LA Sex Work Decriminalization Conference Wraps & Issues Manifesto

LOS ANGELES—Over the weekend, more than two dozen sex workers from across the country, including some from the local adult entertainment community, came together at the Los Angeles offices of the American Civil Liberties Union to begin a nationwide campaign for sex work legalization—and the start of that campaign was the creation of a manifesto titled “National Sex-Worker Anti-Criminalization Principles,” described by journalist Stephen Lemons as "a declaration of independence for the sex trade." The conference was created by Cris Sardina, director of the sex worker advocacy group Desiree Alliance, but it was not widely advertised owing to fears that, in the wake of Congress having passed the FOSTA/SESTA law which targets online advertising by sex workers, those who expressed interest in attending might be targeted by federal law enforcement agents. It was this same fear which impelled Sardina to cancel a Desiree Alliance conference, which in the past has drawn hundreds of sex workers, which was tentatively set for sometime in 2019. "We're national voices, and we came together with a collective mission to put forth a statement of how we are to be interacted with," Sardina stated at the conference. "And that was accomplished today." The single-page manifesto, a rough draft of which was offered by escort and author Maggie McNeill, and the final version of which was created entirely by present or former sex workers, is patterned closely on a similar document which was created by HIV-positive gay rights supporters in 1983, called the “Denver Principles.” Like that document, it is divided into four sections: a "General Statement," followed by "Recommendations for all people" and "Recommendations for sex workers," and finishing with "Rights of sex workers." The purpose of the document is to "provide a working template for a national platform," and as such, has few specific recommendations for action, but does ask the public at large to "support us in our struggle for justice and human rights" and to oppose those who would deny sex workers their rights 'because of our work' and who advocate for "punitive intervention." It also asks that sex workers be recognized as "experts in [their own] lives." As for the sex workers themselves, the manifesto calls for the inclusion of "sex worker leadership" in any situation where policies and laws dealing with sex work and the health of sex workers are considered. Moreover, it states, "We demand the right to speak, access all public channels of communication, to choose those who speak for us, and to be recognized by the media, public officials and others as the authorities on our own experience." The document's final section declares the following sex worker rights: "To make our own sexual and relationship choices without others invalidating our consent"; "To access social, medical and justice services without discrimination in any form, including but not limited to gender, sexuality, race, citizenship status, of the way we choose to work"; "To have our choices and bodily autonomy respected, including the right to decline services"; and "To be free to work in a manner of our own choosing without onerous regulation that is disrespectful of our agency and autonomy." One main focus of the conference was reportedly the inability or unwillingness of government officials and anti-sex work groups to distinguish between consensual prostitution and "sex trafficking." Long-time sex worker Norma Jean Almodovar, author of the blockbuster tell-all Cop To Call Girl, cited some of the false "statistics" which anti-prostitution groups use to conflate consensual sex work with what the law defines as "a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or [when] the person induced to perform such act has not attained eighteen years of age." That, of course, is "sex trafficking," of which just 1,007 cases were reported in 2016—hardly the "epidemic" claimed by anti-prostitution activists. Another attendee at the conference was adult actress Siouxsie Q, who has been at least partly responsible for several sex worker-themed events in L.A. over the past few months, including the recent International Whores Day rally and march. AVN has reached out to her for comment. Pictured, l-r: Siouxsie Q and Norma Jean Almodovar