorneys are willing to clear sex-work-related offenses in most cases, the process is long and arduous. But these protections are inadequate to support survivors fully. Traffickers force their victims to perform various crimes in addition to sex work, such as theft, drug use, and trespassing. These charges pose the same collateral consequences but are ineligible for vacatur, a legal term referring to an order that sets aside a judgment or annuls a proceeding.

Mateo Guerrero-Tabares, lead organizer for transgender, gender non-conforming, intersex, and queer (TGNCIQ) justice with Make the Road New York, an immigrants rights group in NYC, told the Queens Daily Eagle that “not removing charges given to survivors of human trafficking — as a result of the coercive environment — specifically for undocumented folks means that they will face a lot more challenges in trying to adjust their immigration status, and therefore drive them more into the shadows and expose them to more danger.”

Advocates will keep fighting. Many, like Broudo and Crystal DeBoise of DSW, have spent their careers supporting survivors in forging a better life, which includes removing prior convictions. “There is a real need to expand vacatur so that the law can allow more survivors to move forward without a burdensome and unjust criminal record, which presents myriad barriers to employment, housing, immigration, and other critical areas. We owe it to survivors to not be continually revictimized and retraumatized by the criminal justice system,” says Broudo.

Hero(es) of the Month: TS Candii, SX Noir, and Gizelle Marie Organize the Largest Sex Worker March in U.S. History

August 1, 2020 More than six hundred activists, community members, and allies, including DSW’s Ceyenne Doroshow and Frances Steele, filled Manhattan’s Times Square on a Saturday at 5 p.m. The...

MA Democratic Senate Candidates Are Listening to Sex Workers

August 4, 2020 U.S. Sen. Edward Markey and U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy III, rivals in the MA Democratic Senate primary, both voiced their support for the full decriminalization of sex...

NY Senate Fails Trafficking Survivors, Again

July 21, 2020 Through our work with the New York Anti-Trafficking Network (NYATN) and the START Coalition (named for this bill), DSW has been tirelessly advocating for the Survivors of...

DSW’s Kaytlin Bailey on Sex Work and Police Reform

July 21, 2020 The Cape Cod, MA, chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America asked DSW’s Kaytlin Bailey to present on police reform, accountability, and gendered violence from a sex...

DSW Takes Action Against EARN IT

July 22, 2020 In our last newsletter, DSW reported on how the EARN IT Act, a bill that recently advanced out of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, threatens the very...

The Stripper Strike Goes National

June 27, 2020 The Philadelphia Stripper Strike, organized by Stilettos Inc., a local organization promoting labor rights for dancers, hosted a rally at Malcolm X Park. Demonstrators gathered there with...

DSW Newsletter Archive

MA Democratic Senate Candidates Are Listening to Sex Workers

U.S. Sen. Edward Markey and U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy III, rivals in the MA Democratic Senate primary, both voiced their support for the full decriminalization of sex work on a criminal justice panel. In this hotly contested race, the candidates have been recognized as having relatively similar policies. Kennedy voiced his belief that “the time has come to decriminalize and legalize sex work.” He also expressed a desire to work with advocates to “ensure the result isn’t a system that makes it easier for sex workers to be exploited.” Markey was quoted as saying, “It’s our responsibility to listen to sex workers and advocates to work together on how to move forward,” in a less explicit, but still encouraging commitment to decriminalization.

Along with fellow advocates and allies, DSW has been working tirelessly to push full decriminalization into national policy discussions. Last year, our organization launched a campaign to educate presidential primary candidates on decriminalization and why it is essential to our nation’s health and safety. We’ve consulted with national and local campaigns crafting their policy positions to center sex workers and their safety.

We know that where and when sex work is decriminalized, violence against women, sexual assault, and STD infections decrease. We know that when sex workers can safely advertise online, using mainstream platforms, female homicide decreases. In New Zealand, where sex work has been entirely decriminalized, decriminalization helps combat trafficking. Still, politicians can resist supporting the full decriminalization of adult consensual sex work publicly.

We are beyond encouraged to see rival candidates endorsing a policy to support sex worker rights and community health and safety. Both Kennedy and Markey have also exhibited a dedication to defending the rights of gig workers across the board, extending extra coronavirus relief payments for workers. Candidates who support sex worker rights, support human rights.

Hero(es) of the Month: TS Candii, SX Noir, and Gizelle Marie Organize the Largest Sex Worker March in U.S. History

August 1, 2020 More than six hundred activists, community members, and allies, including DSW’s Ceyenne Doroshow and Frances Steele, filled Manhattan’s Times Square on a Saturday at 5 p.m. The...

MA Democratic Senate Candidates Are Listening to Sex Workers

August 4, 2020 U.S. Sen. Edward Markey and U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy III, rivals in the MA Democratic Senate primary, both voiced their support for the full decriminalization of sex...

NY Senate Fails Trafficking Survivors, Again

July 21, 2020 Through our work with the New York Anti-Trafficking Network (NYATN) and the START Coalition (named for this bill), DSW has been tirelessly advocating for the Survivors of...

DSW’s Kaytlin Bailey on Sex Work and Police Reform

July 21, 2020 The Cape Cod, MA, chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America asked DSW’s Kaytlin Bailey to present on police reform, accountability, and gendered violence from a sex...

DSW Takes Action Against EARN IT

July 22, 2020 In our last newsletter, DSW reported on how the EARN IT Act, a bill that recently advanced out of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, threatens the very...

The Stripper Strike Goes National

DSW Newsletter Archive

DSW’s Melissa Broudo Featured in Film Series on Inspirational Women

DSW’s Melissa Broudo was featured in “As a Woman,” an interview-based film series diving into the lives of six inspirational, female-identifying New Yorkers. Written and produced by Majella Productions, the documentary explores how these individuals relate to their womanhood, and the ways this identity impacts their lived experience. The production is a beautiful examination of the multitude of meanings gender can inspire.

Broudo has dedicated her career to supporting the rights of individuals criminalized for their identity. She decided in college to pursue law with the particular intention of decriminalizing sex work and defending survivors of sexual exploitation. While working as a senior staff attorney at the Sex Workers Project, Broudo won the first-ever vacatur motion for a survivor of human trafficking. She has since provided technical expertise on these critical motions throughout the state and country.

In her interview, Broudo describes her particular brand of feminism and the nuanced way she understands the human experience. Rarely seeing things in black and white is what makes Broudo such an incredible lawyer and advocate. She integrates this understanding, and her tenure combating racial and gender injustice in the court system, into her work at DSW and the NYC-based SOAR Institute.

Sex work is an issue that so often divides feminists, as some see the work as inherently misogynistic and degrading. “I look at it [in] a completely different way,” says Broudo. “If women and women-identifying individuals have been sexualized, why not use that to your advantage … and that is not inherently disempowering. It varies from person to person.”

“As a Woman” was produced by Melbourne-based production house Majella with an extraordinary all-female crew. “We created a space for original thought and honest feeling,” said Gabrielle Pearson, director and producer of the series. “[We intended] to genuinely provoke the strength, fire, and ambition in our female communities. We hope that this series binds together our female power and provides an uplift to those who could draw from the wisdom of what these women have to say. We are all heard, and we are all important.”

You can watch the series on Sticks & Stones Agency’s website.

DSW Newsletter Archive

Hero(es) of the Month: TS Candii, SX Noir, and Gizelle Marie Organize the Largest Sex Worker March in U.S. History

More than six hundred activists, community members, and allies, including DSW’s Ceyenne Doroshow and Frances Steele, filled Manhattan’s Times Square on a Saturday at 5 p.m. The crowd gathered for the Black Sex Worker Liberation March & Vigil. When the event concluded five hours later, it was conclusively the largest demonstration for sex worker rights ever to take place in the U.S.

The lead organizers of the event were TS Candii, SX Noir, and Gizelle Marie.

SX Noir is an activist, researcher, podcast host, and vice president of the Women of Sex Tech, a movement championing the intersection of sex work and sex tech. Her podcast, “Thot Leader Pod,” frames the conversation around sex, love, dating, and tech, “holding space for authentic conversations with innovators, influencers, and activists about how we navigate developments in the sex tech industry.” Noir’s work uplifts sex workers through storytelling, looking at the reality of this work in an ever-changing world. Her podcast “aims to unpack how empathy in digital spaces can enhance our human experience in physical spaces” and has featured other movement leaders such as Kate Zen from Red Canary Song and Jacq the Stripper.

TS Candii is a Black transgender woman, sex worker, organizer, political activist, and public speaker. A fixture in the NY sex worker and transgender rights movement, she is an organizer with Decrim NY and the Repeal the #WalkingWhileTrans Ban Coalition. Candii is currently producing a documentary called “Policing Our Bodies,” sharing the experiences that have shaped her life and her identity.

Gizelle Marie is a NY-born dancer and founder of the New York City Stripper Strike. Always active in her community, Gizelle Marie’s organizing work with the Stripper Strike has been the impetus for her becoming a national figure in sex worker rights. The labor movement was launched in October of 2017 to bring awareness to the abuse and discrimination faced by exotic dancers in NYC and around the country.

Many ‘upscale’ clubs engage in racist hiring processes, setting low caps on the number of dancers of color allowed on the floor. In contrast, ‘urban’ clubs, which discriminate less by race, are more dangerous and less profitable for dancers, and generally dancers have to pay high house fees to management and bouncers. The Stripper Strike partnered with DSW’s Melissa Broudo and Crystal DeBoise through their organization, the SOAR Institute, garnering support from the national Women’s March movement. The International Women’s Strike has also spoken out in solidarity with the Stripper Strike.

Collaboration for the event began months ago. Gizelle Marie launched a fundraiser this past June to support Black sex workers amidst the pandemic. As her work gained momentum and support, making a notable difference in the community, the idea for the march followed.

The march featured speakers including DSW’s Ceyenne Doroshow, who highlighted the critical vulnerability of transgender, gender nonconforming, and nonbinary (TGNC) sex workers of color, and how they have prevailed and built community against all odds. Doroshow’s organization, Gays and Lesbians Living In a Transgender Society (G.L.I.T.S.), has been working to establish safe and equitable housing for transgender sex workers in NY. State Sen. Jessica Ramos; Melania Brown, sister of Layleen Polanco; U.S. Congressional candidate Jamaal Bowman; and Manhattan District Attorney candidate Dan Quart also spoke.

The Times Square rally exhibited the unity and resilience of the sex worker rights movement amidst COVID-19. The march highlighted experiences of sex workers of color, particularly transgender or gender nonconforming folks, who bear the brunt of the stigma and criminalization faced in the industry. But those who showed up represented all corners of sex work, from immigrant massage workers in Queens organized by Red Canary Song, to Melania Brown, sister of Layleen Polanco, a transgender woman who died at Rikers Island while being held on prostitution charges.

In her Instagram post, SX Noir thanked all of those involved: “The mutual aid, legal observers, paramedics, security team, speakers, and volunteers. None of this is possible without you all! We literally took over Times Square!!! To everyone who donated THANK YOU 🙏🏾 as the lead organizer of this event, I am blessed and proud to honor my community with this action. ✊🏾 The fight continues! We are still accepting donations. Link in bio!”

If you are able, please donate to this incredible, ever-growing movement.

Hero(es) of the Month: TS Candii, SX Noir, and Gizelle Marie Organize the Largest Sex Worker March in U.S. History

August 1, 2020 More than six hundred activists, community members, and allies, including DSW’s Ceyenne Doroshow and Frances Steele, filled Manhattan’s Times Square on a Saturday at 5 p.m. The...

MA Democratic Senate Candidates Are Listening to Sex Workers

August 4, 2020 U.S. Sen. Edward Markey and U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy III, rivals in the MA Democratic Senate primary, both voiced their support for the full decriminalization of sex...

NY Senate Fails Trafficking Survivors, Again

July 21, 2020 Through our work with the New York Anti-Trafficking Network (NYATN) and the START Coalition (named for this bill), DSW has been tirelessly advocating for the Survivors of...

DSW’s Kaytlin Bailey on Sex Work and Police Reform

July 21, 2020 The Cape Cod, MA, chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America asked DSW’s Kaytlin Bailey to present on police reform, accountability, and gendered violence from a sex...

DSW Takes Action Against EARN IT

July 22, 2020 In our last newsletter, DSW reported on how the EARN IT Act, a bill that recently advanced out of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, threatens the very...

The Stripper Strike Goes National

DSW Newsletter Archive

DSW Takes Action Against EARN IT

In our last newsletter, DSW reported on how the EARN IT Act, a bill that recently advanced out of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, threatens the very heart of online security and privacy. The legislation claims to go after the online sexual abuse of minors. In a world that is quickly digitizing — and becoming even more dependent on internet security as the coronavirus pandemic forces businesses, healthcare facilities, schools, and other institutions to move online — the EARN IT Act is a sneak ban on encryption that, in reality, does not make anyone safer. Watch DSW’s animation on how the EARN IT Act, now on the Senate floor, would curtail end-to-end encryption and end internet privacy as we know it.

EARN IT would amend Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects online service providers from liability for content posted by their users. That immunity blocks most civil lawsuits and criminal charges under state law (except for sex trafficking) but maintains the tenants of federal regulations.

Under the EARN IT Act, the only way to maintain immunity is for the provider to comply with censorship “best practices” for fighting online sexual exploitation of minors. While this is a critical cause, these best practices would be developed by an “unelected, unaccountable 19-member commission headed by the attorney general, who would have the authority to approve or reject them,” according to Riana Pfefferkorn of the Stanford Center for Internet and Society. These guidelines would then bypass legally mandated deliberative processes to be quickly approved by congress.

Vulnerable people would be more at risk under the EARN IT Act’s mandates. Experts from Human Rights Watch, the ACLU, the Brookings Institution, and more charge that this legislation inappropriately goes after tech companies to solve a problem requiring a holistic social, policy, and enforcement solution. This approach would endanger the security of children, the rights of marginalized groups, and society in general.

Hero(es) of the Month: TS Candii, SX Noir, and Gizelle Marie Organize the Largest Sex Worker March in U.S. History

August 1, 2020 More than six hundred activists, community members, and allies, including DSW’s Ceyenne Doroshow and Frances Steele, filled Manhattan’s Times Square on a Saturday at 5 p.m. The...

MA Democratic Senate Candidates Are Listening to Sex Workers

August 4, 2020 U.S. Sen. Edward Markey and U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy III, rivals in the MA Democratic Senate primary, both voiced their support for the full decriminalization of sex...

NY Senate Fails Trafficking Survivors, Again

July 21, 2020 Through our work with the New York Anti-Trafficking Network (NYATN) and the START Coalition (named for this bill), DSW has been tirelessly advocating for the Survivors of...

DSW’s Kaytlin Bailey on Sex Work and Police Reform

July 21, 2020 The Cape Cod, MA, chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America asked DSW’s Kaytlin Bailey to present on police reform, accountability, and gendered violence from a sex...

DSW Takes Action Against EARN IT

July 22, 2020 In our last newsletter, DSW reported on how the EARN IT Act, a bill that recently advanced out of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, threatens the very...

The Stripper Strike Goes National

DSW Newsletter Archive

DSW’s Kaytlin Bailey on Sex Work and Police Reform

The Cape Cod, MA, chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America asked DSW’s Kaytlin Bailey to present on police reform, accountability, and gendered violence from a sex worker’s perspective. The talk started with a brief history of policing prostitution, and the social narratives we have constructed to allow police abuse to proliferate. Bailey then outlined how decriminalization provides a lens into a critical examination of state-sponsored violence and repression.

The conversation was hosted by Ali Wilkey and Michael Heras, co-chairs of the chapter, as part of Cape Cod DSA’s speaker series on policing, society, and police abolition running throughout the month.

Following her presentation, Bailey led a Q&A in which she fielded questions about gender stereotypes, mutual aid as a support system among sex workers, alternatives to policing, and more. “It was incredibly rewarding to explore these ideas with such a curious group of individuals,” Bailey said. “I felt encouraged by the support we received and look forward to future collaborations!”

Hero(es) of the Month: TS Candii, SX Noir, and Gizelle Marie Organize the Largest Sex Worker March in U.S. History

August 1, 2020 More than six hundred activists, community members, and allies, including DSW’s Ceyenne Doroshow and Frances Steele, filled Manhattan’s Times Square on a Saturday at 5 p.m. The...

MA Democratic Senate Candidates Are Listening to Sex Workers

August 4, 2020 U.S. Sen. Edward Markey and U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy III, rivals in the MA Democratic Senate primary, both voiced their support for the full decriminalization of sex...

NY Senate Fails Trafficking Survivors, Again

July 21, 2020 Through our work with the New York Anti-Trafficking Network (NYATN) and the START Coalition (named for this bill), DSW has been tirelessly advocating for the Survivors of...

DSW’s Kaytlin Bailey on Sex Work and Police Reform

July 21, 2020 The Cape Cod, MA, chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America asked DSW’s Kaytlin Bailey to present on police reform, accountability, and gendered violence from a sex...

DSW Takes Action Against EARN IT

July 22, 2020 In our last newsletter, DSW reported on how the EARN IT Act, a bill that recently advanced out of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, threatens the very...

The Stripper Strike Goes National

DSW Newsletter Archive

DSW Supports Criminal Justice Reform Bills in New York

DSW’s Melissa Broudo and Frances Steele attended a rally in New York City supporting five state-level criminal justice reform bills that will be voted on — and hopefully passed — this legislative session. The rally featured impacted community members who shared personal experiences and state-wide data to explain the critical issues addressed by each bill. Over the past year, DSW has collaborated with local sex workers and LGB and TGNC rights groups to repeal the criminalization of Loitering for the Purpose of Prostitution in New York state (S2253 (Hoylman)/A654 (Paulin)). Also known as the Walking While Trans ban, this repeal was one of the five bills highlighted at the rally.

Walking While Trans disproportionately impacts transgender and cisgender women of color, criminalizing them for otherwise legal behavior based on the way they look. Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance has stopped prosecuting the charge because of such discrimination. Last year, NYPD updated its patrol guide to stop targeting individuals on the basis of “gender, gender identity, clothing, and location.” Despite the fact that charges for Loitering for the Purpose of Prostitution were only brought in six New York counties in 2019, arrests increased by 120%. Of those arrested, 91% were people of color and 80% were women; 47% of the arrests occurred in Queens County alone.

Leaders of the New York City Council’s Women’s Caucus and LGBT Caucus submitted a letter, seeking a hearing for a resolution on the repeal of Walking While Trans. “Our laws need to reflect New Yorkers’ right to walk in public without fear of being profiled for their gender expression… As a Council, we cannot idly sit back and allow state law to further penalize and criminalize anyone on the basis of their clothing, gender expression, or gender identity,” the resolution reads.

Melania Brown, the sister of Layleen Polanco, a transgender woman who died of an epileptic seizure while in solitary confinement on Rikers Island last year, was one of the featured speakers. Layleen was arrested in April 2019 on assault charges and then held on a $500 bail for drug and prostitution charges from 2017. Unable to afford the bail, Polanco passed away two months later.

Together, the bills represent a road map to justice and decarceration in New York state. Each addresses a different facet of racial violence that routinely occurs within the U.S. prison system. The Fair and Timely Parole Act ensures that parole decisions are not racially biased and are based on who individuals are today, rather than who they were when they committed their offense. The Elder Parole Act seeks to end death-by-incarceration sentences in New York state by giving those who have served decades in prison the chance to be released. The HALT Solitary Confinement Act would end solitary in New York and replace it with more effective and humane alternatives. Lastly, the Protect Our Courts Act makes it illegal for ICE agents or law enforcement officers to arrest an individual for a civil violation who is going to, leaving, or attending court.

To help pass the repeal of Walking While Trans, text WALK to 50409. If you are a New York State resident you can also reach out to your State Senator or Assemblymember and urge them to vote on and pass this critical package of bills.

DSW Newsletter Archive

A New Bill Threatening Free Speech and Online Security Passes the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee

An amended version of the EARN IT Act, a dangerous federal bill that could effectively erase private communication online, unanimously passed the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. The passage of the bill sets the stage for a high-stakes floor vote, one that could fundamentally endanger free speech and security on the internet.

Proposed by U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R–SC), the law would establish an unelected, 19-member commission to develop guidelines on prohibited content for online platforms to follow. If companies fail to meet set standards, legal immunity for content posted by third parties, protected by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, could be revoked. The bill’s provisions also threaten encryption, which protects online users from exploitation and surveillance by the government, companies, and other users. EARN IT subjects companies using end-to-end encryption to lawsuits, construing encryption as “recklessly” enabling the spread of child trafficking online.

The result would increase pressure on websites to censor sexual content, causing sex workers to lose access to online safety provisions and networks, income, and clientele; and, in the case of COVID-19, leading to a heightened public health risk. Under SESTA/FOSTA, sex workers have been barred from online platforms where they previously screened clients, shared critical safety and health information, and ensured secure payment. Law enforcement has also reported that, since the passage of SESTA/FOSTA, they have lost evidence and leads for many of the sex trafficking cases they were investigating using online tips. The EARN IT Act will only augment these harms.

Multiple human rights organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch, have challenged the efficacy of the bill’s provisions. The ACLU issued a letter charging that the law would instead “undermine the privacy of every single American, stifle our ability to communicate freely online, and may jeopardize the very prosecutions it seeks to enable.”

“The EARN IT Act falsely suggests that we must choose between protecting children and protecting other fundamental rights, including privacy and free expression,” says Hye Jung Han, child rights and technology researcher at Human Rights Watch. “But the [bill] fails to protect children from online exploitation while undermining their fundamental rights to freedom of expression, access to information, and privacy — during today’s crisis and beyond.”

In a Cato Daily Podcast episode released in March of this year, Eric Goldman, a leading expert on internet law and intellectual property, described how the EARN IT Act removes web platforms’ immunity from being sued for content posted by third parties. Ostensibly an attempt to crack down on material that victimizes young people, Goldman doubts the legislation would achieve its targeted goal. Instead, the bill endangers free speech and the security of online users, particularly those posting sexual content.

DSW Newsletter Archive

Fighting and Winning: Ceyenne Doroshow and the state of TGNCNB rights

DSW consultant, cornerstone figure of the transgender, nonconforming, nonbinary rights movement, and founder of Gays and Lesbians Living In a Transgender Society (G.L.I.T.S.), Ceyenne Doroshow set out to raise a million dollars to support trans women of color last month. The fundraiser reached its goal in one short week and the momentum has not stopped. The drive will support the establishment of housing, social services, and health care clinics for transgender people of color in New York City.

Doroshow and G.L.I.T.S. have been powerhouses of TGNC and sex worker rights organizing in New York for decades. In the wake of the disproportionate devastation borne by the Black and Black trans communities during the coronavirus pandemic, Doroshow’s work has taken center stage. Over the past few months, G.L.I.T.S. has been tirelessly supporting those released from Rikers Island. Many trans women are sent to Rikers for minor sex-crime activity, including Layleen Polanco who recently passed away in solitary confinement due to complications from an epileptic seizure. Doroshow and her team at G.L.I.T.S. provide career training, housing referrals, and certifications as well as a “TransDignity Post-Release Kit” for those just released from prison, including hygienic essentials like wipes and deodorant.

G.L.I.T.S. recently helped organize the 2nd Annual Queer Liberation March this year, initially canceled due to COVID-19 concerns. Along with VOCAL-NY, the Reclaim Pride Coalition, Black Trans Media, and others, the organizational coalition intentionally rebranded the march to highlight racial justice activism. Fifty-thousand masked protesters marched through Manhattan for LGBTQ+ liberation and Black lives. Leading the procession uptown, seated in a rickshaw of honor, was Ceyenne Doroshow.

In an interview with Vogue, Doroshow describes how, in the first two weeks of the COVID-19 outbreak in New York City, she lost 20 friends. Devastated but determined to help, G.L.I.T.S. collaborated with Rikers Island to determine a COVID-safe plan to get Black trans men and women out of jail and into safe isolation. The program presented enormous challenges, but it ultimately succeeded. Today, “we are thriving,” Doroshow says. “Those we’ve been able to help, they’re thriving. Some have graduated [from] college through COVID-19 and graduated at the top of their class. That’s what makes me proud, and that’s what I want, to continue developing these tools so that we can catch people before they fall.”

Doroshow recently participated in a virtual press conference on the State of TGNC/NB Rights. It is clear that organizations like G.L.I.T.S. are driving a movement that should not be underestimated. Last month, DSW reported on a 15,000+ person rally for Black Trans Lives in Brooklyn. The next day the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Civil Rights law extends to LGB and TGNC workers, who had previously been left unprotected from workplace discrimination. More and more, people are talking about the reality that transgender people of color face in this country. As Doroshow puts it, “there is a general problem when it comes to equity and trans people, people of color, Black trans women. There’s a problem when you’re trying to sustain and trying to live. For example, your landlord has the right to discriminate against you, and you can’t prove discrimination. So once again, you’re abandoned by a system and by a community.”

Symbolized by her position in the Queer Liberation March, Doroshow is quickly becoming a nationally renowned figure. G.L.I.T.S. is the definition of mutual aid and community solidarity in the face of hardship. The organization has been highlighting individual-based fundraisers for trans folks who have been killed due to police violence through their Instagram page. Many of the G.L.I.T.S. volunteers and supporters have been donating to an emergency relief fund to help bail Black trans sex workers out of jail. And it’s working, bringing people together when it is most critical. “Allies don’t come in color—they’re just allies. Having a bunch of young people care and just jump in and start organizing around us and helping us do the work—you can’t ask for anything better than that.”

To support Doroshow’s work and this growing movement, visit G.L.I.T.S.’s donation page here.

August 27, 2020

Actress Bella Thorne is rumored to have instigated the policy changes by her conduct on the site. (Photo: Jeff Spicer/BFC/Getty Images)

Thorne issued an apology to sex workers and OnlyFans users for her actions via Twitter. (Photo: @bellathorne/Twitter)

DSW Newsletter #18 (September 2020)

July 21, 2020

NY state Sen. Jessica Ramos and Assemblymember Richard Gottfried speak in June of 2019 on the bill they sponsored, which enables survivors of human trafficking to get their criminal records cleared. (Photo: Danielle Blunt/Queens Daily Eagle)

In NY state, trafficking victims may face deportation for offenses they were forced to commit. (Photo: NYATN/Twitter)

DSW Newsletter #17 (August 2020)

August 4, 2020

U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy III (left) and U.S. Sen. Edward Markey (right) exchange a socially-distanced elbow bump following a debate on August 8, 2020. (Photo: Danny McDonald/Boston Globe)

Both candidates have been outspoken about their support for comprehensive criminal justice reform, giving speeches inside prisons to reach impacted communities. Here, U.S. Sen. Edward Markey talks to inmates on July 7. (Photo: Matt Stone/Boston Herald)

DSW Newsletter #17 (August 2020)

August 18, 2020

Melissa Broudo was one of six interviewees highlighted in the film series. (Photo: Majella Productions)

L to R: Frances Steele, Ceyenne Doroshow, Melissa Broudo, Crystal DeBoise, and Kaytlin Bailey pose for the film. (Photo: Majella Productions)

Broudo was featured in the New York Times for her groundbreaking work on vacatur for survivors of trafficking. (Photo: Nicole Bengiveno/NY Times)

DSW Newsletter #18 (September 2020)

August 1, 2020

The vigil filled Times Square with protesters clad in red, the color of solidarity for sex worker rights. (Photo: @thegizellemarie/Instagram)

Ceyenne Doroshow (left) and Vanessa Warri (right) pictured before Doroshow spoke at the rally. (Photo: @glits_inc/Instagram)

SX Noir addresses protesters, speaking on how tech censorship has targeted, censored, and criminalized sex workers. (Photo: @sxnoir/Instagram)

Gizelle Marie leads the march downtown. (Photo: @thegizellemarie/Instagram)

Demonstrators from Red Canary Song, an organization representing migrant sex workers and survivors, listen to speeches at the rally. (Photo: SWOP Brooklyn)

DSW Newsletter #17 (August 2020)

July 22, 2020

DSW Newsletter #17 (August 2020)

July 21, 2020

Kaytlin Bailey’s presentation was the third in a four-part speaker series entitled “Policing Society.” (Photo: Cape Cod DSA/Instagram)

Bailey describes the critical intersection between sex worker rights, racial and gender justice, and police reform during her July 21 presentation. (Photo: Cape Cod DSA/YouTube)

DSW Newsletter #17 (August 2020)

July 14, 2020

Melissa Broudo (left) and Frances Steele (right) listen to speakers at a rally in New York City. (Photo: DSW, 2020)

Melania Brown, sister of Layleen Polanco, calls for an end to police brutality and justice for transgender women. (Photo: DSW, 2020)

The rally supported five criminal justice bills to provide a #RoadMaptoJustice in New York state. DSW Supports a Rally for Criminal Justice Reform in New York State. (Photo: Brooklyn Defender Services/Instagram, 2020)

DSW Newsletter #16 (July 2020)

July 2, 2020

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham proposed the legislation in March of this year. (Photo: Tasos Katopodis/The Verge, 2020)

The same human rights experts and community activists who protested the passage of SESTA/FOSTA in 2018, including the ACLU, Human Rights Watch, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, are speaking out against the EARN IT Act. (Photo: Wiktor Szymanowicz/Barcroft Media, 2020)

Eric Goldman is a professor at Santa Clara University School of Law where he co-directs the High Tech Law Institute and co-supervises the law school's Privacy Law Certificate. (Photo: Eric Goldman, 2020)

DSW Newsletter #16 (July 2020)

June 29, 2020

Ceyenne Doroshow is pictured marching for Black Trans Lives, following her speech at the Brooklyn Liberation Rally. (Photo: Richi Shazam/Vogue, 2020)

Seated in a rickshaw, Doroshow led the 2nd Annual Queer Liberation March, rebranded to include the Black Lives Matter movement against police brutality and racial injustice. (Photo: Leandro Justin/Out Magazine, 2020)

Marchers celebrated liberation and human rights for all marginalized communities, including sex workers. (Photo: Meryl Meisler/Mic, 2020)

Doroshow hosted a virtual pride event in partnership with GLAAD and the National LGBTQ Taskforce. (Photo: G.L.I.T.S., 2020)

Doroshow addressed a cheering crowd of over 15,000 people at the Brooklyn Liberation Action For Black Trans Lives. (Photo: G.L.I.T.S., 2020)

DSW Newsletter #16 (July 2020)