In honor of International Whore’s Day (June 2nd), sex workers and their allies will be dressed in red, marching through cities nationwide. Here’s why it’s important to support the sex worker community—now more than ever.
To quote from a recent Instagram post by dominatrix, Mistress Iris (pictured above): “With the passing of the FOSTA/SESTA bills few months ago, a lot has happened in my community. Sites we used to keep us safe and advertise have shut down one after the other, and we are faced with the possibility of our own websites and social media accounts getting shut down at any moment. As someone who has access to lawyers and tech-savvy people, many of my friends and I can better prepare ourselves to face this mess, but not everyone in our community is privileged in this way. ‘The immediate impact was swift and, honestly, terrifying. We watched people literally walk back to their pimps knowing they had lost any bit of autonomy they had. We watched people wind up homeless overnight. We watched members of our community disappear.’” – quote via Rolling Stone
It’s been disheartening to see that many people outside of our community know nothing about these bills and the effects they have had, as very few media outlets have picked up on them. What I would like for you to do is to educate yourselves about them and spread the word to people you know, so that we are not left here fighting this in the dark as we become invisible to the world. I want you to stand with us.”
Love,
Mistress Iris
In celebration sex workers of all kinds, have a read through the archive of Slutever’s SEX WORK DIARIES column, where sex workers tell their own stories—the good, the bad, the orgasmic, and the beautifully perverse…
And PS: We want to continue highlighting the diverse voices and stories of sex workers, so if you are professional slut who wants to tell your story, please send your hot and heavy anecdotes, your lowlights, and/or your everyday workplace musings to karleyslutever@gmail.com. We’ll keep you anonymous (unless you don’t want to be!), so in your submission please include a pseudonym sign-off, as well as the city/town where you work. Writers of the chosen “diary entries” will receive small compensation. Max roughly 1,000 words :)