Queer and Trans POC sex worker perspectives

IAS faculty member Kari Lerum, in collaboration with the Seattle LGBTQ Commission, the Seattle Commission for People with DisAbilities, SWOP-Seattle, and the Coalition for the Rights and Safety for People in the Sex Trade, led a public forum at Seattle City Hall featuring the voices of Queer and Trans POC in the sex industry. The event, which attracted approximately 70 community members, focused on the crisis caused by recent federal legislation (SESTA/FOSTA) on the lives of the minoritized individuals who rely on income from monetized sex transactions. The event was both a culmination of Lerum’s senior seminar, “Sex work, human trafficking, and social justice,” and the advent of formal collaboration between the LGBTQ commission, the DisAbabilities Commission, and advocates for people in the sex trade for the purpose of pursuing policies and laws based in principles of harm reduction, decarceration, and sexual, racial, disability, and economic justice.