December 17th, A History
The Sex Workers Outreach Project 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.
In order to get back to our roots, we want to renew our commitment to focusing on December 17, The International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers. December 17 is a day, where across the globe, sex workers, advocates and allies remember and mourn those that the sex worker community has lost over the last year. A list of names is compiled and read, candles are lit, and communities come together to make sure those we have lost are not forgotten.
December 17 began in 2003 in response to the sentencing of murderer Gary Ridgeway, who was convicted of 49 separate murders, although ultimately, he is thought to have taken over 90 lives. When asked about his very specific targeting, he admitted “I picked prostitutes as victims because they were easy to pick up without being noticed. I knew they would not be reported missing right away and might never be reported missing. I picked prostitutes because I thought I could kill as many of them as I wanted without getting caught."
In response, Robyn Few, founder of the Sex Workers Outreach Project, and Annie Sprinkle were determined to make sure that the women who lost their lives were remembered, and their names said out loud. They organized a speak out in San Francisco, and encouraged people to hold vigils in their local areas. Since 2003, D17 has spread to become a day of global awareness and resilience for the entire sex work community.
The December 17th project is a collaborative effort to continue this mission by maintaining a global resource of memorialized sex workers, a podcast telling the stories of their lives, and a blog with news updates about cases of murdered sex workers as well as information about the fight for sex workers’ rights and safety.
One of our primary goals is to maintain the December 17 memorial list, which not only includes names of sex workers that have passed, but also a compilation of data. Sex workers are an invisible community, and are rarely well-represented in traditional data sources. The sex work community's experiences and needs are critical to understand in order to ensure that they receive the appropriate support, resources, and attention.
By gathering contextually relevant data, we aim to provide a clearer picture of sex workers’ challenges and strengths, which will lead us to create better-informed policies, advocacy efforts, and resource allocation.
We acknowledge that crimes against sex workers aren’t always treated seriously by law enforcement and that certain demographics such as BIPOC, transgender, and sex workers who work outdoors are at some of the highest risks of violence. Our goal is to shed light on the struggles these sex workers face to help end the stigma that keeps them unsafe. The stigma and criminalization that makes violence against sex workers acceptable must end.
There are several contexts and factors that put sex workers at risk for violence. Some examples-
Workplace violence: This may include violence from managers, support staff, clients or co-workers in establishments where sex work takes place (e.g. brothels, bars, hotels). Due the criminalization of sex work, victims of abuse may be reluctant to report violence they experienced out of fear of being arrested or charged with a crime.
Violence from intimate partners and family members: Stigmatization of sex work may lead partners or family members to think it acceptable to use violence to “punish”someone for doing sex work. It may be difficult for sex workers to leave an abusive relationship, particularly when perpetrators threaten them, or have control due to ownership of a home, or the power to harm or refuse access to their children.
Violence by perpetrators at large or in public spaces: In many contexts, the criminalization of sex work creates a climate that results in sex workers being seen as acceptable the targets of violence or of other crimes that may turn violent. Some perpetrators specifically target sex workers to “punish” them in the name of upholding social morals, or to scapegoat them for perceived social problems. Sex workers may also face violence from individuals in a position of power, such as health-care providers, bankers or landlords.
Organized non-state violence: Sex workers may face violence from extortion groups, militias, religious extremists or “rescue” groups. For example, forced rescue and rehabilitation raids in the context of anti-trafficking laws may result in sex workers being evicted from their residences onto the streets, where they may be more exposed to violence.
State violence: Sex workers may face violence from military personnel, border guards and prison guards, and police. Violence by representatives of the state compromises sex workers’ access to justice and police protection, and sends a message that such violence is not only acceptable but socially desirable. Laws and policies, including ones that criminalize sex work, may increase sex workers’ vulnerability to violence.
Decriminalization of sex work remains one of the primary goals of our work, but we believe that decriminalization is just one step in our fight for justice. Criminalization of sex work is one of many avenues that is used to justify systematic violence against people of color, trans people, indigenous populations, and other historically marginalized groups. We must challenge and interrupt these avenues at every opportunity, and we believe that maintaining an archive that provides data about the violence that sex workers face is a large part of the way to move forward. Through our programming and capacity building we help sex workers to uplift themselves and educate their communities. We intend to arm our community with tools and resources to fight stigma and violence on their own terms.
