http://eepurl.com/d9nV

As the Olympics come upon us we have heard much about surrounding communities "gearing up" for the anticipated influx of sex workers. While our hearts go out to the real victims of trafficking, many of us who are in this work voluntarily are proud of what we do and do not appreciate being portrayed as powerless victims...

http://eepurl.com/dwZe

There have been many changes going on at SWOP-LA headquarters. The most notable is that our beloved founder, Mariko Passion, will be moving on to develop her career as a performance artist. After over four years of pounding the pavement for sex workers rights she will be passing the torch to another...

In LA, my desire to reach the transgender community has been met with some resistance by transfolk who are angered at being profiled wrongly of being prostitutes-but I say to anyone who is outraged at being profiled as a prostitute should resist state violence which occurs to those who are criminalized for prostitution. Being transgender and crossdressing no longer a crime, and in states like CA are protected. Please light a candle, burn an incense, smoke a bowl or whatever for all of our TG sisters and brothers who we have lost in the struggle for justice or livelihood...

I am still in Miami where I attended the Harm Reduction conference for 3 days. Harm reduction brings together drug users, HIV, sex work, anti-violence and many more fields to discuss and build community together. IT WAS SOOO AMAZING. Loved it. The Hilton had to tolerate the hookers and junkies who looked and dressed the stereotype AS WELL as the other hookers and junkies who worked at non profit jobs and did not look the stereotype! that was a great thing. There were many many panels on sex work and on the sex trade (for those who are exchanging sex but DO NOT identify as sex workers). In the sex workers rights movement there are many people who are left out of the mix because a politicized identity of sex worker does not neccesarily resonate with them and they may not attend events that have the word sex worker in them. HIPS (Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive) in DC uses the word Trade in their campaigns which read 'Trade Safe' and Young Women's Empowerment Project in chicago which has been present at many of the conferences that SWOP has been at as well, including the Desire alliance conference in Chicago definitely had a strong presence there presenting 4 different workshops. Sex work/trade harm reduction was integrated in every session practically which was AMAZING. It was not just one little panel or one little workshop, it was party of EVERY SESSION, EVERY DAY. this was very impressive. I missed the deadline for the International Harm Reduction conference in Thailand but in LA we are planning a HR summit in the Spring which YOU could be a part of. SWOP-LA is now going to take the knowledge gained at this conference and impliment a harm reduction project for Injecting drug users who are trading sex in LA. call 1-877-776-2004 x5 to talk to me more about this if you would like to get involved!

We have a new meetup group!

www.meetup.com/swopla

and there are already people discussing issues on it.

Join us today! We are ready to start new activities in the coming months after a bit of a break and somewhat of a bumpy start!

Well, it's been a nice break to regroup and look at how things are changing in my life.  I took a one month, which turned into a 2 month break to try to wrestle with this economy and etch out a survival for myself.  Times were getting tough.  I left LA to try to work in legalized prostitution land in the middle of nowhere Nevada and had a HORRIBLE time.  Legalization is NOT the same as decriminalization.  It has more similarities to JAIL than it does anything else.  I spent 7 days in Bella's Brothel in Wells, Nevada and I felt like I had been in jail.  In fact, I've been to jail and jail was better!  The bare essentials of legalization deem women to be treated like quarantined criminals even if they are supposedly legitimately working.  If you want to read about it go to my blog: marikopassion.wordpress.com.

HARM REDUCTION CONFERENCE Miami

SWOP-LA received a small Tides Foundation grant to go to conferences and impliment sex worker specific Harm Reduction activities.  I am registering to go to Miami's Harm Reduction Coalition conference.  There will be many sex worker rights advocates that I have worked with and admire so this is more of a conference for me to learn about stuff from others before I jump into doing it on my own.

TRANSGENDER Town Hall Meeting with Vivianne Namaste

I don't know why the TG community in LA seems to be so sex work negative or at best sex work neutral (only if it was in your past, or if you had to do it to survive).  I have been trying to discuss SWOP on meetup group boards and have been hit back with lots of responses about prostitution always being wrong, and how prostitutes make us (women) look bad, etc.  When I went to see Vivanne Namaste at the Ed Gould center, I was pleasantly suprised that 2 of the 4 featured speakers were talking about DESTIGMATIZING SEX WORK as a form of harm reduction.  Vivanne showed us one of her safer sex porn videos that a bunch of the t-girls from Canada made.  Turns out I've had that porn on my shelf for years, but never watched it!  I had no idea it was so amazing! 

As part of another somewhat confrontational discussion with a transgender doctor I had after the town hall, she said,"why do you think it is that you have been trying so hard to find a transgender sex worker in LA who can speak about these issues and haven't found a single person in 2 years?"

and I couldn't begin to tell her how short staffed we are, how big LA is, how I am not transgender and I'm sure that that had something and/or everything to do with connecting with who I outreach to.  But I know so many amazing transgender activists, and actually one of SWOP-LA's core membership was a transgender sex worker ally, so I had already found one person, thank you.  However, in trying to outreach to sex workers in LA both trans and non trans women and men, it's been very difficult so I don't know that it mattered my gender...

In any case, I found a woman who came up to me afterwards who would be very willing to work with us.  My goal is to have a transgender sex worker speak at the Transgender Day of Remembrance so that we can get the voice that talks about how the violence incurred by police who falsely arrest transgenders girls because they assume that they are working is the root of the violence that we allow to go on because we accep the stigma of prostitution.

I am slowly getting back out into the LA activist scene, but we are not going to be a big funded non profit.  We are going to be all about small do-able projects.  And I, Mariko Passion am working very hard on my art and my music.  I don't have a desire to be an Executive Director of a non profit organization in LA.  I can spend a LIFETIME on HIV prevention for sex workers in LA's 10 million people, but I am much much much happier singing songs about the whore revolution and travelling the world with my fellow comrades.

CURRENTLY up in San Francisco working on Proposition K-to decriminalize prostitution in San Francisco..www.yesonpropk.org

Happy to announce that SWOP-LA has changed fiscal sponsors, from Women Alive Coalition to our national organization "SEX WORKERS OUTREACH PROJECT" (the umbrella org). SWOP National's fiscal paperwork was already in the process of being filed, but when taking on local direct services like we were, you usually need to develop an official relationship with a local non profit in the field of service (domestic violence, HIV prevention, etc) that you are wishing to get local government $$ for. Some foundations, like Third Wave, don't fund chapters, only national orgs who distribute to chapters, so I almost think that you need to have both.

Anyway, the road to sex workers rights in Los Angeles SURE HAS NOT BEEN AN EASY ONE! The recent divorce from our previous fiscal sponsor symbolizes part of the struggle. There are a lot of dos and don'ts in this non profit industrial complex and finding the right partnerships and collaborations and pulling out of ones that don't work, are a part of the game.

SWOP-LA was not ready to take on the City of LA "Women at Sexual Risk" prevention mission all at once at this stage in the game, but that does not mean that we won't build up, at our own pace our readiness to that mission and our connection to that commumity. Stumble and Fall, it takes consistency and perserverance in big cities that can give a shit about a prostitute's life or death. SWOP-LA modeled this stage of their mission after sex worker agency heroes: Different Avenues and HIPS in Washington DC, and St. James Infirmary in San Francisco.

Many of the SWOP-LA members had lost morale...

But I think that we are on the road to positive growth, and that set backs are just part of this process. The day after leaving the meeting space that we had been allowed to use, we got notice of our Tides Foundation grant! The Tides Foundation has awarded us a mini grant to focus on cross collaboration, conference attendance and presentation at Harm Reduction Coalition conferences with needle exchange partner in LA: Clean Needles Now (another awesome radical harm reduction agency started by sex workers). It's not a huge amount of money, but it covers some honorariums, and travel for at least 2 of us to attend the Harm Reduction conference in November in LOVELY MIAMI! (here I come!) So, as we prepare to all converge in Chicago, I must say, I feel better about the future of SWOP-LA than I have in the last 4 months...

pssst! please help $pread the word
SEX WORKERS OUTREACH PROJECT-LA (SWOP-LA) presents


WHAT: HIV 101 and Q&A by and for sex industry workers
WHEN: Wednesday June 18th 7-9pm
WHERE: Women Alive Access Center
1566 S. Burnside Ave (b/t Venice Blvd, near La Brea)
LA, CA 90019
please RSVP-pizzas and refreshments will be provided based on responses! To RSVP-call SWOP-LA's hotline and leave your name and contact info

1-877-776-2004 extension 5
or email swopla2006@gmail.com
www.myspace.com/swopla

Service Providers and allies are welcome to this event (please try to bring a working friend or client if you can).
Our priority population are currently those currently working in escorting, massage, prostitution, porn, stripping, pro BDSM, living with the support of a sugar daddy/mama, rent boy/girl, phone sex operators, webcam operators in LA…if you are unsure just contact us. There will be future dates and other support programs (self defense, know your rights, boundary/body workshops and more) SWOP-LA is led by current and former sex workers, who are LGBT inclusive, serving all genders, and buildt on a mission of right based advocacy without shame or judgment.

SWOP-LA is featured in this video called "Speaking of Sex.." This was the Sistersong "Speaking of Sex" conference. The video is positive because it is sponsored by Planned Parenthood, the mainstream reproductive justice GIANT who could be along that line of feminists that are not supportive of sex work as work. I'm not sure what they were thinking when they edited the segment that Kitty and I are in cuz, they recorded us putting on our mics and sitting down, I don't even say a whole sentence and then in the interview with Kitty I'm shown but they don't include any words from me. Weird (Bad!) editing strategies. BUT, we're out there. SWOP-LA is featured visually quite well, and it features the banner that was STOLEN from this HATER ASS bitch neighbor from our December 17th event in LA. This woman was yelling out of her truck during our event to bring attention to the violence and stigma that sex workers face! "Sex workers deserve AIDS. That's nasty. There's kids in this neighborhood." Typical ignorant response. Anyway, I come outside to pose for the picture in front of the late great banner and IT WAS GONE. I remember getting it to be UPS delivered to Chicago in time for the conference was a bitch and a half too. We had to chase it clear across town because the driver had it on the truck and was not set to redeliver until after the conference! I remember I was so angry. I cried TEARS for that banner! (And for the symbolic violence and hatred of sex workers that I internalized). Anyway, we have a new banner now.

SEX WORKERS OUTREACH PROJECT-LOS ANGELES (SWOP-LA)
NOW RECRUITING motivated C*O*R*E
organizing members to LEAD projects in:

public policy
outreach
public speaking
advocacy (developing and promoting a campaign, or being the LA coordinator for national actions)
social justice
legal
police accountability
harm reduction
HIV/AIDS prevention/testing
peer counseling (Sex worker issues, sexual assault, DV, legal)
art/media/performance
fundraising/grantwriting
LGBT/queer/transient youth

REQUIREMENTS:
Must be able to commit about 8-10 hours a month, not including meetings. Weekly core meetings are held in Mid City LA, at 2pm and usually last for 2.5 hours. Projects can include setting up workshops, creating alliances with community organizations, research, performance, staging an art show, speaking at City Hall, speaking at Venice Beach. This is REAL WORLD activism. It is an excellent way to earn school credit, enter into HIV/AIDS prevention, and/or build your resume. Get ACCURATE field work and research on a very interesting and somewhat untouched area that overlaps with almost every social issue in LA, OR perhaps you have sex work experience and have been looking for an opportunity to get involved and start making changes with the way we are treated. If you are an ally, a student, someone who has traded sexuality for money and is looking for an AMAZING OPPORTUNITY TO CREATE CHANGE NOW, then get in touch with SWOP-LA TODAY! THIS IS AN UNPAID, VOLUNTEER POSITION. The option to write a grant for your own salary can be mentored, school credit, and/or letters of recommendation can also provided in exchange for your time.

We are open to folks with a variety of different experiences to bring to the table. You will be mentored through your projects and supported by the existing core members!
People of color, transgenders, and youth under 25 encouraged to apply.

Please send a letter of interest, resume, weblinks of your work to swopla2006@gmail.com
or call 1-877-776-2004, ext 5

NOT INTERESTED IN BEING AN ORGANIZER BUT WANT TO STAY INFORMED?

Go to http://groups.google.com and search for SWOPLA-LIST

or send an email to swopla2006@gmail.com