SEATTLE — Sex workers will be speaking up at a panel presentation tomorrow night in Seattle.
The panel discussion, “Rights Not Rescue: Sex Workers Demand Justice,” kicks off the week-long Seattle Annual Sex Work Symposium, hosted by SWOP-Seattle and will examine effects that criminalized prohibition has on people who engage in the sex trade.
Wednesday’s panelists will include Monica Jones, Conner Habib, Deon Haywood and Kristen Di’Angelo.
“The polarized narrative of trafficking victims and elite call girls does nothing to address the diversity of people engaged in the sex trade, nor their myriad reasons for being there,” organizers of the Seattle Sex Work Symposium said.
“It is our intention to offer depth to this controversial and culturally urgent conversation so that meaningful solutions that will reduce harm and preserve the human right of all can be attained.”
The Seattle Annual Sex Work Symposium runs through March 6 and will include numerous events, including a public demonstration on Thursday in honor of Sex Worker Rights Day and a health fair on Friday.
Other events over the weekend include “activist karaoke,” a sex professional social and two evening events — “The Harlot’s Ball” and “The Art of Activism: Sex Worker Art, Films and Performances.”
A complete lineup of events and times can be accessed at Seattle-SASS.org.
Wednesday night’s “Rights Not Rescue: Sex Workers Demand Justice” will be held at Town Hall, 1119 8th Ave., Seattle 98101. The event is downstairs and doors open at 6 p.m. Tickets cost $10-$15 but no one will be turned away for lack of funds.
