Freedom, Safety and Self Determination

OTRANS members preform a traditional dance to celebrate the cultural roots of trans people. Photo courtesy of OTRANS

Right-wing sting operations used undercover videos of themselves acting as “pimps” to bring down ACORN and attack Planned Parenthood. The “anti-prostitution pledge” instituted under the Bush administration continues to handcuff HIV/AIDS organizations and hamper public health efforts globally. Whether in Chicago or Guatemala City, trans women are profiled as sex workers and harassed by police. Responses to the very real issue of human trafficking are being confused by the conflation of sex work and sex trafficking. In this context, Astraea funds organizations with broad economic justice and anti-violence platforms that often include sex work and its impact on LGBTI communities, as well as LGBTI-inclusive organizations working specifically for sex-worker rights.

Human trafficking, whether for domestic, farm or sex labor, is a serious human rights violation. However, treating sex work and sex trafficking as the same thing labels all people involved in the sex trade as victims and inadvertently silences powerful voices. People who have been trafficked, and those involved in the sex trades, should be at the center of the debate so that their expertise can shape effective solutions.

Grantee partner Young Women’s Empowerment Project (YWEP) in Chicago is doing incredible work to shake off the victim label by linking experiences in the sex trade and street economies with larger issues of racial, economic and gender justice. The organization provides harm reduction education, healing circles, legal support, and “Know your rights” information. To address the lack of research on girls and women, including trans girls and women, who trade sex for survival needs, YWEP produced a groundbreaking report by and for the community: Girls Do What They Have to Do to Survive. It highlights methods of resistance and resilience. YWEP is also crafting training materials for social service organizations and seizing other advocacy opportunities to leverage this study.

LGBTI youth are particularly vulnerable to abusive “quality of life” policing and anti-trafficking initiatives, leading to increased incarceration. While only 5–10% of the youth population, they make up 20–40% of the homeless youth population.¹ Astraea grantee partner Streetwise and Safe (SAS) in New York tackles the challenges facing LGBTQQ youth of color involved in the sex trade and street economies. The group’s signature 15-week “Know your rights” leadership development curriculum empowers participants and helps youth stabilize their lives while becoming effective policy advocates.

Legal recognition of sex work as real work would have enormous benefit for LGBTI people, including those profiled as sex workers whether engaged in street economies or not. Internationally, many of the trans organizations that Astraea supports have organized around the issue of sex-worker rights because of the employment discrimination and economic realities facing transgender communities.

Member artwork courtesy of YWEP.

In Turkey, grantee partner Pembe Hayat organizes national trans and sex-worker symposiums, provides legal and psychological support to victims of transphobic and anti-sex-worker violence, and advocates for the passage of workplace and housing anti-discrimination laws for trans people. Police regularly harass and fine transgender people based solely on their identity under a broadly defined “public order” law. Pembe Hayat is working with the European Commission and the United Nations to hold Turkey responsible for human rights violations against transgender people and sex workers.

Similarly, OTRANS Reinas de la Noche is an Astraea grantee partner working in seven towns in Guatemala to build an active national network to prevent hate violence and discrimination against transgender people. A dozen highly public murders of trans women have occurred locally in the last year, and those trans women who do sex work were targeted. OTRANS advocates for healthy work environments for its constituents, whether in sex work or other livelihoods. The group recently released a community study on Guatemalan attitudes on trans issues and used it as an advocacy tool during the election season to pressure candidates to include the concerns of transpeople in their platforms.

Sex work is just one of many issues that Astraea grantee partners address in their quest for just societies. The world’s oldest profession is colored by the interlocking systems of racial, economic and gender injustice that aim to control sexuality. At the root of the work that Astraea supports globally is an enduring commitment to address the myriad and intertwined power structures that prevent the freedom, safety and self-determination of all people.

Read Astraea’s Gender Justice and Sex Worker Organizing Statement.

1 On the Streets: The Federal Response to Gay and Transgender Homeless Youth, Center for American Progress.