After internalizing a lifetime of invalidating imagery, it’s can be affirming to have people throw money at you just because you’re hot.
After years of poverty, starving on dumpstered bagels, sleeping in boxcars and all that other crusty punk shit, I’m no stranger to being broke. Despite my college degree, years of experience as a case manager, white- and passing-privilege, and infinite hard work as a volunteer community organizer, it’s still hard to find and hold down a job with a living wage as a trans woman who lives with mental health issues.
It’s easy to see why so many people, especially in queer and trans communities, turn to sex work. In one night, I can make more money than I used to make in a month standing on my feet churning out lattes. And I don’t have a boss!
After internalizing a lifetime of invalidating imagery, it’s can be affirming to have people throw money at you just because you’re hot. It’s also empowering to know I can support myself on my own terms. And, as the DC Trans Coalition recently wrote in our study of trans communities in the District, sex work often provides a space for marginalized people to create networks of mutual support.
But of course, being a whore isn’t all fun. There’s also: The Anxiety. The boring hours wasted on Craigslist. The ever-present fear of police raids, bad dates, condemnation, and everything else that goes along with being a tranny hooker.
This is why I prefer porn over escorting. As I’ve written elsewhere, porn performers have to deal with stigma, but escorts are much more actively criminalized. Further, street-involved sex workers face the brunt of physical violence.
This contrast is no accident, by the way. Porn is legal and regulated. “Prostitution” is criminalized. Abusive photographers can be reported. Abusive pimps get away with it precisely because the cops are just as abusive — and usually working with them. (Sadly, almost no models can survive solely on income from porn. Even the most famous porn stars probably escort on the side.)
After my first hardcore shoot, I thought about all of the things that go into making those 3 or 4 minute clips that people pay money to jerk off to. Dear porno aficionados, when you click the flashy animated link to watch sexy shemales taking it in the ass!!!, do you think about all of the mundane, awkward, unglamorous shit (and santorum) that goes into making it? I doubt it.
I’ve written about the cissexist and trans-misogynistic expectations that the tranny porn industry imposes. I’ve also written about the radical potential of an empowered trans-centric sexuality. Plenty of other people have already broken down the problematic imagery that appears in porn. Even most anti-feminist, apolitical porno fans know that mainstream porn portrays an unattainable standard for (trans) female bodies and that it shows unrealistic sex.
But, right now, I’m more interested in what doesn’t appear in porn.
Following the good discussions we’ve had on PrettyQueer about when feminists watch porn and when cis guys cry over trans sex workers. I give you: The Top 5 Porn Moments You Don’t See.
1) Paperwork
Nothing is more boring than paperwork, right? Well, porn involves a lot of it. Two forms of ID, proof that you’re not a minor, proof that you’re not on drugs, proof that you don’t have any sexually-transmitted infections. This effectively bars undocumented residents from the porn industry, and can present a major hurdle for many trans folks who remain underdocumented due to the inconsistent ways governments record gender. In any case, many major porn studios record their models while they are filling out the paperwork, just in case one of us turns out to be a 15-year-old and the Feds start pointing fingers. But this footage is always kept safely on file, never online. I, for one, greatly appreciate that my privacy is respected, but come on? Who wouldn’t want to watch a sexy lady sign dotted lines while dressed to the nines?
2) Awkward Hugs
It didn’t take me long to get over the awkwardness of fucking a total stranger with whom I share absolutely nothing in common and don’t find attractive whatsoever. That was actually pretty easy. I don’t treat it at all like sex with my romantic partners or hot one-night stands. It’s work. It’s a performance. Once I accepted that, I was able to have fun getting “in character.” And that’s not to say that sex for money never feels good — physically, it can still be pleasurable at times. For me… the really difficult part was the obligatory polite hugs. Ew. I guess there’s something odd about an anarcha-feminist radical queer tranny hugging an anonymous, hyper-masculine tranny chaser who’s also a U.S. solider.
3) People Trying to Get Erections
Mira wrote about our culture’s fear of soft penises in the first issue of her zine Fully Functional: A Zine About Fucking Trans Women. She did a great job examining how this social trend marginalizes many trans women’s sexualities. Tranny porn notoriously reinforces this trope. Models are heavily encouraged — even paid more money — to get hard. But for trans women who use hormones, getting hard isn’t always easy. And then of course, many trans women have no desire to use their genitalia in that way. As a result, realistic trans-female sexuality, for many people, involves other ways of fucking. But in porn, we’re supposed to be hard all the time (with exceptions for scenes with penetration where we’re bottoming). This sometimes means pausing the cameras, jerking off until something moves, and then turning them back on. And it’s not just the trans women. Although cis men are expected to be able to get hard and ejaculate with ease, the reality is different. Porn viewers don’t see the time (sometimes hours) that it takes for models of all genders to obtain a hard-on. During my first hardcore shoot, after we got enough footage of fucking and it came time for the sacred money shot, I laid in bed naked reading a book for over an hour, waiting for the cis male model to cum. At one point, I actually left to smoke a cigarette… but you won’t see that on my website.
4) Putting on Condoms
Although most models wear condoms nowadays, there is still a market for bareback porn. Trans women and gay men are especially encouraged to bareback (have unprotected anal sex). Even in porn where models do use barriers, you almost never see the condoms being physically placed on the penis. Perhaps this is because they’re trying to make short clips that get straight to the point. Or maybe it’s because mainstream porno is contributing to the idea that condoms are turn-offs. As far as I’m concerned, this makes the porn industry execs complicit at best, and directly responsible at worst, for the epidemic proliferation of HIV and other sexually-transmitted diseases in queer and trans communities. Porn directors have an obligation to spread the word that condoms are hot, not merely something we must begrudgingly wear to prevent infection.
5) Money
The last un-money shot is, well, money. You won’t see the part where the producer places giant wads of cash in my hand. Porn viewers don’t want to be reminded that we get paid for helping give them orgasms. That might make them feel cheap…. like — gasp! — no better than those dudes who buy whores for a night! Or perhaps the idea of a trans woman receiving fair compensation for performing labor is just too much for them.
If you believe that sex workers deserve fair labor standards like everyone else, including being paid fairly, being treated with respect by their clients, and not having to fear rape, murder or arrest because of their job, please support these sex worker rights organizations with donations and/or volunteering!
HIPS (Washington, DC)
STELLA (Montreal)
St. James Infirmary (San Francisco)
The Sex Workers Project (NYC)
Pivot (Vancouver)
Feminists Advocating for Rights and Equality for Sex Workers (canada)
Sex Workers Outreach Project (United States)
Desiree Alliance
$pread Magazine
{ 60 comments… read them below or add one }
I want to see a porn comprised entirely of awkward hugs, people reading books waiting for someone to get hard, and uncomfortable small talk. I would pay a considerable sum of money for this.
I’d come watch it with you!
Me too!
I have often why the intervention of a camera makes sex for money legal, whereas sex for money without a camera is illegal. There seems to be no legal basis for it. Aside from the intellectual, I once had sex for money, though it was entirely by accident. (I did it for fun, not knowing he would insist on paying me, and I gleefully accepted, being unemployed and broke, and knowing that I could have a great story to tell forever.) It *was* amazing to get money just for being hot. But I wish that employment discrimination would magically disappear so only people who *want* to be in porn or prostitution are in those fields.
So true Jillian! Completely agree.
So true.
“After internalizing a lifetime of invalidating imagery, it’s can be affirming to have people throw money at you just because you’re hot.”
I can totally relate to this feeling. I remember the afterglow of walking away with my first $100 bill… and then realizing that the cafe I was meeting my friends wouldn’t break it.
Haha, yes! I remember writing somewhere about how weird it is to be totally broke… but still having to ask my friends to cover for me because I literally *only* have hundreds.
You’re making me go all misty-water-colored-memories for my sub/switch days. I vacillated between being bitter and remembering rolling my bed littered with wads of cashmoney. I’m so conflicted. I was probably having a much better time than I will admit to.
I also would like to see the shots where people fill out paperwork, but then office supplies are in fact my kind of pr0n.
I love this article! I really appreciate the part about the awkward hugs. I have not done porn, but experienced this while doing other types of sex work–I hug my friends and family and having sex with a stranger does not make that person a friend. Whenever someone would go in for a hug, I would cringe. A handshake will do, thanks.
I’ve seen somewhere, I think in Canada, a little pamphlet called “For Our Clients.” It’s a list of suggestions for johns about how to be respectful, safe, and consensual. It had a lot of casual tips for making the sex worker feel more comfortable. One of them should totally be “Stick to Handshakes!”
I’ve seen stuff like that on people’s websites before, that sounds like a great resource!
It’s always interesting to read about experiences in mainstream porn, especially trans issues within mainstream porn. I’m in such a bubble with the San Francisco queer porn community (especially as far as showing barrier use and respect for identities goes), so some of these experiences feel alien to me. Of course there’s always going to be 2257 & money, no matter what kind of porn you’re doing.
Yeah, I’ve made some fun porn with my friends before, and have always dreamed of doing a queer porn site of my own along the lines of Doing it Ourselves: The Trans Woman Porn Project. We have a host and everything, but unfortunately, the last time we tried to film we weren’t able to get equipment at the right time. So we just decided to have an orgy instead, lolz. (What else to do with a room full of six or seven hot trans dykes?)
Sigh, if only geography wasn’t a barrier. I’d love to film that for you.
I’d love that! Some day, it’ll happen. We have a bunch of models, a server, and a web designer!
I second the requests for a porn made entirely of these things! I especially would enjoy seeing performer get paid at the end of every porn. That should be the new industry standard.
If anyone wants to make a porn involving getting paid handsomely to sit around reading while waiting for other performers to get it up, I’m so in.
~M
I love this article! Firstly, everything Sadie writes is witty and fascinating, secondly, sex work needs to be brought out of the red light into the clear light of day as an industry that needs real regulation for all workers. We DO love our sex workers in the U.S. (oh yes, we do.) and they deserve the best pay and health care and recognition of rights. It is great to get a reminder of the facts behind the fantasy and Sadie describes them so well.
Awh, thanks.
One of the recent actresses I stumbled across online had her own blog-site (with tons of free pic/ vid links – bonus!), and talked frankly about behind-scenes stuff. She does a lotta BDSM, so talked about the real-life after-effects of what hurt much or not, which educated me well for my OWN possible future BDSM plans! It also makes porn cooler, actors talking about real-life set-up and reaction, which is way more common with non-”plot-line” porn, of course, but it’d be more interesting if the fake story porn had those moments, too.
As for the being-paid part, I ALWAYS wonder what the people get paid! It’d be cool to know, like comparing athlete/ actor salaries. “Oh, I can’t believe So-&-So only got $100 for that, when Such-&-Such got $1000 just for THAT!”
I’m pretty sure having such payment disclosures would be a horrible idea and allow consumers and producers to belittle their workers. I mean, there’s already porn out there that explicitly include monetary exchange and always for the purpose of degradation (e.g. look what this stupid whore will do for $X). Much better idea to have discreet stuffed envelopes.
Well, I tend to agree with S.R. about the potential for exploitation in disclosing how much sex workers get paid. Mainstream society has a way of judging people’s worth by how much money we earn, and it also turns sex workers into sex objects by reducing us to our sexuality/bodies.
I wouldn’t want my viewers to know exactly how much money I’m making, because they would probably judge my worth by that number. And, since I’m a sex worker, they’d also probably equate my wages to how much my body (my life) is literally worth.
Plus: In almost every for-profit sex industry, people with certain privileges… white, thin, able-bodied, binary-gendered, conventionally-attractive… get paid more. (One complicated vector of oppression is the cis/trans one. Most trans sex workers make a lot more than cis women performing the same labor, but at the cost of being marketed as a niche or a fetish.) But even within tranny porn, white women are more likely to get “high-end” clients than women of color, thin women make more than fat women, etc.
So, basically, showing how much we earn could be another way to reinforce the relatively-privileged sex workers (think: high-end escorts, who are more likely to be white, conventionally pretty, etc) versus the relatively-more-marginalized ones… by showing the former as quantifiably “worth more” than the ladder.
On the other hand, though, I think *sex workers* should know how much other sex workers make. We have a right to know what the industry standard is, what is considered a fair price, etc. Because there is barely any regulation of prices in porn (or other kinds of sex work), it’s easy to have a system where a minority of privileged sex workers gets paid dozens of times more money than the rest of us — and we don’t even realize it, because no one discloses how much they pay!
We should also have sex worker unions that can collectively bargain for better pay and safer working conditions. If we had more actual legal rights and collective bargaining, we could fight for a fairer distribution of that wealth along race, class, gender, appearance, etc.
Anyway, just some thoughts.
Gosh! The commenters on this blog are so much nicer and smarter than most others. Lots of good thoughts, and thanks for the supportive, non-judgmental tone!
I certainly wouldn’t want people paid less to feel worse; I was just thinking about transparency. The vast majority of porn I see, I have NO idea what the person’s getting paid. I have no idea what profit the host websites/ movies/ whatever make, either.
Yeah, and I totally agree with you on that. There definitely should be more transparency about profits.
Also, as a model, I have no idea what profit the companies make either! I do know that basically one company controls 75% of the tranny porn business, and owns the vast majority of all the sites.
And, by the way, that company pays me $500 per solo shoot plus a $100 bonus if I can ejaculate. They pay the models $800-1000 for a hardcore video. The male performers are usually paid around $150. Cis women generally get paid more like $200 for a solo shoot and $400 for a hardcore.
Is there any real market for cis woman and trans woman porn?
Oh, for sure! Not as much, but there’s definitely a ton of cis woman and trans woman porn. BUT, it’s only a small percentage of all total porn featuring trans woman, and it’s still shot and marketed with a primarily cis male audience in mind.
Also, it’s almost always scenes where the trans woman tops the cis woman, and very rarely the other way around… which probably deserves it’s own unpacking, lol. Ah, an essay for another day…
Sigh! I’d love to see more of that.
Me too! We’re working on it.
I’ve heard of sex worker unions fighting for safer work conditions, minimum wages, bad john lists, decriminilization and other things. But have any worked for and achieved more equity in wages (for the same sort of sex work) across race, gender, conventional attractiveness, other factors? The one time I got involved with sex work organizing the main organizer was a pretty cis white girl who nattered on about being a “high class escort” and it was awful.
I don’t specifically know, S.R. But that’s a really good question! The extent of my knowledge about sex workers unions extends about as far as that documentary about the one in San Francisco, and I don’t know how good their analysis on race/beauty/etc was.
I know that as far back as the 1970s, there were groups of prostitutes who organized to occupy churches in protest of increased criminalization, in Canada and Europe especially. I’ve read some old memoirs about it. I also met some older trans women who, a few decades ago, helped take over a church in Vancouver in response to the cops raiding their brothel.
From the limited information I know, that movement seems like it was led primarily by people of color, First Nations people, trans women, people who are poz, and so on. Also, from living in Montreal and reading the work of Vivianne Namaste (a quebecoise trans woman who is a historian, former sex worker, and activist), I know that the trans community there has a long history of organizing against police brutality and prison conditions, and most of that organizing has happened more under the banner of “sex worker rights” as opposed to “trans right”, which is something I think is lacking from the u.s. trans movement (as someone who moved between the countries).
Also, in DC, I used to work with a peer support agency for sex workers that hired primarily people with industry experience (HIPS). We aren’t a union and don’t bargain for wages… our clients are primarily street workers, and you can’t fight for better wages since prostitution is illegal. As far as I know, most of the previous established sex worker unions (as opposed to just groups or collectives of sex workers working informally in solidarity) were all of erotic dancers and such, legal forms of sex work. But there are lots of service-oriented groups like HIPS who fight for safer conditions, decriminalization, bad johns list, condom distribution and stuff like that.
You’re observation about white skin is dead on. White women not only attract more white guys, but in my experience, more black and Latino guys.
“Oh, I can’t believe So-&-So only got $100 for that, when Such-&-Such got $1000 just for THAT!”
I think what you’re identifying (and are apparently fascinated with) is the exploitation of workers.
Oh, I’m fascinated with the exploitation of workers; I agree with most of Marx’s points, and I’ve had my share of low-paying jobs with undesirable aspects added on when my salary definitely wasn’t raised along with the undesirable aspects.
It was a flippant joke; I didn’t mean to make light of people’s misfortune. I was just thinking of how, in most areas of entertainment, you can point out examples where some are wildly overpaid and some are grossly underpaid. Meanwhile, in pornography, I have no idea what anyone is paid (or if they are).
Tess, I *definitely* am fascinated by the exploitation of workers. How can we build a world without exploitation if we don’t study how that system operates?
And CC, I know you were making a flippant joke, it just got me thinking about a whole bunch of stuff and I tend to ramble sometimes when I run off on a train of thought! It wasn’t necessarily directly in response to you. Sorry if it seemed that way.
I understand the wariness. I realize that making a joke here, where I’m a stranger to everyone and I’ve made a grand total of one comment, is different from making it to my Facebook Friends list.
I totally don’t think the value of things is reflected in price tag, auction bid, salary paid… how often I’ve watched Antiques Roadshow where AMAZING furniture, with incredibly artisan and time-consuming detailed work, was worth $20000, and some murky, crappy landscape painting went for $60,000. Why? Because that’s what you pay for “art” (painting) but mere “skilled labor” (woodcarving) isn’t worth as much… even if the product made is more beautiful and functional.
Oh, and also what people said before– sex workers, porn workers, don’t get respect, so my joke might seem to be taking light of their right to salary privacy. I don’t seriously demand to know everyone’s cashflow, and I don’t judge people for sex work… it’s a rough world for finding work, paying the rent, in GOOD financial times. And I don’t have much trust in the most powerful in our society, in business or govt (or are they the same thing?).
To be totally clear, I never perceived your comment to be in any way judgmental, trivializing, or insulting to sex workers. I like just about everything you’ve said so far!
Yeah, no problem. It seems in this discussion there’s so many things that need to be said, sociologically, politically… like I can see how my OTHER comment above, about people “needing” to make porn cuz they’re financially desperate is too brief, playing a bit into the “mainstream liberal feminist” comment you wrote.
While it’s going to be true that a LOT of folks do porn based on financial need, it’s also alright for them to choose to do it. Why not? People pay for it, so a LOT of people obviously want/ need it, so if someone chooses to do it with the intention of having fun, that’s up to them (and I hope they find/ create an enjoyable set-up).
Cool, thanks for the clarification! Definitely read it in a different way than you intended.
I know how it goes; it’s reasonably presumed that I could be as crass and base in my views as random commenters to Yahoo articles or Youtube videos. I try to write better than those folks based on the educations I’ve gotten from genderqueer trans books/ blogs, feminist books, attending sex worker performance-art shows, alternative history zines… but I’ve learned some things to consider, too, in these comments above.
I barely understood some of the complexities of sex work and how important it really is to take seriously until I started reading stuff by trans-feminists and/or anarcha-feminists. The mainstream liberal fem blogs I used to read sort of skirted around the issue and were just like “Um it’s good to be pro-sex worker but like… Just cause I guess it would be mean not to.. um….”
lol, that’s exactly been my experience with mainstream liberal feminists, too.
“Well, obviously we should support sex workers, cause they’re like, super duper exploited by the patriarchy and stuff. Their lives must be such a bummer, so like, I guess we’ll pay lip service to how they’re fucked over by sexism, but still support the ‘anti-trafficking’ policies that are actually the means by which they are fucked over.”
there’s something so “american” in this article’s self-affirmative outlook… i feel kind of numb after reading it.
i wonder if we really need to believe condoms are hot in order to use them? like, do we need to feel the floor or bed is “hot,” or can there sometimes just be stuff we use during sex that need not be inscribed with codes of desire? it seems so much of the safer sex movement in the 80′s and 90′s focussed on the idea of getting people to feel “seduced” by latex in a way that was tantamount to constructing a “desire for latex” in people – which was both psychologically and politically counter to the notion of simply having people use latex within their own world of desires… that’s why i think it “failed” for the most part, and unprotected sex is rampant as ever. the idea that everything we do has to be “hot” or “positive” just strikes me as incredibly reductionist – and we all know how reductionism around desire has oppressed queer sexuality, yet we find this language a huge part of queer discourse (also very “american”)…
i don’t know that people have to think of condoms as hot, but I do think the act of putting on a condom should be more prevalent in porn.
I think it would give people (myself included) models for making it feel less awkward instead of like, let me completely stop and awkwardly try to be sexy while i do this thing, then i’ll get back to the good part.
I would be interested to know how many instances where folks don’t use to use them (not decide ahead of time, but like, have them available and intend to use them but don’t) have to do with someone not liking the way sex with a condom feels and how many actually just have to do with someone not wanting to ruin the mood by stopping to do something (put on a condom) that doesn’t seem sexy.
I don’t think that has anything to do with latex fetishes (though that could be hot too), it’s just about normalizing the part of the sex where you stop to put it on as HOT instead of it just magically being on. It’s not about the condom/latex itself being hot, it’s the process (Years ago I went to see the Sex Workers Art Show and someone gave a demonstration of putting a condom on using her mouth (no hands!). It was incredibly hot.)
People watch porn because they want to be turned on. If it’s not shown as “hot”, people don’t pay attention. Anything that isn’t percieved as “hot” gets cut and invisibilized. (That was the point of my entire article.) In the context of sex work, I think condoms should be sexualized to a certain degree in order to encourage johns/clients/viewers or whatever to pay attention to it. I’m not necessarily saying we should fetishize the act of wearing latex barriers, or that the same thing would apple outside the context of porn.
Also, since when is self-affirmation an american trait? I don’t remember the part where u.s. (or canadian) culture is especially known for encouraging trans sex workers to be self-affirming…
Totally. Porn, whether it wants to or not, often becomes a site of sex education. I’d like to see more porn play that edge of fantasy/reality and show performers putting on condoms.
but people also mostly watch porn to masturbate – it’s not about latex-love. and i have never felt putting on a condom was “stopping the action” or awkward. i guess i just don’t get the fuss…
What’s the required “proof” that one is not on drugs or doesn’t have an STD? Do studios of photos/ film have on-site testing, or paid medical/ testing staff? I was kinda wondering what time-lag would be between allowed being tested for one/ both of these things and doing the actual shoot. I know I’ve read about these topics, and fairly recently, but I’m not sure where so I can’t review it (although maybe I could net-search some basics).
I’ve never had to take a drug test or provide proof of being STI-free, but I know some models that have had to get a drug test and a clean bill of health from a doctor and then bring back the records. But that gets into some weird HIPAA shit, and they usually only do that for people under contract. (Which I am not.) All I had to do was sign a few forms, while on camera and showing my IDs, stating that I am not currently on drugs and do not have any STIs.
You might be interested in this article from 2007 written by Tristan Taormino for the Village Voice about STDs and the porn industry: http://tinyurl.com/dlt625
Thanks; I’ve read quite a few Taormino interviews/ articles.
For people working in the CA or Miami straight porn industry – for porn without condoms – you must get tested through Talent Testing or AIM for gonnorhea, chlamydia, HIV-RNA, and I believe Syphillis and provide evidence of your negative test results before you shoot.
AIM is dead. It was destroyed by a leak of the talent’s real/stage names.
Here in Cali, working straight performers get tested every 28 days. Most talent used to go to AIM, either in the San Fernando Valley, or one of their off site testing centers. Now AIM is gone because of a leak of the performers names from their data base. My industry/real name and driver license have been published on porn wikileaks. Along with over 15,000 other present/former performers. The new testing sites are Talent Testing Service, or the new one by the FSC.
Having done porn, and sex work, my experience doesn’t quite match up to yours. I certainly don’t remember anybody videoing me filling out the 2257′s or other paperwork. I certainly don’t recall that the guys had that much difficulty maintaining erections…not hours worth of problems. There are some funny stories about maintaining erections, like the guy that had a fetish for girl’s tongues, so the female “talent” would stick out her tongue in a sexual fashion.
Regarding the porn shot in southern cali, where I did my thing, no one wore condoms, and we all got tested prior to the shoot at the recently defunct AIM.
There were never any wads of cash. You got paid by the production company by check…copies of which I still have.
I do have to say, everybody I worked with was super nice, and the female talent were just great human beings.
I don’t know if you use your real name, but you may have been outted by porn wikileaks. I was.
Yeah, it makes sense that different people would have different experiences depending on the company they work for, the type of site the content will be featured on, and even the photographer they work with within the company. My article is only about my personal experiences… and I’ve only ever modeled for one company and always the same photographer. That company has an explicit policy of always recording people when they sign their paperwork and they always pay in cash, for example. But I know other companies don’t.
And I will say, though, that everyone I’ve ever worked with have been super nice too!
Can I also say that I love how many of the commenters on here are people with sex work experience? I love hearing about other sex worker’s experiences!
Hey cutestuff, I just happened upon your article whilst procrastinating tasks at work. Great article! Keep being awesome.(And see you again soon!) ^_^
Awh thanks hon.
Miss you!
Sadie, aaaaah! awkward hugs are so fucking cute and hot! Shameless organizational-promotion: would you consider adding Maggie’s: Toronto Sex Workers Action Project to your list of resources? We are Canada’s first and oldest sex-worker led org in the country. Among other achievements, Maggie’s started the first needle exchange in Toronto, currently organizes the first (and unfortunately only) project run by and for Aboriginal sex workers and has survived as a sex-worker-led org for 25 years! http://www.maggiestoronto.ca
sincerely,
the communications coordinator
Hi Chanelle! Thanks a ton.
I’ll totally add Maggie’s to my list of resources! That’s super awesome.
best wishes and solidarity,
Sadie
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