LGSM Learns - Sex Work & Migration

Join Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants for a discussion on the overlap between migrants' rights and sex workers' rights. 

We'll be hearing from speakers Ava Caradonna and Polly Blake and drawing on the ‘Borders’ chapter of Revolting Prostitutes: The Fight for Sex Workers' Rights by Juno Mac and Molly Smith. 

Migrant sex workers come up against unique barriers. As well as a significant lack of access to services and job precariousness, this group also face increased legal risk due to the dangerous migration regime and current legal models surrounding and penalising the sex work industry. Misinformation and stigma towards migrants and sex workers are only putting these marginalised groups further at risk.

Advocacy, solidarity, and the fight for migrants' right are inextricable from the rights of sex workers. We invite you to join us to learn about the interconnectedness of migrants' and sex workers' rights.

IMPORTANT: You do not need to have read the text beforehand. While conversations at the event may reference the chapter, the discussion is about the wider of topic of sex work and migration.

When: Monday 18th December 2023, 18.00-20:30
Where: Pelican House, 144 Cambridge Heath Road, London, E1 5QJ

Further Details:

This event is FREE for all.

People are welcome to join us from 18:00, and we will start the event at 18:30.

The event will be on the venue's ground floor and there is a ramp to enter the building. If you have an accessibility requirements/enquiries, please contact us on lgsmigrants@gmail.com.

Once you sign up, look out for an email from us with more details and a PDF of the text. By registering for a ticket, you are giving us permission to contact you via email about this event. If you would like to opt out of emails from us, please message us directly after registering for a ticket.

If you can, please consider grabbing a copy of the book from Verso for less than £10: https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/548-revolting-prostitutes 

About the speakers 

Ava Caradonna is a migrant, a sex worker, a student, a mother, a citizen, a transgender, a person of colour, a teacher, a lesbian and a militant — she allows members of the X:talk project to speak from different positions as sex workers and as allies, without the stigma of using ‘real’ names and allows them to speak to the different realities in the sex industry and beyond.

Polly Blake is a sex worker and organiser with SWARM, and a member of SWU. She also organises around prisoner solidarity with the Bent Bars Project. Bent Bars is a letter-writing project for LGBTQ+ prisoners in Britain and Northern Ireland, including people who are held in prisons, secure mental health units and immigration centres.