DSW & allies hold SESTA/FOSTA panel at SXSW

March 11: DSW teamed up with Alex Andrews from SWOP Behind Bars, Dan Savage, Larry Walters and River del Lano from Uncaged Love to discuss the dangerous implications of SESTA/FOSTA at a panel at SXSW in Austin.

The panel focused on the ongoing harm that SESTA/FOSTA is causing to the sex work community, in addition to the long-term implications for a broad range of civil liberties.

DSW hosts soiree with Dan Savage

March 11: DSW hosted in Austin a soiree with Dan Savage, donors, local activists, and panelists, where advocates for decriminalization shared strategies and stories. Alex Andrews, Kaytlin Bailey & Dan Savage gave a toast to our shared goal of ending the prohibition of prostitution in the United States.

DSW & allies lobby RI legislators

March 14: DSW teamed up with COYOTE RI and allied organizations to educate RI legislators about the negative impact of criminalizing prostitution.

DSW’s lobbyists and local RI advocates engaged legislators in one-on-one conversations on the House floorto push for a study commission that would reexamine the state’s prostitution laws. Most RI legislators agreed that the laws aren’t working, while there’s uncertainty about what better laws would look like.  A study commission would provide the forum for discussing solutions.

DSW files legal brief in federal court case

February 20: DSW drafted and submitted to a federal CA court a spirited amicus brief that challenges the constitutionality of the devastating FOSTA/SESTA law.

This “friend of the court” brief was cosigned by an impressive array of organizations, including Sex Workers Project, National Coalition for Sexual Freedom, Brooklyn Defender Services, St. James Infirmary, and other allies.

DSW hosts panel at Seattle summit

March 2: DSW hosted a panel at the Seattle Annual Sex Worker Summit after the debut of the documentary War on Whores, which investigates the harms of criminalizing sex work.

The film features prolific writer and sex-worker activist Maggie McNeil and Reason Foundation’s Elizabeth Nolan Brown, as they track the alarming institutional shift from the United States' failed “war on drugs” toward an increasingly militarized “war on whores.”