‘Racial Justice for Sex Workers’ is the beginning of making change and reclaiming narratives on sex work and race through in-depth conversations, research, collaboration and art between racialised sex workers and anti-racist activists. It is an ongoing project that highlights the voices of racialised sex workers and takes into consideration the layered intersections they fall into, while giving visibility, autonomy and community healing from the ground up. The project fights for rights and recognition, and challenges systemic racism experienced by racialised sex workers within sex work and outside of it.
To find out more, here’s Elizabeth, our Racial Justice Project Coordinator:
Racial Justice for UK Sex Workers will primarily look at the experiences and barriers racialised sex workers face when accessing public services. The project will help develop pathways and policy changes necessary to increase the safety of racialised sex workers in the UK and lead to a reporting tool to assist those who may want to report instances of harm, discrimination and racism perpetrated by those in positions of public trust. The project will also target complaints processes across a variety of public sectors within the UK to highlight and challenge issues such as medical racism, barriers to accessible housing, institutional racism within academia and the policing process.
The project will be embedded within an anti-racist intersectional framework, looking to understand and capture the multi-layered way oppression operates across the lives of racialised sex workers within the UK.
The racial justice for sex workers project has been funded by The Joseph Rowntree Community Trust as a part of their Rights & Justice priority.
The project is now live! Interviews with Sex Workers of Colour will run until 31st March 2023. Please fill out the pre-screening survey if you would like to take part and email the project coordinator for more information: elizabeth@nationaluglymugs.org We’d love to hear from you!
Twitter & Instagram: #RJ4SW
If you’re an organisation that would like to find out more about the Racial Justice for Sex Workers Project, or alternatively a sex worker that would like to be kept up to date with the project and upcoming events, please sign up to our mailing list.
As part of the Racial Justice for Sex Workers project, we have launched our ‘Racial Justice for Sex Workers Social’ a space for racialised sex workers to build community, be in space with other sex workers with similar experiences and learn more about the project and upcoming opportunities.
Our first session took place at the LGBTQ+ community centre in London in January 2023. This was an informal space to speak through experiences within the sex industry and the need for racialised sex worker-only spaces. There was a particular focus on ‘rituals’ and different healing practices.
If you’re a racialised sex worker that is interested in attending any upcoming Racial Justice for Sex Worker socials, please sign up to the mailing list and reach out to Elizabeth@uglymugs.org for more information.
NUM x FemmeDaemonium: Sex Workers Of Colour Project
In 2020 and 2021, NUM partnered with sex worker activist & performance group Femmedaemonium to conduct research on the experiences of racialised sex workers. The findings of the research have been used to develop the services NUM offers to racialised sex workers, as well as to produce The Source, a magazine created by sex workers of colour which speaks to their experiences.
The findings of the research, and what we’ve done since, can be found here:
