Tag: National HIV/AIDS Strategy

An Open Letter to AIDS United et al:

December 20th, 2021 · · Press Release No comments - Tags: , , ,

Sex worker “focused” is not sex worker-led (20 Dec 2021)

We are writing this open letter in defense of all sex workers and in the spirit of finding solutions to long-standing dynamics in the HIV/AIDS sector globally that have led to the marginalization of the leadership of sex workers who are most affected and impacted. Please sign on here to future actions.

On December 16, 2021, without any discussion, communication or connecting of campaigns, AIDS United, Sex Workers Project (SWP), Reframing Health and Justice and the Postive Women’s Network (PWN), based their letter campaign and “movement-building” on policy work done by a coalition of sex worker-led organizations. See also, this statement by AIDS United on December 17. 

We are aware that our organizing and policy work in HIV and AIDS forums is carefully done, based on more than 30 years of experience and is held in high regard. It makes sense that other groups would want to build upon our groundbreaking work. 

We want to be clear about what has occurred so close to the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers. This is not about building on the work of others to strengthen sex workers’ voices (which, of course, we do support), this is blatant theft. The organizing and social capital of our work on HIV/AIDS policy and justice are being taken by privileged groups with unlimited access to resources who were in no way involved and with no consultation. And, this has been done by groups that gatekeep funding, have millions of dollars, and use respectability politics surrounding sex work.

We want to be very clear that while we are highlighting a specific instance we are not surprised that our work and organizing has been appropriated. The astro-turfing of work done by sex workers is something that happens frequently. This letter is not only about documenting what happened to us. We hope it serves as an example to other communities of sex workers that have had this happen to them already and for future sex worker rights organizers. This coalition presents a question for all to consider: Who will be at the table for furthering sex worker HIV policies? This question presents a bigger issue on who gets chosen to sit at the table that we built? For these mentioned groups to have a hand in policy-making and not include this coalition disregards our roles as leaders. This should give all in the sector pause.

Adding our organizational links to the letter is not recognition. It portrays sex workers as coming into this policy work when we are clearly leaders in this fight. Our organizations specifically mentioned in our NHAS open letter (one of the links used), that our rights and principles would no longer allow “advocates” to speak for us, but yet, this appropriation of our work clearly shows that our demands were not honored. Every one of the mentioned organizations has leadership that knows there is no greater offense than grifting work off marginalized populations. 

In the spirit of solutions we list the following remedies. AIDS United, SWP, PWN and Reframe Health and Justice must take down the letter/form, publicly apologize and support the work of grassroots organizations that did this work unfunded when the issues were not yet accepted. We are here waiting for your call so you can make this right and we look forward to working with you. Additionally, each organization involved in this must change their internal policies so something like this can never happen again. Each organization should pay the sex workers most impacted by these issues to advise them on how to make these changes. Our leaders and organizers have put their lives on the line for this work without payment for decades. If funding has been obtained by the intellectual and written appropriation of our work, then our groups’ deserve compensation. Monetary compensation is very important to our organizations as it literally allows our survival to sustain the work we do towards human rights for all. We refuse to allow more privileged groups and non-sex workers take from us now because they suspect that sex worker rights has become a popular issue and catching funders and donors attention. 

For people and organizations who are not closely associated with this work, you may wonder why we didn’t try to handle this internally. The answer is we have tried without success and now after this incident, we will not hold secrets when the community of sex workers and trans-led organizations continue to suffer from erasure, astroturfing, and appropriation. We tried to get AIDS United to return our messages for years–almost a decade–after we observed numerous policy missteps and erasures. We made countless efforts to connect with AIDS United as sex worker leaders and Black trans leaders. We even had AIDS United staffers speak to policy directors on our behalf to no avail. Other organizations involved in this action, such as Reframe Health and Justice, have repeatedly been advised privately to stop taking the work of grassroots organizations as their own. And, we have all of these years of reaching out documented in our archives; We have the receipts. 

Our work is our work and we must be acknowledged as such. UN UPR Recommendation 86 is also the work of sex worker-led groups. The legwork of organizing sex workers representing in Geneva for the 2010, 2015, and 2020 Universal Periodic Review was done by sex workers.  

Our roots in this work go very deep and it is an affront to every organization listed here that the seminal work of Black trans leader Sharmus Outlaw is also being taken without acknowledgement. It is foundational in whorephobia and transphobia to erase us from our own history. In 2011, many years into her advocacy, Sharmus addressed the Global Dialogue on HIV/AIDS and shared our joint policy agenda. She was also a central part in globally organizing, presenting, and participating in the many IAS conferences. This work cannot be erased.

Sincerely,

BPPP

Desiree Alliance

The BSWC

NJRUA 

The Outlaw Project

“Centrado” en las trabajadoras sexuales no es lo mismo que dirigido por trabajadoras sexuales (20 de diciembre de 2021)

December 20th, 2021 · · Press Release, Spanish/Espanol No comments - Tags: , , ,

Estamos escribiendo esta carta abierta en defensa de todas las trabajadoras sexuales y con el espíritu de encontrar soluciones a las dinámicas de larga data en el sector del VIH/SIDA a nivel mundial que han llevado a la marginación del liderazgo de las trabajadoras sexuales que son las más afectadas e impactadas. Por favor regístrese aquí para acciones futuras.

El 16 de diciembre de 2021, sin ninguna discusión, comunicación o conexión de campañas, AIDS United (SIDA Unidos), Sex Workers Project – SWP (Proyecto de Trabajadores Sexuales), Reframe Health and Justice (Replantea la Salud y Justicia) y Positive Women’s Netwotk – PWN (la Red de Mujeres Positivas), basaron sus cartas de campaña y la “construcción del movimiento” en trabajo político realizado por una coalición de organizaciones dirigidas por trabajadoras sexuales. Consulte también esta declaración de AIDS United del 17 de diciembre.

Somos conscientes de que nuestro trabajo organizativo y político en los foros sobre el VIH y el SIDA se realiza con cuidado, basado en más de 30 años de experiencia y goza de un gran respeto. Tiene sentido que otros grupos quieran construir sobre nuestro trabajo innovador.

Queremos dejar claro lo que ha ocurrido tan cerca del Día Internacional para Poner Fin a la Violencia contra las Trabajadoras Sexuales. Esto no se trata de la construcción sobre el trabajo de otros para fortalecer las voces de las trabajadoras sexuales (que, por supuesto, apoyamos), esto es un flagrante robo. El capital social y organizativo de nuestro trabajo sobre políticas y justicia sobre el VIH/SIDA está siendo tomado por grupos privilegiados con acceso ilimitado a recursos que de ninguna manera estuvieron involucrados y sin consulta. Y esto lo han hecho grupos que controlan la financiación, tienen millones de dólares y utilizan políticas de respetabilidad en torno al trabajo sexual.

Queremos dejar muy claro que, si bien estamos destacando una instancia concreta, no nos sorprende que nuestro trabajo y organización se haya apropiado. El astroturfing del trabajo realizado por las trabajadoras sexuales es algo que ocurre con frecuencia. Esta carta no se trata sólo de documentar lo que nos sucedió. Esperamos que sirva de ejemplo para otras comunidades de trabajadoras sexuales a las que ya les ha pasado esto y para futuros organizadores de los derechos de las trabajadoras sexuales. Esta coalición presenta una pregunta para que todos la consideren: ¿Quiénes estarán en la mesa para promover las políticas del VIH para las trabajadoras sexuales? Esta pregunta presenta un problema mayor sobre quién es elegido para sentarse en la mesa que construimos. Para que estos grupos mencionados participen en la formulación de políticas y no incluyan a esta coalición ellos ignoran nuestros roles como líderes. Esto debería dar una pausa a todos en el sector.

Agregar nuestros links organizacionales a la carta no es un reconocimiento. Retrata a las trabajadoras sexuales como parte de este trabajo político cuando claramente somos líderes en esta lucha. Nuestras organizaciones mencionaron específicamente en nuestra carta abierta de la NHAS (uno de los links utilizados), que nuestros derechos y principios ya no permitirían que los “defensores” hablen por nosotros, pero, sin embargo, esta apropiación de nuestro trabajo muestra claramente que nuestras demandas no fueron cumplidas. Cada una de las organizaciones mencionadas tiene un liderazgo que sabe que no hay mayor insulto que arrebatar el trabajo a las poblaciones marginadas.

En el espíritu de las soluciones, enumeramos los siguientes remedios. AIDS United, SWP, PWN y Reframe Health and Justice deben retirar la carta/formulario, disculparse públicamente y apoyar el trabajo de las organizaciones de base que hicieron este trabajo sin financiamiento cuando los temas aún no fueron aceptados. Estamos aquí esperando su llamada para que pueda solucionar este problema y esperamos trabajar con usted. Además, cada organización involucrada en esto debe cambiar sus políticas internas para que algo como esto nunca vuelva a suceder. Cada organización debe pagar a las trabajadoras sexuales más afectadas por estos problemas para que las asesoren sobre cómo realizar estos cambios. Nuestros líderes y organizadores han arriesgado sus vidas por este trabajo sin pago durante décadas. Si la financiación se ha obtenido mediante la apropiación intelectual y escrita de nuestro trabajo, entonces nuestros grupos merecen una compensación. La compensación monetaria es muy importante para nuestras organizaciones, ya que literalmente permite que nuestra supervivencia sustente el trabajo que hacemos en pro de los derechos humanos para todos. Nos negamos a permitir que los grupos más privilegiados y las que no son trabajadoras sexuales nos quiten ahora porque sospechan que los derechos de las trabajadoras sexuales se han convertido en un tema popular y atrayendo la atención de los financiadores y donantes.

Para las personas y organizaciones que no están estrechamente asociadas con este trabajo, es posible que se pregunten por qué no intentamos manejar esto internamente. La respuesta es que lo hemos intentado sin éxito y ahora, después de este incidente, no guardaremos secretos cuando la comunidad de trabajadoras sexuales y organizaciones lideradas por personas trans continúe sufriendo el borrado, el astroturf y la apropiación. Intentamos que AIDS United respondiera nuestros mensajes durante años, casi una década, después de observar numerosos errores y borrados en las políticas. Hicimos innumerables esfuerzos para conectarnos con AIDS United como líderes trabajadoras sexuales y líderes trans negras. Incluso hicimos que el personal de AIDS United hablara con los directores de políticas en nuestro nombre sin éxito. A otras organizaciones involucradas en esta acción, como Reframe Health and Justice, se les ha aconsejado en repetidas ocasiones en forma privada que dejen de tomar el trabajo de las organizaciones de base como propio. Y tenemos todos estos años de contacto documentados en nuestros archivos; Tenemos los recibos.

Nuestro trabajo es nuestro trabajo y debe ser reconocido como tal. La Recomendación 86 del EPU de la ONU también es obra de grupos dirigidos por trabajadoras sexuales. El trabajo preliminar de organizar a las trabajadoras sexuales para que representen en Ginebra para el Examen Periódico Universal de 2010, 2015 y 2020 fue realizado por trabajadoras sexuales.

Nuestras raíces en este trabajo son muy profundas y es una afrenta para todas las organizaciones enumeradas aquí que el trabajo fundamental de la líder trans negra Sharmus Outlaw también se esté tomando sin reconocimiento. Es la base de la putafobia y la transfobia borrarnos de nuestra propia historia. En 2011, muchos años después de su labor, Sharmus se dirigió al Diálogo Mundial sobre el VIH/SIDA y compartió nuestra agenda política conjunta. También fue una parte central en la organización, presentación y participación a nivel mundial en las numerosas conferencias de la IAS. Este trabajo no se puede borrar.

Atentamente,

BPPP

Desiree Alliance

The BSWC

NJRUA 

The Outlaw Project

PRESS RELEASE

December 1st, 2021 · · Press Release No comments - Tags: ,

PRESS RELEASE

Sex workers lead the charge on HIV/AIDS in the US: today a victory in the United States on World AIDS Day

Date: December 1, 2021

Contacts: Cristine Sardina, Desiree Alliance director@desireealliance.org

Penelope Saunders, Best Practices Policy Project, +19178170324, bestpracticespolicyproject@gmail.com

Monica Jones, The Outlaw Project, theoutlawprojectinc@gmail.com

Akynos, The BSWC, info@thebswc.org

N’Jaila Rhee, NJRUA, newjerseyrua@gmail.com

Today we acknowledge World AIDS Day and stand with our communities of sex workers globally. Today the US government released the next iteration of the US National HIV/AIDS strategy (NHAS). For the first time sex workers are acknowledged with discussion of resources being attached to the proposed strategies relating to sex work.

There is no question about it. We cannot end HIV/AIDS without embracing the rights of sex workers to work, prevent harm and have full access to health care, including HIV/AIDS treatments if living with HIV. As reported in the Lancet, “decriminalisation of sex work would have the greatest effect on the course of HIV epidemics across all settings, averting 33–46% of HIV infections in the next decade.”

“For over a decade, sex workers have been demanding a place in the NHAS strategy. We had a victory today and a commitment from this administration to further our goal that sex workers are important in the eradication of HIV and AIDS,” stated Cris Sardina, the leader of the Desiree Alliance, “We helped build this table and now we must have a seat at this table.” 

Leaders from the community have responded positively to the strategy update. “The Outlaw Project is very pleased to see this inclusion,” stated Monica Jones, Executive Director of The Outlaw Project, “and we hope that the US government put policies in place to destigmatize sex work and end the criminalization of sex workers lives as well.”

“We are a coalition of sex worker led and trans led organizations with the greatest expertise on HIV/AIDS spanning 30 years,” comments Dr Penelope Saunders, Executive Director of the Best Practices Policy Project, “it is the right time to make rights based programming for sex workers and trans people top priority in the United States. We should do this for both public health reasons and for justice.”

Our letter to the Office of National AIDS Policy is included in full below for reference about our approach.

*********************** 

August 2021

An open letter to ONAP and allied organizations:

Sex workers have been advocating for inclusion in the National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS) since the beginning of this policy process. However, the first strategy released in 2010 deliberately excluded our communities. Despite our second appeal in 2015 (there was an extremely vague “mention” of sex work in the 2015 NHAS), sex worker communities were once again decisively excluded, ignored, and dismissed with the upmost intention to do so by the Office of National AIDS Policy (ONAP). After a multi-year, multi-organizational effort campaign requesting (then demanding) the recognition of sex workers as pivotal communities and voices in addressing HIV/AIDS http://www.bestpracticespolicy.org/2015/07/14/letter-to-onap-2015/, ONAP and allies cannot now make the statement that sex workers “should/must” be fully included in the strategy without acknowledgment that we have always been at the center of the fight to eradicate HIV and AIDS. It has been a decade-long request to ONAP without a response to sex workers who have been leading the fight since the implementation of the presidential council. The facts still remain that the 2020 exclusion translates to sex workers having to wait for at least another five-years before we truly gain our full rights in  national HIV/AIDS policies. The question is: will we be recognized in 2025?

Although many non-sex workers have come out in support of our efforts in HIV and AIDS advocacy and, many non-sex workers have written about us, we are speaking out as sex worker organizations who will no longer be driven into the shadows of exclusion or spoken for by allies over our own voices. Since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, sex worker history has been continually erased by the gatekeepers who have fought hard to stop the U.S. government’s intentional design to kill those who contracted the virus. We no longer give anyone the allowance to do this as we have always been visible on the frontlines. We appreciate the recent mouth-gaping and hand wringing by our allies realizing sex workers must be included in the NHAS, but you must also take responsibility for the calculated erasure of our entwined histories. ONAP must also bear responsibility in the exclusion as they have been fully aware of our decade-long appeals to place sex workers in strategies to end HIV and AIDS. Shame on you. 

Modeled after the Denver Principles, The National Sex Worker Anti-Criminalization Principles outline is a working template for the movement, advocating for sex workers by sex workers impacted by healthcare policies, labor issues, social stigma, and criminalization. The movement condemns any attempts at restricting sex worker autonomy and self-determination. We encourage all sex worker organizations, sex worker individuals, and our allies to use this document in every aspect of navigation and approachability to our movement.  https://frontpageconfidential.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/National-Sex-Worker-Anti-Criminalization-Principles-2018.pdf 

Therefore, we resubmit our 2015 letter to the ONAP, as our needs and demands have not changed – only the dates and  names of leadership. Nothing About Us Without Us. In regards to sex worker-related policy perspectives so long expressed by sex worker-led organizations, do not steal our words. Nothing About Us Without Us also means that you publicly acknowledge our leadership and provide us space and resources to continue to lead. 

Douglas M. Brooks, Director  Harold Phillips, Director

Office of National AIDS Policy

The White House

Washington, DC 20502

Re: Policy Recommendations

Dear Director Brooks – Director Phillips, 

We are writing to you to ensure that the perspectives of sex workers and sex worker-led organizations are included in discussion of HIV/AIDS policy nationally, specifically in terms of updating the National HIV/AIDS Strategy. The Best Practices Policy Project is a national organization dedicated to supporting rights-based approaches to policy and harm reduction work with sex workers, people in the sex trade and related communities in the United States. We produce materials for policy environments, address research and academic concerns and provide organizations and advocates with technical assistance. Everything that we do is guided by principles that protect the rights of people who engage in commercial sex in all its forms. The Best Practices Policy Project works with a wide network of organizations across the United States. This letter was written in consultation with the New Jersey Red Umbrella Alliance (NJRUA) and Desiree Alliance. NJRUA is a sex worker led group that has a focus area of preventing HIV among sex workers in New Jersey, and Desiree Alliance is a national sex workers rights organization dedicated to the decriminalization of sex work and elimination of ineffective HIV policies by empowering those most impacted to have a voice in the decisions that directly impact them.

We are pleased that the National HIV/AIDS Policy will be soon updated this year and would like to provide our input into the process and be included in forthcoming processes. The current National HIV/AIDS policy makes no mention of sex workers at all, despite the fact that sex workers in many different locales across the country have organized together for years in order to address factors that can increase their risk of HIV/AIDS.

Background and barriers: Across the United States, the harsh policing of anyone assumed to be, or profiled as a sex worker, directly undermines the ability of sex workers to protect themselves from HIV and, in a broader sense, alienates these communities from the support they need to defend their health and rights. Sex workers, and people the police assume to be sex workers, are harassed, assaulted, sexually assaulted, extorted, and falsely arrested by police. The law enforcement practices of using condoms as evidence and/or destroying condoms, confiscating medication(s), and seizing safe sex materials directly contravenes efforts to halt the spread of HIV in the United States. People of color, transgender people, immigrants, homeless people and youth of color are disproportionately affected by these law enforcement activities. People living with HIV who are profiled as being in the sex trade are subject to additional harassment, harsher policing and intensified legal sanctions (including felony convictions) in many jurisdictions across the US.

Different forms of U.S. anti-trafficking legislation and policies affect sex workers in the United States and globally. Federal U.S. anti-trafficking policies undermine the health and rights of sex workers both domestically and internationally by requiring that many organizations seeking funding adopt a policy against sex work (“Anti-Prostitution Loyalty Oath”). This requirement is applied to many seeking funds from the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Organizations within the U.S. have also been subject to the pledge under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act. These restrictions mean that many organizations are confused about what kinds of services they can provide to sex workers and have, in some situations, lead to shuttering of excellent harm reduction services. New forms of state level legislation to end “domestic trafficking” focusing on “ending demand” for prostitution have been proposed and/or adopted in many U.S. States, intensifying policing of sex workers and their clients. Instead of improving working conditions for sex workers and people in sex trades, these laws lead to more arrests and imprisonment of sex workers, and erode their abilities to utilize tools and strategies they need to keep safe.

1 – In terms of how to reduce new HIV infections in this context, we recommend:

  • addressing the root causes that marginalize sex workers–such as criminalization, stigma, and police violence–from treatment and prevention services.
  • ending the criminalization of condoms for sex workers, trafficking victims and those profiled as such, and ensuring adequate access to condoms for all
  • providing funding for harm reduction and rights-based health care services for sex workers of all genders (including men and women, those who are transgender, and gender non-conforming people,) and all ages
  • Lifting all restrictions on federal funding for harm reduction programs, including the ban on syringe exchange programs, and expanding funding for evidence-based health approaches to drug use, including harm reduction and drug treatment.

2-  In terms of how can we increase access to care & improve health outcomes for people living with HIV, we recommend:

  • training healthcare professionals to end stigma and discrimination against those who are involved in the sex trade
  • providing funding for harm reduction and rights-based health care services for sex workers of all genders and all ages
  • encouraging states to remove laws and enhancements to standard sentencings that criminalize people living with HIV; expunging the records of those arrested and charged under such laws that mandate sex offender registration; and removing people charged under these laws from sex offender registries.  In addition, the U.S. Government should adopt a bill such as H.R.1843/S.1790 REPEAL HIV Discrimination Act, in order to bring the U.S. in line with international law standards to end criminalizing based on HIV status
  • Encourage dialogue between national borders and migrant sex workers to ensure HIV-related health care is provided to those detained in ICE facilities, with a view to ending their detention and ensuring post-release treatment

3 – In terms of how to reduce HIV-related disparities & Health inequities, we recommend:

  • providing support for community mobilization of sex workers to respond to violence and discrimination and urging states to work toward the decriminalization of commercial sex
  • eliminating policies that prevent and hinder individuals with commercial sex- and drug-related convictions from applying for and/or receiving student loans public housing or housing assistance, public assistance, or other government-funded social services.

4 – In terms of how to achieve a more coordinated national response to the HIV epidemic, we recommend:

  • including sex workers as a priority in the National HIV/AIDS Strategy, clearly describing the barriers faced by sex workers and people in the sex trade, and listing these groups in prevention and treatment priorities
  • clearly stating in all policies the needs and priorities of the transgender community and ending the practice of misgendering transgender women as “men who have sex with men” (MSM)
  • improving communications between government agencies working on HIV and communities affected by HIV (recognizing sex workers and drug users in this dialogue), paying particular attention to meaningfully including voices of people impacted by these policies
  • modifying or eliminating existing federal policies that conflate sex work and human trafficking and prevent sex workers from accessing services such as healthcare, HIV prevention and support
  • repealing and removing “anti-prostitution pledge” requirements entirely for U.S. global AIDS funds and anti-trafficking funds.

Thank you for your leadership and consideration of these important matters. We look forward to working with ONAP to expand access to treatment, care and prevention for sex worker communities. We are committed to reducing the number of HIV infections across the United States through prevention and education initiatives. We urge you to adopt these policy resolutions to advance the objective of reducing the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

Sincerely,

Desiree Alliance

Best Practices Policy Project

New Jersey Red Umbrella Alliance

The Outlaw Project

The Black Sex Workers Collective 

Note: The original 2015 letter to ONAP was authored by the Best Practices Policy Project, Desiree Alliance, and the New Jersey Red Umbrella Alliance. 

SILENCE is still death for sex workers: the National HIV/AIDS Strategy Implementation plan

December 2nd, 2015 · · Articles, Policy Updates No comments - Tags:

by Penelope Saunders (BPPP), Cristine Sardina (Desiree Alliance), Katherine M Koster (SWOP-USA) and Derek Demeri (NJRUA)

Impassioned community leaders at the beginning of the HIV pandemic took to the streets and called out in policy fora that “SILENCE=DEATH” to ensure that people took notice. They sought to inspire action to address HIV, to seek treatments and to prevent the transmission of HIV among the most affected groups of people, people who happened to be highly stigmatized in other ways because of their sexual orientation: gay men, drug users, sex workers.

As leaders of sex worker rights organizations we applaud the attention that HIV receives on World AIDS Day, we express joy that the United States actually has a national strategy (after decades of not having one) and we celebrate the fact that with medication, comprehensive health care, housing and support that HIV is no longer a death sentence at all.

But a silence continues and that silence is immeasurably harmful. Despite the clear global understanding that we cannot address HIV without sex workers, the United States of America somehow didn’t get the memo. Despite the nearly dozen strong and solid recommendations by US sex workers rights organizations to the Office of National AIDS Policy and Douglas Brooks, our concerns were not included in the national strategy.  Sex work was mentioned only once in the recently updated National HIV/AIDS National Strategy (NHAS), and, was not mentioned at all in the National HIV/AIDS Federal Action Plan released December 1, 2015.  For this sector of society to be omitted entirely limits the scope of HIV and AIDS conversations, discussions, and policies. It is grossly negligent and inexcusable to ignore one of the most vulnerable populations that suffer the consequences of silence.

In the plan, “high-risk populations” are defined as “gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men; Black and Latino women and men; people who inject drugs; youth aged 13 to 24 years; people in the Southern United States; and transgender women.” Yet an estimated 20 to 40% of women at high risk of HIV infection in the United States reported having sex in exchange for money or drugs within the past year, and according to current epidemiology women engaged in commercial sex have a higher risk of contracting HIV not only than general population, but also other similarly high-risk women who do not engage in sex work. The plan also makes no mention of trans women who engage in sex work, despite the fact that trans people with sex trade experience are nearly 6 times as likely times as likely to be living with HIV (15.32%) than the general trans population (2.6%) and 25 times as likely to be positive than the general population (0.6%).

Beyond epidemiology, consider the social reality: Not one mention of sex work even though all across the United States sex workers–and people profiled as such under laws and policies against sex work–are detained and searched for their condoms and for HIV medications. Not one mention of sex work even though the most egregious state laws criminalizing HIV are those specifically targeting prostitution. 13 states have laws specifically criminalizing people living with HIV arrested for prostitution-related charges, statutes that can raise penalties to felonies even if condoms are used, even if all the acts are safe with no possibility of transmission. Even if the person’s viral load is zero. Not one mention of sex work even though our community-led research project “Nothing About Us Without Us” we have documented the vast, almost entirely unfunded sector of sex worker-led grassroots outreach initiatives doing the day-to-day work to end HIV and AIDS. Not one mention of sex work, even when sex workers are recognized by other national governments globally and international health organizations like the World Health Organization as a vital partners in order to end the HIV epidemic. Not one mention of sex work, when even international pressure has forced PEPFAR to include sex workers as a key population in the fight against HIV.

Silence still equals death for people in the sex trade who are living with HIV, and unable to access healthcare because they don’t have a home because of prior convictions for prostitution. Silence still equals death when they are turned away from mainstream health care services/providers who discriminate against them because they are “suspected to be prostitutes.” Or, because they can’t walk through the neighborhood safely to reach the clinic because of policing.

We know that with our advocacy there will be change because we refuse to be silent. Tucked away in the “implementation plan” that will guide the coming year’s work on HIV across the country, our community has some pressure points that we can use for change. For example, that by 2020 the National Institute of Health is supposed to “increase awareness of, and build support for, HIV prevention and treatment clinical and behavioral research nationally with specific community engagement and education activities for historically underrepresented communities and populations at greatest risk for HIV infection.” Historically underrepresented communities would seem to include sex workers.

Given the current poor record of HIV policy in the United States, sex worker rights organizations expected nothing significant from the NHAS Federal Action Plan. However, neither elimination nor silence will deter us from being recognized as a voice in HIV and AIDS strategies. We continue to organize with national HIV and AIDS groups that will ensure our place in the next NHAS update in 2020. As we begin to strategize our long-term plans of inclusion and collaborative work with key policy and scientific research stakeholders, sex workers must be at the table in these necessary and pertinent decisions of who is included in the NHAS. Join us and make sure that there is no longer a silence about sex work in the United States. Join us because it is no longer acceptable to silence, harass, arrest, abuse, deny healthcare, incarcerate, make homeless, or murder anyone because they are a sex worker, or because you think they are one. Those days are over.