Bay Area Workers Support: ‘Sit With Us’ on International Sex Workers’ Day

Oakland, CA — On June 2, International Sex Workers’ Day, communities all over the country will gather to advocate for the health, safety and protection of sex workers.

Last year, many gatherings took place in response to the passing of SESTA/FOSTA, legislation which further criminalized and endangered sex workers throughout the United States. This year, the Bay Area sex work community is convening to advocate for justice in the context of this continuing struggle, while also celebrating how the sex work community and its allies have organized and strengthened themselves over the course of the past twelve months.

Bay Area Workers Support (BAWS), a peer-to-peer support organization for and by sex workers, invites community members and allies to advocate and celebrate all those working within the sex trade and their allies.

The event — “Sit with Us” — will take place at Oscar Grant Plaza in Downtown Oakland, CA on June 2 from 12 to 4 pm. Oscar Grant Plaza is located specifically at: 1 Frank H Ogawa Plz between San Pablo Ave and 15th St.

The event’s theme is an invitation to the larger community to rally with sex workers — to “table” about respective and overlapping work and to celebrate and strengthen the intersections between issues that impact sex workers, women, people of color, LBTQIA+ folks, low-income communities, immigrants and more.

The organization said via press release, “We would like to work across sectors and identities on our shared issues at a common table — please come sit with us.”

Activities will include tabling by community organizations such as the St. James Infirmary, Public Health Social Justice Collective, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, The Harm Reduction Coalition, Berkeley Free Clinic and more.

Brunch and coffee vended will be vended, and there will be speeches from current and former sex workers, an altar to honor those in our community who have passed and performances by sex worker artists and musicians. The event will be emceed, with programming taking place on stage from 1 to 3 PM.

For more information, visit bayareaworkerssupport.org/blog/iswd2019 and/or contact the organization via BAWSorg@gmail.com.