“We have these big moments as sex workers where we can all come together and agree that this was just an earthquake that we all experienced. To different degrees, but we all experience it together. And then we have these moments as individuals where we experience all the other factors that make us unsafe, where we experience all the other times and all the other customers and clientele that decide that we're not worthy of the safety that other people get in their work environment.” — Marla Cruz, sex worker and activist
During the years leading up to FOSTA-SESTA, any online discourse about sexuality was in ever more increasing danger of being lumped in with human trafficking. That came to a head when the FOSTA-SESTA bill threatened to expand liabilities for websites that host user-generated content.
Some platforms, like Craigslist and Tumblr, changed their terms of service preemptively out of an abundance of caution. Others, like Backpage, were shut down by law enforcement.
Despite all of the grassroots campaigning by sex workers to speak out against FOSTA-SESTA, the bill still passed with major bipartisan support.
Without listening to sex workers.
And then… everything we warned about came to pass.
In Episode 3, “We really hate to say we told you so…” we explore the devastating FOSTA fallout.
Let Us Survive interviews Lakeesha Harris of Chicago Volunteer Doulas; Desiree Collins of the Colorado Entertainer Coalition; Jared Trujillo of CUNY Law School; Chibundo Egwuatu of HIPS (Honoring Individual Power and Strength) in DC, Elizabeth Ricks of the Trans Life Care Program at Chicago House; Melissa Gira Grant, author of Playing the Whore, Marla Cruz, a sex worker and writer from Texas, Caty Simon of Whose Corner Is it Anyway in Massachusetts; Kate D’Adamo of Reframe Health and Justice, and M of APAC (Adult Performer Advocacy Committee) in Los Angeles, along with Danielle Blunt, Red, and zara raven of Hacking//Hustling.
This podcast was hosted, produced, written, recorded, and edited by Tina Horn and Mickey Mod, with additional production support from Christopher Holloway.
Let Us Survive, an oral history project by sex workers for everyone, covers a decade of American sex worker justice movements, roughly 2013 to 2023. It also gazes towards the future: of the industry, and of our labor organizing.
To learn about this project, other research by Hacking//Hustling, and more about the past, present, and future of sex worker movements, please visit HackingHustling.org.
These interviews were conducted in 2023. Some facts and perspectives may have evolved since then.
","author_name":"Hacking//Hustling Collective"}