The Desiree Alliance is committed to support fo leadership, representation and inclusiveness of people from varied backgrounds including cultural, racial, economic, age, size/figure marital status, family make-up (including expecting parents,) sexual orientation and gender identity. Among those who are ignored by mainstream society are sex workers, people of color, immigrants, gay, lesbian, bisexual or transpeople, differently- abled/disabled people, senior citizens and youth/young adults.

We recognize that people who face discrimination in our society often face even harsher obstacles in the context of sex work. As activists we know that activist groups often reflect society’s prejudices and we are committed to working to build a social structure that is respectful, inclusive, welcoming and relevant for diverse sex workers including those with economic and educational differences, people who work in the neighborhoods, artists, people working just for enough to live on, immigrants, erotic massage practitioners, drug users, young people, male, female, trans and non-trans.

Leadership and organizing within the Desiree Alliance comes directly from sex worker communities. We are still a young movement and we are in the early phases of community organizing. Being criminalized and stigmatized as whores makes this work a challenge for all of us. Through our efforts to emphasize diversity, we hope we can lay the groundwork for a strong movement and overcome social divisions and prejudice between us and the rest of society and within our communities. We work to build a movement that challenges the stigmatization of people based on age, size, race, economic status, substance use, gender identity or sexual orientation. We strive to build a movement that will not sacrifice the well-being of immigrants, street based workers, users or trans people who are most often the targets of punitive laws, enforcement or treatment.

These are our intentions, and we acknowledge that these are tough goals to fully realize. We work towards building a movement which supports these ideals, and also treat our fellow activists with honor and respect as we learn how, and “unlearn” what we need to “unlearn” to build a respectful, diverse and strong sex worker movement.