By Katie Halper • @kthalps • 10 years ago

10 things to do on today’s International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers

image from http://www.december17.org/

Today the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers. Here are 10 things you can do to participate in this important commemoration. 

The International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers was started by “the prostitute/porn star turned artist/sexologist” Annie Sprinkle and the Sex Workers Outreach Project USA to commemorate the victims of the Green River Killer in Seattle, Washington. Now, the day is observed in cities around the world  as way to “come together and organize against discrimination and remember victims of violence.” As the site explains, “We seek to come together to remember those who we have lost this year, and renew our commitment in the on-going struggle for empowerment, visibility, and rights for all sex workers.”

Annie Sprinkle has a list of 10 ways you can participate in day.

  1. Organize a vigil/memorial/gathering in your town. Simply choose a place and time. Invite people to bring their stories, writings, thoughts, related news items, poems, lists of victims, performances, and memories. Take turns sharing.
  2. Organize or attend a candlelight vigil in a public place.
  3. Do something at home alone which has personal meaning, such as a memorial bath, or light a candle.
  4. Call a friend and discuss the topic.

Read the rest of the list here.

Image via.

Related:
“Their words are killing us”: Violent language of anti-sex work groups
The way we talk about sex work is changing, but the way we treat sex workers is not

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Born and raised on the mean streets of New York City’s Upper West Side, Katie Halper is a comic, writer, blogger, satirist and filmmaker based in New York. Katie graduated from The Dalton School (where she teaches history) and Wesleyan University (where she learned that labels are for jars.) A director of Living Liberally and co-founder/performer in Laughing Liberally, Katie has performed at Town Hall, Symphony Space, The Culture Project, D.C. Comedy Festival, all five Netroots Nations, and The Nation Magazine Cruise, where she made Howard Dean laugh! and has appeared with Lizz Winstead, Markos Moulitsas, The Yes Men, Cynthia Nixon and Jim Hightower. Her writing and videos have appeared in The New York Times, Comedy Central, The Nation Magazine, Gawker, Nerve, Jezebel, the Huffington Post, Alternet and Katie has been featured in/on NY Magazine, LA Times, In These Times, Gawker,Jezebel, MSNBC, Air America, GritTV, the Alan Colmes Show, Sirius radio (which hung up on her once) and the National Review, which called Katie “cute and some what brainy.” Katie co-produced Tim Robbins’s film Embedded, (Venice Film Festival, Sundance Channel); Estela Bravo’s Free to Fly (Havana Film Festival, LA Latino Film Festival); was outreach director for The Take, Naomi Klein/Avi Lewis documentary about Argentine workers (Toronto & Venice Film Festivals, Film Forum); co-directed New Yorkers Remember the Spanish Civil War, a video for Museum of the City of NY exhibit, and wrote/directed viral satiric videos including Jews/ Women/ Gays for McCain.

Katie is a writer, comedian, filmmaker, and New Yorker.

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