SAN FRANCISCO — In celebration of International Whores Day on June 2nd, the Erotic Service Providers Legal Education and Research Project (ESPLERP) will be protesting at ClusterFest.com in San Francisco, to let the audiences of comedians such as Amy Schumer know that “sex workers are not cheap punchlines.”
ESPLERP is a diverse community-based coalition advancing sexual privacy rights through litigation, education, and research.
According to an ESPLERP spokesperson, Schumer, like many other comedians, often uses sex workers as punchlines.
“For example, she recently had a skit on her show where she buried a dead stripper after partying with her co-workers — using violence against women to make the point that women do more work than men and get paid less,” the spokesperson says. “She is also a prominent supporter of the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA), which meant that many internet platforms closed and/or censored — so that sex workers lost their ability to screen clients, lost their community online, and in some cases were forced back onto the streets.”
“Sex workers will die because of FOSTA,” the spokesperson adds. “Amy Schumer has blood on her hands.”
The “Sex Workers Protest Amy Schumer at ClusterFest Comedy Festival” will feature support from ESPLERP, SWOP Bay (SF Bay Area chapter of Sex Workers Outreach Project), and the US PROStitutes Collective, and be held on Saturday, June 2, from 4-6 p.m. at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, 99 Grove Street in San Francisco.
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