We're currently running a donation matching promotion with SWOPUSA! For the next month, we'll be giving you an extra 50% on top of our regular donation-matching rate for any donations made to SWOPUSA. So, for example, if you donate $100 to SWOPUSA, you'll get 150TLC! Head over to our donation matching page for more info.
We thought we'd interview the leaders of SWOPUSA to share a little more about the organisation and what your donations will help with!
It’s so lovely to get to chat with you today! Can you introduce yourselves, and tell us a little about your work and roles at SWOP-USA?
Our Director of Programming, Alexandria (they/them) is passionate about empowering our sex worker community with warmth and open-hearted advocacy. They focus on nurturing strong connections with community groups to ensure access to essential resources and support. Each month, they hold space at Glitterbomb, a vibrant weekly show celebrated by our LGBTQIA and sex worker family. Here, we champion safe, stigma-free spaces where all voices are valued and uplifted. Committed to fostering a welcoming environment, they advocate tirelessly for the rights and well-being of sex workers, integrating our stories into the broader tapestry of social justice.
Phoenix Calida (they/them), our Communications Director, is motivated by a deep-seated desire to enhance the world, particularly for sex workers who face multiple layers of marginalization. They are committed to advancing inclusivity within the sex worker rights movement and see this period as a pivotal time for SWOP to embrace intersectionality and diversity. Calida looks forward to leveraging their expertise in expanding SWOP's digital presence and advocacy, aiming for transformative justice and equality within and beyond the sex worker community.
Tryst and SWOP-USA ran a donation matching program/campaign last year that was really successful, and we’re gearing up to do it all again! Can you tell us about how these funds help the sex working community?
The love was humbling. We were able to help a group out of Texas (Denton Basic Services Center) with their water drive, where they provide bottled water and fresh ice all day for the unhoused residents. Star Garden was still striking and we were also able to provide them funds to help continue their awesome work. We contributed to fundraisers, and ultimately, a lot of people were able to survive the summer. We were also able to contribute funding for masks, food, and supplies for outdoor based workers in Grand Rapids and Western Michigan. Being able to provide masks was a particular blessing, allowing us to help combat the spread of COVID, as well as being able to help people protect their health when the air quality was incredibly poor during fallout from wildfires in Canada.
What has it been like to steer SWOP-USA through the last few years, from the early pandemic, BLM, and now to this nebulous, post public health, place?
Navigating the world as both Black and a sex worker is uniquely challenging, magnifying vulnerabilities in a time marked by heightened danger and discrimination. It feels isolating to continue public health measures, like masking, when others seem indifferent.
Are there any misconceptions about SWOP-USA you’d like to/could debunk for us?
Though we find it humorous, people often think we are a giant staff of Eurocentric folks who have never done sex work. There are two of us; we don’t plan to expand until there is sufficient funding to ensure all staff members are paid at a level that is on par with the rest of our peers in this industry. For now, grassroots suits us and helps us feel more connected to the community. We are very black and very queer and very much career sex workers. Capitalism is nowhere in the plans; decolonizing is the only path.
How would you describe the org’s position in the sex working community?
SWOP is an integral part of the sex work community because we can mobilize resources and utilize 501(c)3 status to aid other organizations. We are slowly creating and curating our research and expanding how we’ve received data. We get requests from academics who often forget sex workers are also people and deserve dignity, and we are working to educate researchers and policy makers– to show them how to approach sex workers and sex work research in a more appropriate way.
It is well known that bad actors often manufacture moral panic for economic, political and/or social gain. How do you see the politics of fear, specifically concerning sex work, playing out in the near future?
We are very concerned at how anti sex trafficking rhetoric has become synonymous with anti sex work policy and ultimately policies that further discriminate against people who are part of the LGTBQ+ community, people seeking reproductive rights, and people who are victims of class warfare. We need a united front, now more than ever in this sociopolitical climate.
What issues do you find hinder your ability to connect with the wider community? Is there anything you wish was different?
COVID has been a large problem, since it has directly hindered our ability to host more in-person events, and has forced our disabled community members to have to choose which events they can-and-can’t risk attending. That this is also happening in an era where people with fascist sympathies have been emboldened to harass and threaten members of the sex work community, both on and offline, only makes organizing more difficult.
We know you do a lot of good work, what projects are y’all working right now, anything you’re really excited about?
We are focusing on getting back to our basics, which includes community outreach with a particular focus on handing out supplies to the most vulnerable in our community. In addition, we are committed to advocacy via education, and have begun the process of trying to engage local and state policy makers to educate them about potential unintended consequences of anti sex work legislation and policies. We are also creating a new December 17th website and have started a December 17th podcast in order to memorialize sex workers in a way that doesn’t include the dehumanization and shaming that is so prevalent with many media outlets that cover stories about sex workers. This is in addition to our already existing SWOP podcast that covers news about sex workers rights, as well as perspectives from people inside the industry.
What would you encourage folks to do to better support the community? Both internally and externally?
Internally, we are a community of people who need to prioritize rest. As small business owners, we work long hours, and finding the pockets of community or time to take an extra 5 minutes for myself has been vital in these dark times.
Externally, I want people to care more about their actions and know those actions do not live in a vacuum. That joke about a sex worker isn’t funny; stigma is dangerous. That comment about how much someone charges? Is none of your business. How someone chooses to survive and what boundaries they have are theirs alone. We should seek resources to support them, send money directly, tip at the tip rail, buy the content, share the page, and book often and on-time. Above all, be kind, understanding, follow our lead.
Can you tell us about SWOP-USA, how did you come to be?
Community is at the core of SWOP and has been since its inception in 2003, when Bay Area sex workers rallied around school teacher and fellow sex worker Shannon Williams, protesting her arrest and mistreatment.
Sex Workers Outreach Project-USA is a national grassroots social justice network dedicated to the fundamental human rights of sex workers and their communities, focusing on ending violence and stigma through education, community building, and advocacy. SWOP is committed to the safety, autonomy, and human rights of people in the sex trade. We stand in solidarity with the many social justice movements intersectional to our own, including but not limited to Black Lives Matter, disability rights, drug and immigration reform, gender equality and the LGBTQ movement, and the rights of the working class.
In 2004, SWOP co-founders designated December 17th as International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers, to honor the victims of the Green River Killer in Seattle, Washington. SWOP-USA continues to honor Dec 17th with advocate toolkits, global event details, and an annual list of names of sex workers who have passed away, and a podcast to keep the memories of sex workers alive, as well as providing event funding to local SWOP chapters and related groups for designated events.
What is it like operating on such a large scale, can you tell us a little about how the chapter system works?
We refer to them as Sponsees these days; we try to uplift organizations working in their communities. A group signs on with us annually, and once signed on, they have consent to use our 501c3 information to get funding or work with larger groups. Their programming is autonomous, but we meet monthly to check in or ask questions. We wanted to move away from capitalism and towards community, so there might be a smaller list on our website than you're used to.
By being more conscious of output volume vs. quality, we can curate the workload better and be more regularly available to the organizations we work with.
What are some of the resources workers can access through their local chapter? How can workers get in touch with their local chapter?
https://swopusa.org/resources [SWOP BEHIND BARS]
HAWAII@SWOPUSA.ORG [SWOP HAWAII]
LINKTR.EE/SERENITYHOUSEPHL [SERENITY HOUSE PA]
WWW.GBDENTON.COM [GLITTERBOMB DENTON TX]
LINKTR.EE/SWOPMPLS [SWOP MINNEAPOLIS]
Are there any advocacy groups or charitable organisations that you'd like to give a shout out to?
We are huge fans of the work that SWOP Behind Bars, BIPOC-AIC, Red Canary Song, Strippers United, Cupcake Girls, Buckle Bunnies, and Who’s Corner Is It Anyway are doing right now.
Are there any events that you would like to plug?
May 9 - DENTON TX - WATER DRIVE - 9PM - Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studio [ www.gbdenton.com ]
Where can folks find you?
Website: SWOPUSA
Twitter: SWOP-USA
Facebook: swopusanationalpage
IG:@SWOP_USA
BlueSky: SWOP-USA
Patreon: SWOPUSA
Are you a sex worker with a story, opinion, news, or tips to share? We'd love to hear from you!
We started the tryst.link sex worker blog to help amplify those who aren't handed the mic and bring attention to the issues ya'll care about the most. Got a tale to tell? 👇☂️✨
