A federal appeals court has ruled the United States cannot force US-based groups seeking international HIV/AIDS funding to denounce sex work. This decision from the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court in New York upholds a lower court decision in favor of the Alliance for Open Society International, Pathfinder International, Interaction and the Global Health Council. The decision, however, does not prevent the United States from applying the “anti-prostitution pledge” (also known as the anti-prostitution loyalty oath) to organizations based outside of the United States seeking US government funding for international HIV/AIDS work. Read BPPP’s media analysis to understand the full story.
Recent press coverage of the murder of a number of women on Long Island has quoted sex worker organizations about the issue. The Long Island Press quoted SWANK and SWOP-NYC using information from their press release on the issues. CNN’s Susan Candiotti spoke to SWOP USA representative Stacey Swimme and SWOP-NYC’s Kate D’Adamo. This coverage is helpful because communities whose members may be effected by this kind of violence are situated as credible sources of information rather than “helpless victims.”
An INCITE! affiliate carefully unpacks the ways in which law and policy affects youth, especially LGBTQ and youth of color, in a response to Rinku Sen’s article in Colorlines. “There are no simple answers,” comments the INCITE! affiliate and collective of radical women of color, queer people of color and Indigenous people who identify as people in the sex trade. The INCITE! affiliate response illustrates that “current ways of thinking about trafficking and the sex trade make LGBTQ youth invisible” and that New York City’s Safe Harbor Act fails youth, and builds a critique of Rinku Sen’s depiction of the “simple solutions” offered by GEMS (a New York City based program for girls).