Stances
Our thinking and advocacy priorities are always in flux, but here’s a few issues important to our group.
Decrim
SWOP Pittsburgh supports the full decriminalization of sex work and opposes sex trafficking and all forms of sexual violence. Because is a long way away in Pennsylvania, we focus on harm reduction policy changes.
worker safety
Back in 2018, SWOP was founded in part to fight the criminalization of condoms. Condoms were used as evidence during prostitution-related arrests. Discouraging condoms is a public health disaster.
Anti-surveillance
Sex workers are generally at a higher risk of stalking, domestic violence, and police surveillance. All of us deserve the safety that comes with digital privacy. We oppose technologies that target workers.
we Welcome migrants
Migrant and street workers are particularly at risk for sex trafficking and arrest. Fear of deportation and lack of community can prevent workers from seeking help.
Statements
No results found.
Advocacy Updates
-
-
Police officers in Pennsylvania’s Allegheny County have been charging sex workers with possessing “instruments of a crime” if found with condoms in their possession, a first-degree misdemeanor charge that allows authorities to take suspects into custody and immediately process and fingerprint them under the auspices of halting human trafficking even if it discourages safe sex…
-
-
Date: 6/15/2018 Hon. Stephen A. Zappala, Jr. Allegheny County District Attorney Courthouse, Room 303 436 Grant Street Pittsburgh, PA 15219 Dear District Attorney Zappala, On behalf of the undersigned organizations we urge you to take immediate steps to end policies that endanger and undermine the health of Pittsburghers: 1.) police and prosecutors’ practice of citing…
-
“On April 11, President Donald Trump signed into law a measure that its supporters say is necessary to combat human trafficking. The bill is a combination of two measures — the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act and the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (SESTA-FOSTA) — and was passed following two years of bipartisan advocacy. And…
SWOON Alliance 