News & Press
Read relevant news and press about SWP, public policy, and the sex workers we’re fighting for.
Together we are creating a world that is safe for sex workers and where human trafficking does not exist.
I’m a ‘Holistic’ Sex Worker — I Help People with Disabilities, Mental Illnesses Experience Intimacy
NY Post
"After months of discussions, Charlie eventually managed to get a specialists lawyer called Molly Cohen from the Sex Workers Project in the US to take her case on pro bono basis."Making An Impact On Human Trafficking
Classic City News
"Cody interned with the Sex Workers Project (SWP) in New York City. SWP is a national organization that defends the human rights of sex workers by destigmatizing and decriminalizing people in the sex trades through free legal services, education, research and policy advocacy."Maryland Carey Law’s New Appellate Immigration Clinic Takes Shape
The Daily Record
"In the spring 2023 semester, students in the clinic filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit on behalf of the Sex Workers Project of the Urban Justice Center, arguing that the court should reconsider a “crime of moral turpitude” deportation ground."There used to be tens of thousands of prostitution arrests annually in NYC. Now? About 100.
Gothamist
“'People need to take sex workers seriously and understand adult consensual sex work is not a sex crime,” [Zola] Bruce [of the Sex Workers Project] said. “We need to stop this criminalization of sex and sexuality in general and change the trajectory around that so that people can see sex work as a job.”The Gilgo Beach Suspect May Have Hunted Them. Now They’re Key Witnesses.
New York Times
In 2011, the Manhattan-based Sex Workers Project was approached by Suffolk police officials hoping to get escorts to come forward with information, said Crystal DeBoise, the project’s co-director at the time. The group was eager to help solve the case, one that had deeply upset the local “sex work community,” she said.Sex Workers Deserve Job Security Too
Girl Boss
“'The pandemic really showed that sex work is work—and it's necessary work,' says Zola Bruce, communications director at Sex Workers Project. And yet, those workers struggled immensely during the pandemic—and their precarity hasn’t improved."Police Arrest Suspect in Dallas, Texas, Murders; Man is Latest Alleged U.S. Serial Killer
USA Today
"The Sex Workers Project at the Urban Justice Center surveyed a small sample of street sex workers in New York City and found that 80% reported experiencing violence or threats of violence while working."From Jack the Ripper to ‘Gilgo Beach’ cold case, violence against sex workers is common
USA Today
"In New York, an analysis from the Sex Workers Project at the Urban Justice Center found that 80% of a small group of street sex workers who responded to a survey reported experiencing violence or threats of violence while working."Petition: Stop Bill S-224 : Stop Harmful Amendments to the Human Trafficking Offense
Sex Work Law Reform
"[The UJC Sex Workers Project] urges the government to reject Bill S-224 and adopt a human rights-based approach to the violence and exploitation faced by the communities that centres labour rights, migrant rights, and sex workers’ rights."Thailand Is a Global Capital of (Illegal) Sex Work
El Pais
"The Sex Workers Project, an advocacy organization based in New York, found that sex workers globally face a 45% to 75% chance of experiencing violence on the job."New Letter Says Slack Puts Abortion Seekers in Danger and Fails to Address Online Harassment
Common Dreams
Civil rights and abortion groups (including UJC's Sex Workers Project) demand the communications platform offer end-to-end encryption and a blocking/reporting feature to secure messages and address harassment.Strippers Unionize at California Club After a Long Fight
NY Times
“Mariah Grant, the former director of research and advocacy for the Sex Workers Project of the Urban Justice Center, a nonprofit law firm, said unionization could be a significant step forward but added, “I have concerns about the fact that it’s a mostly white-led effort.”The EARN IT bill is back. We’ve killed it twice, let’s do it again!
TutaNota
"The Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies Act (EARN IT) is being reintroduced in the senate...The EARN IT bill is heavily debated among security experts as it would make dangerous changes to the digital landscape and legal structure under the guise of protecting children." - The UJC Sex Workers Project signed and said they oppose this bill.Labor Trafficking Is Inseparable From Capitalism
The Progressive
When Melissa Hope Ditmore co-founded the Urban Justice Center Sex Worker Project in 2001, she initially focused on the intersection between human trafficking and the sex trades. It did not take her long to realize that trafficking extends to workers in manufacturing, farm work, door-to-door sales, prisons, and in-home domestic labor...How a former Ohio police officer’s murder case ruptured trust among sex workers
WDTN
"A 2006 study from the New York-based Urban Justice Center found about 30% of street-based sex workers were threatened with violence by police, and 16% of indoor sex workers reported sexual encounters with police."Exercising Discretion
Yale University
This handbook seeks to support sex worker rights advocates, prosecutors, policy makers and other stakeholders to develop, influence, track and assess the operation and impact of DA non-prosecution policies so that they protect and promote sex workers’ rights and health..Exploring the Contested and Controversial Nature of the Sex Industry in India
Springer
"The Sex Workers Project at the American ‘Urban Justice Center’ is an initiative that provides client-centred legal and social services to individuals who engage in sex-work, (regardless of whether they do so by choice, circumstance, or coercion), alongside taking an approach that is grounded in human rights."Despite Reforms, Sex Workers in New York Still Live in Fear of Arrest
Documented
"Sex work decriminalization advocates such as Mariah Grant, director of Research and Advocacy at the New York-based Sex Workers Project, say that prosecutions that have continued to occur in Brooklyn and Queens exemplify the limitations of DA non-prosecution policies."La prostitución en Tailandia: visible, multimillonaria e ilegal
El Pais
"El Sex Workers Project, una organización de apoyo con sede en Nueva York, halló que las prostitutas de todo el mundo tienen entre un 45% y un 75% de posibilidades de sufrir violencia en el trabajo."Handbook Helps Navigate Non-Prosecution Policies for Sex Work
Yale News
The Yale Global Health Justice Partnership (GHJP) and the Sex Workers Project (SWP) of the Urban Justice Center have jointly released a handbook on district attorneys’ policies of non-prosecution of sex work-related charges. The handbook supports advocates for sex worker rights, prosecutors, policy makers, and other stakeholders to develop, influence, track, and assess the operation and impact of district attorney non-prosecution policies.Woman who sells virtual sex in VRChat denied US visa for ‘prostitution’
PC Gamer
"Speaking to Motherboard, an expert on the subject from The Sex Workers Project [of the Urban Justice Center] said that travelers are increasingly being interrogated at borders under suspicion of "prostitution" due to their online presence. Hex said on her now-private Twitter account that she didn't bring up her Fansly page in her visa application; it was something the US discovered itself."OnlyFans girl denied entry into US for “prostitution”
The Bright
“When sex workers have criminal convictions under laws that criminalize sex work, we regularly see that those people may encounter intense questioning by immigration authorities to see if there exists grounds to deny them entry. But even when people DON’T have criminal convictions related to sex work, they may be subject to similar scrutiny," [said Clement Lee of UJC's Sex Worker Project]."VRChat Sex Worker Denied Entry To US Over ‘Prostitution’
Kotaku
"Clement Lee, the Associate Director of Immigration Legal Services at the Urban Justice Center’s Sex Workers Project, told Motherboard that the U.S. denying sex workers access to the country is a pretty common occurrence. And while Hex doesn’t technically meet the legal definition for prostitution found in U.S. immigration laws, that sadly doesn’t really matter."Thailand Is a Global Capital of (Illegal) Sex Work
Foreign Policy
"The Sex Workers Project, an advocacy organization based in New York, found that sex workers globally face a 45 percent to 75 percent chance of experiencing violence on the job. Transgender women such as Anna face an added layer of danger from clients who turn violent after discovering their identities."VR-Y BAD! Virtual reality sex worker says she was ‘denied entry to US permanently’ for digital ‘prostitution’
The U.S. Sun
"And in the United States, that's just one of the many things Immigration looks for to deny visas – this is known as '"inadmissibility." This is a legal concept that "constitutes a broad array of immigration violations that can cover anything from polygamy to substance abuse to what immigration calls ‘engaging in prostitution,'" Clement Lee, the associate director of Immigration Legal Services at the Urban Justice Center’s Sex Workers Project, told Motherboard."A Virtual Reality Sex Worker Was Denied Entry to the U.S. for ‘Prostitution’
Vice
"Clement Lee, the Associate Director of Immigration Legal Services at the Urban Justice Center’s Sex Workers Project, told Motherboard that sex workers confronting barriers to travel and obtaining visas is 'all too commonplace.'"Ducey Announces Media Campaign Boosting Super Bowl-Sex Trafficking Hoax
Front Page Confidential
"Regarding the Super Bowl-sex trafficking myth, Mariah Grant, director of research and advocacy at the Urban Justice Center’s Sex Workers Project, said there’s no excuse for perpetuating this urban legend at this late date. She noted that way back in 2011, the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW) released its seminal report, “What’s the Cost of a Rumor?” — which concluded that there is “no evidence that large sporting events cause an increase in trafficking for prostitution.'”U.S. Border Patrol Agent Convicted of Killing 4 Sex Workers He Solicited
Jezebel
"According to [the Sex Workers Project of] the Urban Justice Center, 30% of interviewed sex workers said they had been threatened with violence by police officers, and 27% reported experiencing violence at the hands of police that included beatings and rape."
“What will we do if we get infected?”: An interview-based study of the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on the health and safety of sex workers in the United States Gallery“What will we do if we get infected?”: An interview-based study of the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on the health and safety of sex workers in the United States
“What will we do if we get infected?”: An interview-based study of the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on the health and safety of sex workers in the United States
Science Direct
"Emerging evidence suggests that sex workers face unique and profound risks arising from the COVID-19 pandemic...The authors wish to thank participants who so generously shared their time and energy. We also wish to thank organizations that supported recruitment and consulted on study design, …[including] the Sex Workers Project of the Urban Justice Center."Coalition Letter On Privacy and Free Expression Threats in Kids Online Safety Act
CDT
We, the undersigned organizations [including SWP], believe that the privacy, online safety, and digital well-being of children should be protected. However, S. 3663, the “Kids Online Safety Act” (KOSA), would undermine those goals for all people, but especially children, by effectively forcing providers to use invasive filtering and monitoring tools; jeopardizing private, secure communications; incentivizing increased data collection on children and adults; and undermining the delivery of critical services to minors by public agencies like schools.Letter: 90+ LGBTQ and human rights organizations oppose KOSA
Fight for hte Future
"While KOSA has laudable goals, it also presents significant unintended consequences that threaten the privacy, safety, and access to information rights of young people and adults alike. We urge members of Congress not to move KOSA forward this session..." - Signed by the Sex Worker’s Project of the Urban Justice Center and many other non-profitsPromise of a job, duped into the sex trade. How Asian women fall into trap of trafficking
North Jersey News
Illicit massage parlors have become the most prevalent form of the sex industry, constituting up to 85% of all sex industry activity in the U.S., according to research by the Sex Workers Project at the Urban Justice Center.Sex Work: Legalization and Decriminalization focus of Albany Law Review 2022 Fall Symposium
Albany News
"The symposium’s panel discussion on Tuesday, Nov. 1 at 3 p.m. will be moderated by Albany Law School's President William McKinley Distinguished Professor of Law Melissa L. Breger and feature….RJ Thompson, Esq. - Managing Director of the Sex Workers Project at the Urban Justice Center."“Doubling Our Prices For Creampie Scenes”: Sex Workers On Life After Roe
US Today
"Mo Ho, a Missouri sex worker rights organization, is already in the process of establishing a fund for people who need abortions. “We’re very, very good at making sure we find ways to circumvent this systematic oppression,” said Zola Bruce of the Urban Justice Project’s Sex Workers Project. “Because we have no other support.”"There’s No Way FOSTA Isn’t a First Amendment Violation, Says Lawsuit
Reason
“There's no way the Allow States and Victims Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) doesn't violate the First Amendment, argues a federal lawsuit challenging the law. Among other things, it criminalizes web platforms that facilitate prostitution...Briefs supporting the plaintiffs have been filed by the Sex Workers Project of the Urban Justice Center and more than 20 other groups.”We’re High on These Last-Minute 420 Gifts
Green Entrepreneur
“Sackville & Co. is a contemporary cannabis brand launched by women who care about weed and social justice; they’ve partnered with The Sex Workers Project of the Urban Justice Center, donating their proceeds to educate and defend the rights of sex workers.”The EARN IT Act Is Back. Here’s What People Are Saying
Reason
“The reintroduced EARN IT Act is now scheduled to be discussed at a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting on Thursday. It's being sponsored by a bipartisan group that includes some of the Senate's worst actors, including Lindsey Graham (R–S.C.), Dianne Feinstein (D–Calif.), and Josh Hawley (R–Mo.)...The bill has earned criticism from all sorts of civil liberties, sex worker rights, LGBT, and free speech groups including the Sex Workers Project of the Urban Justice Center.”Goodparts Sells “Lubed Up” NFTS to Support Sex Workers
Hype Bae
“Personal care brand Goodparts founder Dave Shanfield is harnessing the power of NFTs to support sex workers. On February 2 and February 8, you can purchase the “lubed up” NFTs on NFTreats and proceeds will be donated directly to the marginalized community...A majority of funds will be donated directly to the Urban Justice Center’s Sex Worker Project which also seeks to destigmatize and decriminalize sex work.”Nationwide push to liberalize prostitution laws prompts concerns about human trafficking
Fox News
"There's nothing inherent about sex work that makes it more prone to violence other than the fact that because of stigma and because of shame and stigma against sex work, we as sex workers are – for people who want to cause violence – we're expendable people. We're easy targets for violence because people think we're less than moralistic," [RJ Thompson, Director, UJC's Sex Workers Project]The Ending of Brazen, Explained
Bustle
“A study from the Urban Justice Center’s Sex Worker’s Project states that almost 50% of sex workers have experienced physical violence while on the job, and 45% to 75% of sex workers will face violence at some point.”Policing Must Change to End Violence Against Sex Workers
This blog post from the Sex Workers Project (SWP) of the Urban Justice Center is part of the 2021 Leading to Violence Campaign. This campaign highlights the critical issues that must be addressed to realize the goals of the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers, recognized each year on December 17. SWP is writing on the topic of policing and the ways in which it harms and leads to systemic and interpersonal violence at the hands of law enforcement and the criminal legal system.
In Honor of Transgender Awareness Week Governor Hochul Signs LGBTQ+ Protection Bills
NY State
“Associate Director of the Government Affairs for Sex Workers Project of the Urban Justice Center Andy Bowen said, "With Governor Hochul's signature on the START Act, SWP sends its deepest thanks to the Governor, along with sponsors Senator Jessica Ramos and Assembly Member Richard Gottfried, for giving so many of our clients past and present greater hope for the future...With START's enactment, we will see many kinds of healing."Deep Dive with Dorian Warren: Sex Work
WNYC
“RJ Thompson, managing director of the Sex Workers Project at the Urban Justice Center, helps break down some of the stigma surrounding sex work as well as how and why male sex workers are often left out of conversations around sex work.”The New York Women’s Foundation Announces Fall Grantmaking Efforts
PR Newswire
"Investing in the power of women, girls, and gender-expansive people to create an equitable and just future, The New York Women's Foundation announces nearly half a million dollars in its latest round of grantmaking... Grantee partners [including] the Sex Workers Project...center the voices and experiences of those most marginalized in civic and political spheres, including Black and Latinx women, youth of color, and cis- and transgender people of color in the sex work industry.”Trafficking Victim: They Made Me Have Sex With Cops
Daily Beast
“This is far from the first allegation of a police officer taking advantage of a sex worker. Seventeen percent of sex workers surveyed in a 2003 report by the Urban Justice Center of New York reported being sexually harassed by police, including one sex worker who reported being raped by police and another who reported being stalked.”Lawmakers and advocates debate legalizing sex work in New York
Last month, New York Governor Kathy Hochul said she is looking into a proposal to legalize sex work in the state. The move has long been pushed by advocates who say it would empower sex workers and give them added protections.
WAMC
Andy Bowen in The 2021 New York City 40 Under 40
City & State
“As a public affairs consultant for the past four years, [Andy] Bowen has advised and supported clients such as worker cooperatives and the Sex Workers Project at the Urban Justice Center. Whether it’s supporting advocates for LGBTQ people or labor rights, Bowen says, “Helping take part in that change means the world to me.”Reeling 2021: The Journey of Monalisa is intimate and winding
The Spool
"Nicole Costa’s documentary about the life and times of poet, artist, friend, sex worker [and UJC Sex Worker Project client] Iván Monalisa is insightful and wry."Sex Workers Sick of OnlyFans Are Building Their Own Websites
Vice
“While the purported target of the law [FOSTA/SESTA] was trafficking in the sex trades, it has proven incredibly ineffective but is instead invoked regularly by tech companies when censoring and removing content shared by sex workers, or even just users sharing content of a sexual nature,” Mariah Grant, Director of Research and Advocacy at The Sex Workers Project of the Urban Justice Center, told Motherboard.”How to support sex trafficking survivors without harming consenting sex workers
Mashable
“Answering what is the best group is "a tricky question because many organizations that serve survivors are more localized,” says Kate D'Adamo, a long-time sex worker rights advocate who previously was the national policy advocate at the Sex Workers Project at the Urban Justice Center, which works to destigmatize and decriminalize people in the sex trade. The best group may not have the best SEO on Google, and many anti-porn sex trafficking national groups take out ads on search platforms.”Utah politicians applaud OnlyFans’ ban of sexually explicit content, but questions remain
KSL Utah
Harper Zacharias, director of development of the Sex Workers Project at the Urban Justice Center said the move by OnlyFans "indicates a troubling willingness of OnlyFans to bend under the slightest pressure of financial institutions. OnlyFans has made its fortune off of the backs of sex workers during a time of global crisis."Apple photo-scanning plan faces global backlash from 90 rights groups
Ars Technica
"The undersigned organizations committed to civil rights, human rights, and digital rights around the world [including UJC's Sex Workers Project] are writing to urge Apple to abandon the plans it announced on 5 August 2021 to build surveillance capabilities into iPhones, iPads, and other Apple products...Though these capabilities are intended to protect children and to reduce the spread of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), we are concerned that they will be used to censor protected speech, threaten the privacy and security of people around the world, and have disastrous consequences for many children."City Budget Includes Broad Increase in Funding for LGBTQ Initiatives
Gay City News
The city is also increasing money intended to support “people involved in the sex trade” by $300,000 to $4.43 million. New funding sources within this program include $100,000 for the Urban Justice Center’s Sex Workers Project, which works to identify immigrant trans survivors of trafficking.Why “Fixing” Section 230 Will Not Save Anyone
The Forum
The effect of this bill and its brethren will not be to increase free speech, but rather to allow censorship to proliferate.HBO Crime Drama ‘Mare of Easttown’ Perpetuates A Familiar and Dangerous Trope
Pop Matters
According to a study done by the Sex Workers Project of the Urban Justice Center, "Eighty percent of street based prostitutes interviewed had experiences or been threatened with violence while working."Coalition Calls for United Nations Inquiry into US Police Violence
Human Rights Watch
Families of Victims of Police Brutality, Civil Society Groups Write to Ensure Effective Accountability and Follow-up to HRC Resolution 43/1Sex Workers Explain Why the SAFE TECH Act Will Break the Internet
Congress is once again threatening the livelihoods and safety of sex workers with its latest attempt to reform Section 230.
VICE
The Colonial History That Contributed to the Atlanta Spa Shootings
Long-held stereotypes about Asian women may have contributed to last month's shootings.
shondaland
Sex Workers’ Rights and Human Trafficking
Human Trafficking Search
“someone can be a sex worker and a survivor of trafficking,” just like a fruit picker or seamstress. “But when we’re talking about adult, consensual sex work- it doesn’t have anything to do with force or coercion,” Thompson affirms. When adequate safety measures are in place, Bruce adds “sex work can be an affirming and empowering choice” for some individuals.Brooklyn DA Dismisses Hundreds of Prostitution Arrests
Spectrum News NY1
“The criminalization of sex work is what makes it dangerous." said Mariah Grant, director of research, organizing and advocacy for the Sex Workers Project at the Urban Justice Center. "It makes it so that people can’t operate freely, that they can’t go to the police and feel comfortable expressing that they’ve seen abuse happening or experienced it themselves because they’d be fearful of arrest."The Case for Decriminalizing Sex Work in New York City
Decriminalizing sex work would allow for the creation of safety regulations to protect both sex workers and buyers from exploitation. If decriminalized, sex workers could safely report incidents of violence and sexual assault without fear of entering the criminal justice system themselves.
PROPnyc
The Vice-Loathing Reverend and the Sex Workers Who Took San Francisco by Storm in 1917
Daily Beast
On Jan. 25, 1917, sex workers in San Francisco marched to the Central Methodist Church to meet with Rev. Paul Smith, who had organized a campaign to rid and protect the city from vice. This was the first sex worker-led protest in the U.S.Washtenaw County will no longer prosecute consensual sex work
Detroit Free Press
"This is a really wonderful thing that other jurisdictions should duplicate because across the country, Black folks ... and also trans and cisgender women all bear the disproportionate burden of criminalization," said RJ Thompson, a sex worker who is managing director of the Sex Workers Project of the Urban Justice Center, a national legal services and advocacy group.What Sex Workers Want Kamala Harris to Know
The Nation
“A lot of black cis women, gender-nonconforming people and trans women just don’t know that it’s possible for a black woman to sit in such a high position.” But Bruce adds that “there’s some challenges because historically, we know that she hasn’t been supportive of trans women in particular, and also not supportive of sex workers. I just feel like for us to see positive change in our communities, we need to see her also change.”Ohio Anti-Trafficking Operation Harms Sex Workers
The Sex Workers Project at the Urban Justice Center condemns the arrest and detainment of sex workers, including individuals potentially experiencing trafficking, as part of Operation Autumn Hope.
Kamala Harris is our new VP, and that holds different meanings for people
Daily Kos
“The victim narrative and rescue mentality that most Democrats take around sex work is not helpful,” said RJ Thompson, a human rights lawyer, longtime sex worker, and director of the Sex Workers Project. “We do not need to be rescued, we need our human rights protected.”SWP Receives Historic $1.2M Grant from the Sex Work Rights Fund
SWRF has made a generous donation of $1.2 million to SWP to significantly increase SWP’s capacity, size, scope, and impact. With this gift, SWP is able to hire a Director of Communications, Director of Development, Director of Research, Organizing, and Advocacy, and an Associate Director for State and Local Campaigns, as well as locally based organizing consultants. While continuing to focus on legislative efforts in New York, SWP will also focus on building a statewide campaign in Oregon to decriminalize and destigmatize sex work, partnering with SWR and other national, statewide, and local human rights organizations through 2020 and beyond.
Call off your old, tired ethics
The Minnesota Daily
Testimonies from New York to Los Angeles tell the same story: officers aren’t above privacy violations, enforced acts of public nudity and inappropriate physical contact. The Sex Workers Project of the Urban Justice Center in New York City found that 17% of sex workers had been sexually harassed, abused or even raped by police officers.HRP and SWP Joint Statement on White Supremacist State Violence
The Sex Workers Project (SWP) and the Human Rights Project (HRP) stand in solidarity with all those voicing their outrage at the continued state violence perpetrated against African/Black people in the U.S.
‘I have a mortgage to pay’: Sex workers banned from small-business loans under CARES Act due to ‘prurient sexual nature’
Market Watch
“Sex workers are heavily affected by measures such as social distancing and business shutdowns because they simply cannot go to their workplaces anymore, and are seeing a sharp decrease in their clients. Unlike employees from ‘mainstream’ businesses, many sex workers are not eligible for unemployment benefits,” says Lynn Liu, the development and communications associate at the Sex Workers Project at the Urban Justice Center in New York City.Remembering Lorena Borjas, the Mother of a Trans Latinx Community
The first time Lynly Egyes met her, Borjas pulled a birth certificate out of the bag. Egyes was then a lawyer with the Sex Workers Project at the Urban Justice Center and had recently taken the case of a young immigrant transgender woman who was in jail, facing felony assault charges for defending herself against an attacker—an exceedingly common predicament.
An Activist, a Warrior, a Mother to So Many: Lorena Borjas, Pillar of New York Trans Community, Dies From Coronavirus
Time Magazine
Egyes, 38, says she first met Borjas while working for the Sex Workers Project at the Urban Justice Center. At the time, Egyes remembers she was representing two incarcerated transgender women; Borjas “just showed up” with a much-needed birth certificate for one of the women, pulling it out of the Mary Poppins roller bag she always carried with her.What to look for in criminal justice reform in New York in 2020
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
“Trafficking is a lot more complex than that,” said Rosie Wang, director of Legal Advocacy and Services at the Sex Workers Project of the Urban Justice Center. “Traffickers will force their victims to do criminal actions for them, like shoplifting and carrying drugs. They’re not eligible for relief because they’re not prostitution-related but they are trafficking-related.”These Transgender Latinas Want New York State to Decriminalize Sex Work
The Daily Beast
Jessica Peñaranda is director of movement building at the Sex Workers Project. An advocate of Decrim NY, she said there is still plenty to be done. “Until we can have fair wages, affordable housing, and a welfare system, society will continue to punish sex-workers. There are so many things to do to bring every part of the system together as a community.”Bill that could protect trafficking survivors from deportation has yet to reach floor in Albany
Queens Daily Eagle
“Trafficking is a lot more complex than that,” said Rosie Wang, director of Legal Advocacy and Services at the Sex Workers Project of the Urban Justice Center. “Traffickers will force their victims to do criminal actions for them, like shoplifting and carrying drugs. They’re not eligible for relief because they’re not prostitution-related but they are trafficking-related.”Should Sex Work Be Decriminalized? Some Activists Say It’s Time
NPR
Thompson is now a human rights lawyer and the managing director of the Sex Workers Project at the Urban Justice Center. It's among several organizations that are advocating bills to decriminalize sex work in New York City and New York state. They already have the support of various state lawmakers.Drugs, sex work and gambling embraced by 2020 hopefuls
CNN
"Opposition to sex work comes from a deeply moralistic and religious place," says RJ Thompson, director of the Sex Workers Project in New York, a human rights lawyer and a long time sex worker himself. "But it has no public policy rationale."Lawyer and Escort RJ Thompson Wants to End the Stigma Around Sex Work
Now This
“The Sex Workers Project has been a leader in the national sex workers rights movement,” he stated. “You know, many of our clients are transgender women, many are undocumented, many are queer, many are people of color.”Inside NY Courts Where Sex Workers are ‘Painted as Victims and Treated as Criminals’
The Appeal
The New York City research draws on interviews with court participants and direct court observations, and was conducted by the GHJP and the Sex Workers Project, a New York City-based organization providing legal services and other support for sex workers and people who have been trafficked.GHJP Releases Reports on Prostitution “Diversion” Programs
Yale Law School Today
Diversion from Justice and Un-Meetable Promises are products of a multi-year collaboration between the GHJP and the Sex Workers Project of the Urban Justice Center (SWP-UJC) in New York. The collaboration, supported by the Levi Strauss Foundation, sought to bring the resources of the academy to support NGOs working with marginalized communities.New Legislation Aimed at Fighting Trafficking on Digital Platforms Could Put Sex Workers in Danger
The Nation
Cracking down on digital sites could also push sex workers into riskier street-based work that is more prone to violence, exploitation or police targeting. R.J. Thompson, director of the Sex Workers Project at the Urban Justice Center (where the author once interned), and also a sex worker, says, “Working online and being able to screen clients online is really a great harm-reduction tool.Sex-trafficking bill that killed Craigslist’s Personals is hurting sex workers
Vice
“It reduces safety for sex workers,” explained RJ Thompson, who serves as managing director of the Sex Workers Project and is a sex worker himself. “It pushes folks who work online back to street-based work, which has much higher incidences of violence, public health issues including HIV and other STIs, state violence in terms of police harassment and arrest.”Contact
Sex
Workers
Project
We welcome your questions and comments
Main Office
40 Rector Street, 9th FloorNew York, NY 10006
Telephone: 646-602-5617
Email: swp@urbanjustice.org
Hours
SWP does not receive walk in clients or inquiries. Please call our helpline at 646-602-5617
