Sacramento, CA — On November 7, Rachel West (US PROStitutes Collective), Kristen DiAngelo (SWOP Sacramento), Siouxsie Q James (Adult Performers Advocacy Committee) and Margaret Prescod (Black Coalition Fighting Back Serial Murders) will participate in a panel discussion at the Sacramento Universal Unitarian Society Church.

Panelists will update the community on a planned sex trafficking study and efforts to decriminalize prostitution in California and across the United States. They will discuss the difference between sex work and sex trafficking and educate the community on the recent passing of SB233, a new law which will finally allow sex workers to report serious crimes and carry condoms without the fear of arrest for prostitution. Panelists will also raise major concerns over the recent announcement of a new study intended “to target sex trafficking,” using Sacramento as the focal point.

The study in question was announced in September of this year, an initiative led by Dr. Richard Pan, Attorney General Xavier Becerra and Vice-Mayor Eric Guerra. The study, which is supported by an infusion of $1.5 million in state funds, has a stated goal of combating sex trafficking in Sacramento.

According to ESPLERP (Erotic Service Providers Legal Education and Research Project), historically, such studies have been used as justification to criminalize sex workers and to gentrify neighborhoods. And though the amount of funding being provided but the state is substantial, but no information about the methodology and objectives of the study have been made available.

“Sex workers are demanding to know exactly what is being studied — and by whom — given the constant conflation of sex trafficking with sex work,” ESPLERP wrote in a press release.

More information about the panel event follows.

WHAT: Panel on SAC Sex Worker Rights and new $1.5M study

WHEN: Thursday, November 7, 2019 from 6:30-9pm

WHERE: Sacramento Universal Unitarian Society Church located at 2425 Sierra Blvd, Sacramento, CA 95825