Initiatives to “end demand” for prostitution harm women and undermine service programs!

End Demand Fact Sheet

Diversity Statement

The Desiree Alliance conference organizers are committed to support for representation and inclusiveness of cultural, racial, economic, age, and gender identity. Please read our Diversity Statement and join our efforts to build a respectful, diverse, and strong sex worker movement.

Legislators of this century have continued to fail to realise that prostitutes are not a special breed of women with compulsions to indulge in criminal behaviour... socially, culturally and psychologically prostitute women pursue lifestyles little different to the millions of other single working women, wives and mothers in the... community. Popular mythology keeps prostitute women separated from other women in people's minds, while the law, founded as it is in 19th century puritanism, keeps them separated in the social order.**

-Working girls: prostitutes, their life and social control by Roberta Perkins

Civil, Labor, and Human Rights for All Sex Workers

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News

International AIDS Conference, Mexico City
Global Village or Sexual Minority Ghetto?

Of Victims And Vixens--The Feminist Clash Over Prostitution (July 2008)

Prostitution a federal offense?

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Conferences

Desiree Alliance 2008 (Feedback coming soon!) Desiree Alliance 2007 Conference Feedback! "I have never in my life experienced such energy!" Desiree Alliance 2006 Feedback   "I can't say thanks enough. This was life changing-I'll be at the next  one if time, money, and the universe allows!!!!" Read more! Conference page Past conferences 2008 "Pulling Back the Sheets: Sex, Work, and Social Justice" July 16-20, Chicago Conference 2008 :: CFP 2008 Schedule 2008 :: Speakers' List 2008 Logistics 2008   2007 "Sex Work: Culture, Policy, and Benefits; Exploring the Lives of Sex Workers and their Diverse Realities" July 14-27, San Francisco Convergence 2007 :: CFP 2007 Schedule 2007 :: Speakers' List 2007 Logistics 2007   2006 "Re-visioning Prostitution Policy: Creating Space for Sex Worker Rights and Challenging Criminalization" July 9-12, Las Vegas Conference 2006 :: CFP 2006 Schedule 2006 :: Speakers' List 2006 Logistics 2006

The 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. 

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The Desiree Alliance is a diverse, volunteer-based, 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.

*Donations: Desiree Alliance is a Project of Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs (SEE), a 501(c)(3) non-profit. Please make checks payable to SEE/Desiree Alliance. If you are donating by credit card, please note that Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs, or a variation of SEE, will show up on your credit card statement. Your donation is tax deductible.