“SESTA-FOSTA meant that these were no longer singular, discreet events. This was going to now become a trend in federal law that threatened our access to cheap, low threshold advertising as independent workers. In the context of that, it was so hard to have any more faith. It was so hard to not see these constant ‘How to's’ to be anything less than like the flailing of the few, of like the small swaths of sex workers who are privileged enough to be able to survive the latest blow. SESTA-FOSTA meant that the blows were never ending. They would never stop. Sorry, I don't mean to paint such a bleak picture, but that's what it felt like to me at the time. I feel like we were always bracing ourselves for the next individual blow. And I feel like we were always watchful for the broad language in anti-trafficking legislation that wasn't actually attuned to the needs of trafficking survivors that could possibly be used against us. But I don't think we understood or I don't think every sex worker on the street or even every common sex worker in the movement, understood that this would be the ultimate end, you know, of those two trends. Maybe we understood in theory, but those of us who had been just privileged enough to be able to maneuver and keep our scant livelihoods, we thought, ‘Well, I survived the last one, I can survive the next one.’ You can't really imagine something like SESTA FOSTA is coming up in the future because then you can't keep going.” — Caty Simon of Whose Corner Is It Anyway in Massachusetts

Right from the start, activists knew that if the bill package known as FOSTA-SESTA became law, it would be devastating for sex workers. And that it would basically do nothing to protect victims and survivors of forced sexual labor. In fact, it would make us all less safe.

In our opening episode, we explore the landscape of online sex work and the activists fighting against stigma and criminalization. We detail the federal raids on advertising websites such as RentBoy, and how sex worker rights movements saw the FOSTA fallout coming.

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.

Let Us Survive podcast was hosted, produced, written, recorded, and edited by Tina Horn and Mickey Mod, with additional production support from Christopher Holloway.

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.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.