“An act of community defence”

Two sex worker advocacy groups in Toronto, Maggie’s and Butterfly, have banded together to launch the Emergency Support Fund for Sex Workers to raise financial support for cash-strapped workers during the COVID-19 crisis.

“We’re seeing incomes drastically reduced across the city,” says Ellie Ade Kur, a board member with Maggie’s, a support group run by and for sex workers. “Full-service and contact sex workers especially have seen a real decline as their workplaces, like strip clubs and massage parlours, close down.”

The initiative in Toronto joins others in cities like Montreal, Seattle and New York. Sex workers are particlualry vulnerable because their work is criminalized, Ade Kur says. That means when and if government and other income supports become available, sex workers can’t access them. It’s worse for migrant and refugee sex workers. “Their status is even more precarious, running the real risk of arrest or even deportation if they come forward,” Ade Kur says.

The group is already distributing small amounts of money to tide people over. “It’s an open application process,” Ade Kur says. “Of course what we can give out is contingent on what we raise.”

The impacts on sex work of social distancing and lockdowns varies. Those who come in contact with clients, and where there is no option of stopping work, have to protect themselves and their clients as best they can. In such cases, Maggie’s and Butterfly have released a harm-reduction guide for sex workers, clients and allies Ade Kur adds. Read more via DailyXtra