For Immediate Release June 1st 2018
Contact Maxine Doogan 415-265-3302
info(AT)esplerp.org
SAN FRANCISCO San Francisco sex workers will be marching outside Amy Schumer’s performance at Clusterfest, in protest of the comedian’s use of sex workers as punchlines, and for her vocal support of SESTA-FOSTA, a law that has resulted in violence against sex workers, and censorship of sex worker voices.
The protest will happen at from 4 PM to 6 PM on June 2, 2018 International Whore’s Day — outside the Bill Graham Auditorium on 99 Grove Street.
“We want the audience to know that Amy’s jokes have some real-life effects on our already marginalized work,” says Maxine Doogan, a sex worker activist and founder of ESPLER Project.
“SESTA-FOSTA, which makes it a crime for an third-party platform to enable or facilitate sex work, has resulted in our advertising platforms being shut-down, and forced us out of relatively safe online spaces into riskier streetwork. Thanks to the law, many resource and advocacy organizations have also shuttered. Amy supported the law and even made a PSA in support of it.”
Amy’s appearance coincides with International Whore’s Day, an yearly protest where thousands of sex workers are expected to rally at cities from San Francisco to Mumbai. Protests in the US are expected to have record-breaking attendance, thanks to the passage of SESTA-FOSTA.
Many legally operating adult websites have closed or are at risk for closing, reducing spaces for erotic service providers of all kinds. The laws are making it very difficult for clients to find sex workers, reducing their income and creating dangerous working conditions while silencing their ability to communication — a ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ scenario for sex workers.
The protest will seek to educate the public about the law, while also drawing Amy’s attention.
“It would make for a great opportunity to educate her about effects of the law that she lobbied for has had on our lives and our families lives” , said ‘Jane’, a long time sex worker who plans on attending the protest because she would like Amy Schumer to come out and address the protesters on International Whore’s Day.
JOIN US: We are organizing a protest to be held at ‘Cluster Fest’ on June 2nd. https://www.clusterfest.com
MORE:
We are designing a simple information flyer to hand out to the attendees of this June 2nd event which is taking place at the civic center in San Francisco. This is an event where Amy Schumer will be performing. Amy Schumer performs a comedy routine ‘burying dead strippers’.
(https://www.buzzfeed.com/kirstenking/im-not-cool-with-it?utm_term=.sm2e9GmZWE#.vlyVBg9W03/?utm_source=ASG-GSRC&utm_medium=Search&utm_term=competitive&utm_content=Non-Branded&utm_campaign=CLTF-2018_
Amy Schumer actively lobbied for a law that reduced our rights, #SESTA. Here video promoting the law, which is opposed almost universally by sex workers and many anti-trafficking advocates, can be found here: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SB7-uqvnS0)a
June 2nd is significant because it is International Whore’s Day. We are proud to be sex workers. We take pride in who we are, our lives and our work as Erotic Service Providers. We want to stand with the historic resistance to bad laws like those that were passed in France decades ago, recently passed laws SESTA and FOSTA and the continued criminalization of our labor.
Specifically, we want to address the stigma produced by comedians who use us as punchlines in their acts while these same comedians lobby for laws which further restrict our free speech and our right to associate on and offline, while reducing us to second class citizens- which have real world consequences for us.
Like the protest in France years ago, we have to demand they stop this behavior!
We must stand together and let Amy Schumer and others like her know that their unfair business practices are being put on notice. They must stop lobbying for laws that impact us without asking us what we want and need. They should donate the proceeds of their shows to our nonprofit, funds to be used in order to address the negative stigma they themselves have caused and perpetuate.
They must stop using us as a punchline in their jokes!
