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 Mission:
The Desiree Alliance is a diverse, sex worker-led
network of organizations, communities and individuals across the US
working in harm reduction, direct services, political advocacy and health
services for sex workers. We provide leadership and create space for
sex workers and supporters to come together to advocate for human, labour
and civil rights for all workers in the sex industry.
Desiree
Alliance* is a coalition of sex
workers, health professionals, social scientists, professional
sex educators, and their supporting networks working together
for an improved understanding of the sex industry and its
human, social and political impacts. Our focus is on building
local and regional leadership and constructive activism in
the sex worker population to advocate for sex workers' human,
labor and civil rights.
The most important goal of the Desiree Alliance is to be part
of efforts to reinvigorate the sex workers' rights movement
in the US. Therefore, all of our actions in the last years
focused on building leadership and constructive activism in
the sex worker population. While the Desiree Alliance promotes
rights and justice for people engaging in sexual commerce,
we collaborate and stand with organizations working in overlapping
struggles for the rights of sexual and gender minorities,
sexual rights in general, reproductive rights and human rights.
Desiree Alliance
is committed to nonviolence. This means that we adhere to
the tenets of principled nonviolence in the achievement of
our goals, and we disdain the use of violence by any person
or group of people to achieve any goal- be it political, practical,
or spiritual. We are comprised of members who work to end
violence against sex workers, believing that violence against
any human is violence against all humans.
Foundational
to our alliance is the common desire amongst all members-
both groups and individuals- to promote social justice and
gender equity. Often marginalized, sex workers and their allies
face many ideological obstacles to our aims, and these are
often fuelled by misinformation. Misinformation has been a
driving force behind many dehumanizing tactics used by oppressors
throughout history, and in the case of sex workers unfortunately
there is no difference. Misinformation and outright prejudice
are often responsible for the actions of serial killers and
other abusers of sex workers.
Nonviolent principles
seek to re-humanize those who have been dehumanized, and in
the process bring humanity back to those who dehumanize (for
they, too, have compromised their own humanity by allowing
themselves to use the tactic of dehumanization). Desiree hopes
that by adhering to the principles of nonviolence, we can
bring about the fundamental change in each person needed to
achieve the justice we seek for those among us who may have
ideas about the use of their bodies which challenge others'
beliefs.
More information on nonviolence can be found here.
Desiree Alliance
wishes to change fundamentally the way sex workers are perceived
by society. We recognize that our project is one which will
require a great amount of time and patience, but we gain inspiration
from civil rights movements which have gone before us; including
but not limited to the suffragettes' movement of the 1800s
and the civil rights movement of the 1960s.
You can contact us by:
email:
info[at]desireealliance[dot]org
Postal
mail:
Desiree
Alliance
PO Box 361 Fort Smith
Arkansas 72902
Please consider making a donation!
Click
here to support Desiree Alliance!
Desiree
Alliance Is: Sharmus
Outlaw
Desiree Alliance Co-Director
director[at]desireealliance[dot]org
Cris Sardina
Desiree Alliance Co-Director
director[at]desireealliance[dot]org
Bevin Bermingham
Desiree Alliance Financial Coordinator
accounting[at]desireealliance[dot]org
Founding
team members are:
Stacey S.
Founder, Desiree Alliance
Student, Sex Worker
M. Lopez, MSc
Co-Founder, Desiree Alliance
Founder, SWOP-LV
Former Sex Worker
Researcher, Advocate
S. Lewis
Co-founder, Desiree Alliance
Barb Brents,
PhD
Professor, Department of Sociology,
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Kate Hausbeck,
PhD
Professor, Department of Sociology,
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Crystal Jackson
Graduate Assistant
Women's Research Institute
of Nevada, UNLV
Carol Leigh
Sex Worker and Performance Artist
Director, BAYSWAN
Elizabeth Nanas
PhD Candidate
Department of Anthropology
Wayne State University, Ohio
Robyn Few
Director, Sex Workers Outreach Project, USA
Penelope Saunders,
PhD
Founder, Different Avenues
Founder and Director, Best Practices Policy Project
Natasha Sommers
Transgender Rights Advocate, Sex Worker
Aleta Baldwin
B.A. Student, Women's Studies
UNLV
Intern
Our membership
information and member organizations can be
found here.
Funding
for Desiree Alliance
Desiree
Alliance is a Project of Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs
(SEE), a 501(c)(3) non-profit. As such, we depend on donors
for funding. At the moment, none of our team members receive
any financial compensation for the work they do, and all is
done voluntarily. We have received very much appreciated grants
from the following organizations, to whom we owe much gratitude
for their belief in our mission:
A.J Muste foundation
http://www.ajmuste.org/mustenotes.htm
Astraea Foundation
Ben and Jerry's
Foundation
Common
Counsel
Grassroots Funding Exchange
Craigslist
Charitable Fund
Open Meadows
Foundation
RESIST Foundation
Sisters of Perpetual
Indulgence
Third Wave Foundation
We join with
the following in their endeavors for social, health, and gender
justice worldwide:
International
Women’s Health Coalition, With Women Worldwide
http://www.iwhc.org/withwomenworldwide/compact.cfm |
