ALERT: FOSTA/SESTA — ALL HANDS ON DECK!

I know, I know… I just did a current events post. Somehow I completely missed that this was happening.

In a nutshell–both houses of the U.S. legislature passed bills that punish sites that are complicit in human trafficking. In theory, that’s a good thing. In practice–like most legislation designed to legislate protection for sex workers, this was authored exclusively by non-sex workers.

It’s been very bad news–with swift and immediate blowback to sex worker communities. Head over to Bitch Media for more.

Here’s Vee Chattie on what you can do to spread accurate information/raise awareness/support sex workers (there is a publicly shareable post on FB, so if you haven’t ditched FB, it’s probably not a bad idea to share it to your timeline):

Things you can do to help sex workers in the wake of #FOSTA and #SESTA (non-monetary ideas included)

1. Give your money to sex workers. If you know folks struggling, and
can afford to, throw them some cash. If the workers that you know are
fairly privileged, ask them to give some cash to some less privileged
workers that they might know. Many of us are losing the platforms which
we advertise on and so money is going to be tight.

2. Share your
resources. Do you have a job that gets you discounts? Are you able to
get some extra food on your way out at the restaurant? Do you have some
sky Miles that you can donate to help a sex worker go work in a
different city so they can make up for the deficit? Do you have a spare
bedroom or couch that someone can crash on if they lose their housing?

3. Share sex worker content. Many of us are posting about this stuff
and it would be extremely helpful if you could hit that share button and
keep that content on people‘s radar. Now is not the time to be sheepish
or be concerned about whether or not your friends and loved ones will
judge you. We already get a bunch of judgment and, to be perfectly
honest, if you are willing to share the content about kids getting shot
in the street and homophobia and such, then you should be talking about
sex workers rights as well because sex work is the intersection of all
of those things. These laws are based in racism and sexism and that
needs to be considered and addressed. Also, keep in mind that this bill
has already shut down the sub Reddit and a lot of sex worker only
discussion groups and a lot of us are sitting here with this sword
hanging over our heads wondering when our Facebook accounts are going to
get shut down. When and if that happens, we will need you more than
ever. #slutupandlisten

4. Bug your senators and representatives. If you don’t know how to
contact them, you can text RESIST to 50409 And they will tell you how to
contact those people. When you do, please tell them that the passage of
FOSTA and SESTA is having a devastating effect on people in your
community and you would like for them to repeal it.

5. Listen.
Pretty much every sex worker I know is scrambling right now to not only
make sure their business stays afloat, but also to inform and educate
the people around them because, quite honestly, we don’t know what else
to do. When sex workers talk to you about these issues, don’t tell us
what you think should be done because you don’t know the business and we
are already being talked down to by our clients, the government,
family, and the public at large, so we don’t need any more
condescension. Sometimes we just need an ear or shoulder to cry on. Be
that person. And definitely don’t be the person asking sex workers how
to get into the industry right now. We don’t need more newbie workers
coming in at this time and they won’t make money anyway, especially with
the current climate. We need resources, we don’t need leeches. Please
be considerate of that when you lend a hand or ear.

6. Correct
people when they say negative things or make jokes about sex workers.
Especially when you’re in public. I know it’s uncomfortable, but imagine
being a sex worker in a room full of people, and then someone makes a
joke about how you should be dead, and everybody laughs and nobody says
anything in your defense. I can tell you from experience, its a very
isolating and distressing experience. It’s hard enough to think that
your government wants you dead, but it’s even harder when it’s people
who are your IRL friends and associates. When you stand up for sex
workers, just remember that there might be a sex worker in that room
who, even though they may not ever tell you, will appreciate that
someone cared. A lot of us suffer in silence because we have to do. Try
to minimize that suffering if you can.

6. Share your skills. Are
you a great babysitter and have a couple hours that you can give to a
sex worker so that they can go to work? Are you good at building
websites or know a lot about tech and/or security? Do you teach a yoga
class and think you could pencil in a special class for sex workers here
and there to relax and connect to their bodies? Think about the things
that you are good at and how you can use that to help folks.

7.
Share you contacts. Do you have famous friends with lots of twitter
followers? Do you know lawyers or legislators? Start educating them. Ask
them to talk with their base and retweet sex worker content. ESPECIALLY
if you have friend who may have said disparaging things about sex
workers in the past.

This is what I’ve come up with for now, but
if someone else thinks of more ways that people can help sex workers,
please add it to the comments and I will add it to this post. Also,
there will be articles and resources added to this post as I think of
them. Feel free to add this to the comments as well. Love you.

I’ll add that I’ve heard both Skype and Google are employing AI to scour their respective networks for nudity.

From my own experience: the lab I use for scanning my slides delivers files to customers via Google Drive. I was not able to retrieve 3 files from my last job via Drive–all the files contained nudity.

Point being the implications of this are enormous and although the will be first and foremost disastrous for sex workers (who are disproportionately trans folks and WoC, and addressing that is clearly the top priority), this is going to impact models and photographers too.