Empowering LGBTI sex workers towards the full respect of their human rights

In ILGA-Europe’s view, LGBTI organisations have a key role to play in fighting against stigma affecting LGBTI sex workers, both within and outside the LGBTI community.

Empowerment, combatting exclusion, and ‘nothing about us without us’ – these principles are at the core of our new policy.

Entitled ‘Empowering LGBTI sex workers towards the full respect of their human rights’, it outlines three key steps that we all collectively must take to ensure the rights of sex workers are protected:

• Combatting structural discrimination and social exclusion of LGBTI people
• Calling for decriminalisation as a cornerstone for protecting the human rights of sex workers
• Working towards the full inclusion of the voices of sex workers in the LGBTI community

LGBTI sex workers have always been part of the LGBTI movement; the names of Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Riveria are not just historical references, their experiences at Stonewall shaped Pride events and the global LGBTI movement as we know it today. And yet, many sex workers are excluded from modern-day LGBTI activism.

In ILGA-Europe’s view, LGBTI organisations have a key role to play in fighting against stigma affecting LGBTI sex workers, both within and outside the LGBTI community.

This is why ILGA-Europe commit to raising awareness within the LGBTI community on the human rights violations which LGBTI sex workers are facing, and to addressing stigma against sex workers and supporting them to be more visible within the LGBTI community.