ESPLERP Holding Rally Outside CA Dem Party Convention on Saturday

SAN FRANCISCO—San Francisco sex workers and the Erotic Service Provider Legal Education and Research Project will rally and host a press conference outside the California State Democratic Party’s Convention on Saturday, to urge the passing of a resolution submitted to decriminalize prostitution. The press conference will happen at noon Saturday, June 1, with the Die In and Rally for International Whore’s Day to follow outside the Moscone Center North on 747 Howard St., North/West Corner of 3rd and Howard. “We want the California State Democratic Party, the candidates, delegates, elected officials, the Central Committee members and all the volunteers to know this ‘big tent’ needs to include our rights too,” said Maxine Doogan of the Erotic Service Providers Legal, Education and Research Project. The Resolution committee will decide by 5 p.m. Saturday if the Resolution to Decriminalize Prostitution will be put before the delegates at 10 a.m. Sunday, June 2. “We want the presidential candidates attending the Convention, many of whom voted for the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA) and the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA), to see and hear some of the real-life effects on our already marginalized community,” said Rachel West of USPROStitutes Collective, a San Francisco sex worker activist group. Attending the rally will be Dominatrixes Against Donald Trump (DAD) to perform a Die In. “Gary Ridgway killed seventy one sex workers, but he can’t compete with the death toll brought about by the passing of SESTA-FOSTA,” said Tara Indiana of DAD. “Because of the bipartisan vote for  SESTA-FOSTA, sex workers across the country are in danger of violence, exploitation and death. We are doing this die in to make politicians pay attention to the blood on their hands.” This year, the Calfiornia Demoratic Party Convention coincides with International Whore’s Day, a yearly protest. Thousands of sex workers are expected to rally at cities from San Francisco to Mumbai. Rallies in the US are expected to have record-breaking attendance, thanks to the passage of SESTA-FOSTA in 2018. For more, contact Maxine Doogan of ESPLERP at (415) 265-3302 or [email protected].