This month marks the seventh anniversary of the tragic death of Yang Song. On November 25, 2017, New York City Police Department (NYPD) officers raided a Flushing, Queens, massage parlor as part of a sting operation targeting consensual adult sex work. Amidst the panic and brutality of the raid, Song, an employee at the massage parlor, fell from a window on the building’s third floor.

In the aftermath of her passing, Song’s family shared that she had been sexually assaulted by an undercover police officer after she was arrested for prostitution just a few months prior. Song had faced relentless harassment from the NYPD as they blackmailed and attempted to coerce her into being an informant. The harassment and threats grew increasingly ruthless the more she refused until she was finally targeted in the sting operation that ultimately led to her death.

Song’s story galvanized hundreds of local decriminalization advocates, who immediately organized protests and vigils in her honor. It was among these activists that the organization Red Canary Song was born. Originally founded with the intent of helping Song’s family pay for legal support and healthcare expenses, Red Canary Song now fights to promote the well-being of Asian and migrant sex workers through labor rights, mutual aid, and advocating for the decriminalization of consensual adult sex work.

Unfortunately, Song’s story is only one of countless instances of law enforcement targeting and brutalizing sex workers. The criminalization of sex work enables situations like these, where immigrants and sex workers are powerless against law enforcement for fear of arrest or deportation.

Police stings are violent, brutal, and traumatizing. Asian-owned massage parlors are frequent targets of these raids, where law enforcement claim to be saving “victims of trafficking” by arresting them. However, as demonstrated by Yang Song’s tragic story, it’s clear that this isn’t the case. In fact, rarely, if ever, do these stings actually uncover human trafficking.

Sadly, Yang’s story has not brought about change in how law enforcement treats sex workers and those they suspect of engaging in sex work. Raids and over-policing continue to endanger the wellbeing and lives of these marginalized communities. Decriminalizing consensual adult sex work is the only path towards improved health and safety for all.

Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) is observed each year on November 20 to commemorate and honor lives lost to acts of anti-transgender violence. TDOR originated in 1999, following the murder of Rita Hester, a transgender woman who was stabbed to death in her Boston home in 1998. Transgender rights activist Gwendolyn Ann Smith hosted an event to Commemorate Hester’s death, and TDOR was born.

TDOR is critical to recognizing the violence and persecution that transgender and gender-nonconforming (TGNC) individuals face on a daily basis in the United States. TGNC history is often left out of educational curricula and crimes against TGNC individuals are vastly under-reported, in large part as a result of stigmatization and a lack of safety and support for TGNC individuals within social and governmental institutions.

Organizations and groups across the country host vigils and events to commemorate TDOR. This year, DSW Legal Director Melissa Sontag Broudo and DSW Volunteer Alison Kolins traveled to Providence, RI to attend a large community gathering hosted by Project Weber Renew, Haus of Codac, Black and Pink, and others. The gathering included performances, speeches by advocates and Providence Mayor Brett Smiley, awards for local leaders, and personal remembrances for transgender victims of violence. While a somber event, it was clear that the community took great strength in coming together to mourn and rededicate themselves to eradicating anti-transgender violence.

This October and November, Decriminalize Sex Work (DSW) headed to DomCon in New Orleans and the American Public Health Association (APHA) Annual Meeting and Expo in Minneapolis to discuss the decriminalization of consensual adult sex work.

DomCon is an annual convention for the professional and lifestyle community that has taken place in Los Angeles and New Orleans each year since 2004. Founded by Mistress Cyan, the event has become the world’s premier professional and lifestyle domination convention offering classes, workshops, parties, shows and performances. DSW Staff Attorney Becca Cleary and Chief Advocacy Coordinator Henri Bynx attended DomCon and connected with numerous allies across the BDSM community. Just as sex work is often stigmatized, kink has a long history of being seen as taboo or sexually deviant. Both communities are often forgotten in the larger social justice movement due to outdated notions of morality and DomCon offers the opportunity for the two communities to connect over shared experiences. At this year’s event, Cleary was honored as a recipient of the Ms. Velvet Memorial Award in appreciation of her contribution and support of the BDSM, Fetish and Leather Communities.

After DomCon, DSW Legal Director Melissa Broudo and Staff Attorney Becca Cleary headed to Minneapolis to staff DSW’s booth for APHA’s annual expo. Each year, APHA’s Annual Meeting and Expo convenes 12,000 public health professionals and partners from around the world to engage, collaborate and grow. One of the strongest arguments for decriminalizing consensual adult sex work is the positive impact it would have on public health. Every public health professional that DSW had the privilege of speaking with agreed that data and evidence backs the need to fully decriminalize consensual adult sex work in order to improve public health and safety for workers and their communities. To learn more about why full decriminalization is the only evidence-based approach to improve public health, read our briefing paper on decriminalizing sex work for public health.

Decriminalize Sex Work joined allies, community members and advocates to host a press conference demanding an immediate end to “Operation Restore Roosevelt,” a harmful policing campaign launched by NY Governor Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Eric Adams in Queens, NY. The intensification of policing violently targets the community’s most vulnerable members, including immigrants, transgender individuals, and working-class people of color — many of whom engage in sex work.

Community members took over the steps of Corona Plaza, surrounded by signs and loud chants to share their personal stories as they demanded the removal of state and local troops from Jackson Heights, North Corona, and Elmhurst. They sent a clear message to Governor Hochul and Mayor Adams on the need to invest in community-based solutions that prioritize support for sex workers and street vendors, ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to thrive. They stressed the need for politicians to speak directly to members of the community to understand their needs, rather than create policies that exclude and dehumanize them.

Authorities say they are responding to neighborhood complaints that sex work makes the area unsafe and unlicensed street vendors infringe on public space and make it hard for brick-and-mortar businesses to thrive.

The press conference generated lots of media attention, including Sex workers, street vendors protest police raids in Queens.

Advocates who spoke at the press conference shared the following statements:

“As a longtime attorney and advocate for sex workers and survivors of human trafficking, I can say from experience and with certainty that the criminalization of sex work is used to disproportionately target and criminalize people of color, the LGBTQIA+ community, particularly transwomen, and people who are the most vulnerable to exploitation. Evidence shows that decriminalizing sex work will help end human trafficking, improve public health, and promote community safety,” said Decriminalize Sex Work Legal Director Melissa Sontag Broudo.

“As public defenders who represent the majority of this city’s criminalized sex workers, street vendors, and labor and sex trafficking survivors, we know that sending in state troopers and diverting NYPD resources to ramp up enforcement in Jackson Heights will only lead to arrests and further marginalization of those struggling to survive,” said Abigail Swenstein with the Exploitation Intervention Project at The Legal Aid Society. “If either Mayor Adams or Governor Hochul truly cared about possible trafficking or the ‘quality of life’ in the surrounding Jackson Heights and Corona area, they would invest in these communities and the local community-based organizations who provide assistance to marginalized workers. Arresting survivors is never the answer.”

Elizabeth Koke, Creative Director of Housing Works, said, “It is an outrage that the Governor and Mayor would rather invest in terror-inducing law enforcement than prioritize the wellbeing of the hard-working New Yorkers in this neighborhood. Safe, affordable, and dignified housing is not only the first step in building a sustainable life here in New York, but a human right. We need more resources for housing and healthcare — not escalated police presence in our communities.”

Ceyenne Doroshow, Founder/Executive Director of G.L.I.T.S, said, “For decades sex workers have been surviving, demanding respect and good healthcare and still yet we are still being criminalized. We urge investment in our communities, not more criminalization of our communities.”

Victoria Von Blaque, of Trans Equity Consulting, said, “Jackson Heights, once the embodiment of the American dream for marginalized groups, yet gentrification and over-policing are unraveling the delicate ecosystem that flourished here. The very community that offered safety and belonging is now under threat, as non-white sex workers face increasing danger from those sworn to protect them. Displacement of families disrupts the vibrant tapestry woven by vendors, nightlife, and sex workers. Instead of addressing real issues, politicians target the vulnerable, exacerbating the harm to a community that deserves preservation, not persecution.”

Assemblymember Phara Souffrant Forrest, District 57, said, “I sponsored the Stop Violence in the Sex Trades Act (SVSTA) because I believe that these workers, along with others in the informal economy, are being unfairly scapegoated for systemic problems in our society. Many of them are immigrants, many queer or transgender, and almost all are struggling to make a living. Instead of receiving protection and support, they are being further criminalized, and placed into a potential pipeline into deportation. Instead of relying on increased enforcement to solve these challenges, we must address the root causes of poverty, including housing insecurity, lack of employment opportunities, and discrimination, to keep our communities truly safe for all.”