Staff Highlights Archives - Page 5 of 12

DSW Featured at Woodhull Freedom Foundation’s Sexual Freedom Summit

DSW’s J. Leigh Brantly and Melissa Broudo spoke on a panel entitled “Fighting for Decriminalization in the Era of COVID and Black Lives Matter” at the Woodhull Freedom Foundation’s (WFF) 11th annual Sexual Freedom Summit. The event featured human rights advocates, educators and researchers, professionals, movement leaders, and organizational partners all “working towards a time when sexual freedom is fully recognized as a fundamental human right.” This year, the summit took place online, bringing attendees together virtually to explore the intersection of sexual and human rights, identify policy goals, and craft strategies moving forward. The panel contextualized the path toward decriminalization within the pandemic and a national focus on Black Lives Matter and racial justice.

Broudo and Brantly were joined by Monica Jones, a transgender and sex-worker-rights advocate and leader whose activism has shed light on the profiling of trans women of color by law enforcement across the country. The panelists highlighted the unprecedented political context that we are now operating within, and what this means for decriminalization advocacy. Broudo gave an overview of the national initiatives to support the health, safety, and human rights of sex workers. She noted that for the first time politicians are paying attention to decriminalization across the U.S.

Brantly discussed specific legislation being proposed in New England resulting from collaborations between harm-reduction organizations and sex-worker-rights advocates. The bills include the repeal of Loitering for the Purpose of Engaging in a Prostitution Offense (S.2253/A.654), also referred to as the Walking While Trans ban in NY, to combat racist and transphobic stereotyping by law enforcement; the expansion of vacatur laws protecting survivors of human trafficking; immunity from arrest for witnesses and victims of crime who are participating in sex work; and legislation to ensure that all people, regardless of profession, have access to safe healthcare.

Jones talked about her impressive work in Arizona and compared U.S. policies to places like New South Wales, Australia, and New Zealand, where sex work is decriminalized. She highlighted the incredible strides these countries have made in terms of safety and health outcomes, combating trafficking, and aiding collaboration between sex workers and law enforcement.

DSW looks forward to continuing to collaborate with WFF and others to combat the criminalization and stigmatization of sex workers and related communities. You can watch the full panel on WFF’s Facebook page and YouTube channel.

DSW Newsletter Archive

‘The Oldest Profession’ Podcast Returns

DSW’s Kaytlin Bailey will be departing the organization at the end of the month to more directly focus her energy on her burgeoning production company, Old Pro Productions, Inc., which aims to “tell better sex worker stories.” This month Bailey is relaunching her podcast, “The Oldest Profession,” which she originally created in 2017. By the time she joined DSW as communications director in 2018, Bailey had drawn a committed audience inspired by her irreverent humor, honesty, and wit.

Old Pro Productions produces “The Oldest Profession” in addition to Bailey’s one-woman show, “Whore’s Eye View,” which is currently in development. Additionally, the production company has spearheaded a national art build — partnering with local sex workers in five major U.S. cities — culminating in a virtual event on January 25, 2021, the anniversary of the first sex worker-led protest in the U.S.

While we are sad to say goodbye, DSW could not be more excited to see where Bailey’s work will take both the organization and our movement. Her tireless advocacy, public performances, personal essays, and op-eds, featured in various local and national publications, have raised awareness and made this issue accessible to a broader audience of allies. As a former sex worker, Bailey will continue to push people in power to listen to sex workers and stop the arrests.

Keep up with the latest news and entertainment from Old Pro Productions by signing up for its newsletter. You can also support the podcast on Patreon, where you’ll find exclusive content, event invites, and merchandise.

DSW Newsletter Archive

DSW’s Melissa Broudo Honored by National Trans Visibility March

DSW’s Melissa Broudo received the Lou Sullivan Award from the National Trans Visibility March (NTVM) for her outstanding commitment to defending the rights of transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) individuals and communities throughout her legal career. The NTVM Torch Awards is an annual event that “recognizes distinguished achievements and honors individuals whose work has impacted the lives of TGNC communities across the nation.” Those who are recognized have demonstrated excellence in challenging the social structures that disenfranchise TGNC communities, through advocacy, journalism, policy work, education, and public service.

Broudo’s work demonstrates her commitment to human rights, harm reduction, and the empowerment of all, particularly regarding gender equity and diversity. She decided to attend law school with the distinct goal of fighting for the full decriminalization of consensual adult prostitution. Earning her Juris Doctor (JD) from Georgetown University Law School and her Master of Public Health (MPH) from Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health, Broudo has dedicated over 20 years to advocating for sex workers and survivors of human trafficking.

As a senior staff attorney at the Sex Workers Project (SWP) at the Urban Justice Center, Broudo won the first-ever vacatur motion for a survivor of human trafficking and provided technical expertise on these critical motions throughout the state and country. She co-founded the Sharmus Outlaw Advocacy and Rights Institute (SOAR) with longtime colleague and friend Crystal DeBoise (now also with DSW). SOAR furthers policy, advocacy, and capacity building efforts that support the rights of sex workers and survivors of human trafficking. Broudo has been a board member of Gays and Lesbians Living In a Transgender Society (G.L.I.T.S.) since the organization’s founding in 2016. Through her work at SOAR, G.L.I.T.S., and other organizations, Broudo has been featured extensively in the media regarding sex work and #MeToo, the NYC Stripper Strike, and the criminalization of sex workers. She is a tireless advocate for policies that further a rights-based approach to the sex industry.

The intersection between sex worker rights and LGBTQ rights, specifically TGNC justice movements, is significant. TGNC individuals, particularly trans women of color, are overwhelmingly profiled as sex workers, suffering the most severe consequences of criminalization and stigma. Whether litigating to vacate the convictions of trafficking victims or speaking about gender diversity and sexual liberation, Broudo never fails to center those who are most impacted. She accepted the award at the virtual ceremony with words of unity and strength for those fighting for justice at this challenging moment.

Broudo was honored alongside other notable leaders such as Alphonso David from the Human Rights Campaign, Aryah Lester from the Transgender Strategy Center, Taylor Chandler from Us Helping Us, JT Perez from Alianza of New Mexico, and so many more.

DSW Newsletter Archive

DSW Co-Hosts Anti-Trafficking Event in VT

DSW partnered with The Ishtar Collective (TIC), a local sex worker rights organization in VT, to host a luncheon in Montpelier that brought together state legislators, advocates, sex workers, and trafficking survivors from around the northeast U.S. The event, “Sex Work vs. Trafficking,” centered on a recent VT bill (H.568), which TIC and DSW collaborated on with Representatives Maxine Grad (D-Washington 7) and Selene Colburn (P-Chittenden 6-4), who sponsored the legislation.

This bill would provide limited immunity from criminal prosecution for individuals who are a “victim of or witness to a crime that arose from his or her involvement in human trafficking.” Individuals would be able to report such crimes to law enforcement without fearing arrest or other punitive action. It would also create a Sex Work Study Committee that would review the current state laws governing prostitution to modernize them to promote human rights, public health, and safety for all. Although the legislation passed the House in February of this year, it later died in the Senate.

Despite this setback, DSW was incredibly encouraged by the thoughtfulness of advocates and legislators who participated in the event and are hopeful about the bill’s prospects for the next session. J. Leigh Brantly of TIC and DSW spearheaded the event, with TIC’s Henri Tolbert and DSW’s Frances Steele, Melissa Broudo, Crystal DeBoise, and Kaytlin Bailey all joining remotely to facilitate a discussion of how to identify and fight trafficking, build coalitions to support legislation, and more. Organizational allies from NH were also in attendance, and DSW lobbyist Adam Necrason joined to discuss momentum moving forward. Thank you to all who made this special event possible!

DSW Newsletter Archive

Hero(es) of the Month: Honoring the Dancers of the Lusty Lady

In 1996, the Lusty Lady in San Francisco became the first strip club in the country to successfully unionize, making history for the entire informal labor sector, including sex work. Despite the club’s closure in 2013, “Lusties,” as the dancers call themselves, remain a symbol of resilience and empowerment in an industry so often criticized for exploitation.

Siobhan Brooks, a dancer in the Lusty Lady peep show who went on to earn her Ph.D. in Sociology, played a pivotal role in unionization. Brooks observed that the club hired very few women of color and rarely allowed Black women to work in the private booth section, where dancers made larger tips. She raised her concerns with management and was told that "[B]lack women make the club lose money." In response, Brooks filed a racial discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Employees voted in favor of unionizing, and the club was organized by the Exotic Dancers Union, an affiliate of Service Employees International Union (SEIU). The next year the Lusty Lady hired more Black women than it ever had before. Brooks later authored “Organizing From Behind the Glass,” an account of the successful unionizing effort, for the January 1997 issue of Z Magazine.

In 2001 Roger Forbes, a strip-club magnate and partner in Déjà Vu, a company that owns most of the adult theaters and clubs in San Francisco, bought the building and doubled the rent. The owners were facing incredible pressure to close. In response, dancers at the Lusty Lady pooled together $400,000 and purchased the club. For the next 10 years, the Lusty Lady functioned as a worker-run cooperative known for defying stereotypes of tanned, blonde strippers favored by traditional club management.

The Lusties are the inspiration for a growing number of “Stripper Strikes” across the country. In Minneapolis, New York City, Portland, and beyond, dancers began organizing to oppose racist hiring practices, wage theft by management, and a lack of labor and safety protection in clubs. We Are Dancers USA, a national harm-reduction and advocacy organization, was founded in 2018 to empower strippers across the country in response to a gap in resources tailored explicitly to dancers. The organization grew out of We Are Dancers NYC, a local organization founded by dancers and allies, including DSW’s Melissa Broudo.

The NYC Stripper Strike partnered with Broudo and DSW colleague Crystal DeBoise to raise awareness around discrimination and exploitation in city clubs, gaining support from the International Women’s Strike. In response to a report by the Minneapolis Health Department that raised concerns about many city clubs, SWOP Minneapolis partnered with Minnesota State University to successfully pass a city ordinance protecting strippers’ rights in 2019. In Portland, the Haymarket Pole Collective’s grassroots activism has spurred the city’s clubs to adopt mandatory anti-racism training, enforce fair labor practices, and maintain racial equity in hiring practices.

DSW is proud to be a part of the Lusty Lady’s legacy, building equity and empowerment for all workers.

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

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

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.

October 15, 2020

(Photo: Woodhull Freedom Foundation)

Left to right, from top: Monica Jones, J. Leigh Brantly, Melissa Broudo, and a sign language interpreter presented at the Sexual Freedom Summit via Zoom. (Photo: DSW)

DSW’s J. Leigh Brantly holds up a sign reading “Sex Work is Essential Work” as the panel comes to a close. (Photo: DSW)

DSW Newsletter #20 (November 2020)

October 5, 2020

New episodes of “The Oldest Profession” can be accessed via Patreon. (Photo: Oldest Profession Podcast/Instagram, 2020)

Kaytlin Bailey has been with DSW since its inception in 2018 and was advocating for sex workers’ rights long before. (Photo: DSW/Instagram, 2019)

DSW Newsletter #19 (October 2020)

October 2, 2020

The Torch Awards is an annual event honoring those who have worked to support TGNC communities in the U.S. (Photo: NTVM, 2020)

Melissa Broudo delivered her acceptance speech over video during the remote ceremony. (Photo: Courtesy of Melissa Sontag Broudo, 2020)

DSW Newsletter #19 (October 2020)

September 22, 2020

(Photo: DSW/Instagram, 2020)

Luncheon attendees gather for a group photo after the event. (Photo: TIC, 2020)

DSW and TIC members enjoy a socially-distanced drink and dinner to celebrate following the luncheon. (Photo: DSW, 2020)

DSW Newsletter #19 (October 2020)

September 1, 2020

The facade of the Lusty Lady in San Francisco shortly before the club closed in 2013. (Photo: Sarah Rice, Special to The Chronicle, 2013)

Siobhan Brooks, a former dancer at the Lusty Lady, is now an associate professor of African American studies at California State University, Fullerton, and continues to advocate for sex worker rights. (Photo: NY Times, 2019)

Gizelle Marie (left), founder of the NYC Strippers Strike, marches for stripper labor rights with DSW’s Melissa Broudo. (Photo: SOAR Institute, 2018)

Performers from the Lusty Lady represent the Exotic Dancers Union at the 2008 May Day March in San Francisco. (Photo: LA Times, 2008)

DSW Newsletter #18 (September 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)