Observe Intl. Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers on Dec. 17

San Francisco, CA — The Erotic Service Providers Legal Education and Research Project (ESPLERP) is asking sex workers, their families, friends and allies and all world citizens to observe the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers (IDEVASW) on December 17 – tomorrow. The date marks an annual global event that highlights violence faced by sex workers because of the field’s criminalized status.

San Francisco Bay Area sex worker groups are coming together on December 17 to call for the remembrance of sex worker victims. RSVP for the virtual gathering — “End Violence Against Sex Workers: Decriminalization, Justice & Compensation”– at bit.ly/USPROSD17.

In a statement issued by ESPLERP, a representative wrote: “We call for the decriminalization of sex work and the repeal of California’s prostitution statute, Statute 647(b) of the California Penal Code, which violates our constitutional privacy rights.”

“California passed SB233 in 2019. That allows us to report when we’re victims of or witnesses to violent crime. But the criminalization of prostitution continues to enable violent predators to target our community,” said Maxine Doogan, President of the Erotic Service Providers Legal Education and Research Project.

“There are an estimated 120,000 sex workers working in the state of California,” Doogan continued. “It’s time to decriminalize our occupation to help guard us against violence and abuse, improve our access to justice, and allow us to access public benefits during a world-wide pandemic.”

The International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers started in 2003 when serial killer Gary Ridgway (the Green River Killer) admitted killing over 70 women in Washington State in the ’80s and ’90s. When he was finally arrested, he told police he had picked prostitutes as victims because they were “the easiest targets” and that “no one would miss them.”

More recently, Samuel Little confessed to killing 93 women over four decades in 19 states. He had been arrested dozens of times over that period and and linked to at least eight sexual assaults, attempted murders or killings, but he repeatedly slipped through the cracks of the justice system, because the police allegedly placed very little value on the lives of his victims — sex workers, people with addictions and others on the margins of society, many of them women of color.

Reach out to ESPLERP directly with questions.