For non UK residents: Bradford was the site of our most recent (known) multiple killer; Stephen Griffiths (the "Crossbow Cannibal") will shortly stand trial for the murders of Suzanne Blamires, Susan Rushworth and Shelley Armitage, and possibly other women too.
Remembering our friends and colleagues17 December 2010
vigil 5-6pm
at the bottom of Ivegate
opposite Centenary Square, Bradford
Please come and join us in solidarity, for some or all of the time. Feel free to call for more information: 07772 638748.
People who sell sex, particularly women, are seen as targets for violence, whether “it’s just part of the job”, “it doesn’t matter, she’s only a whore” or by those who define all our experience in prostitution as violence.
International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers was created by sex workers as a way to speak out against those who would silence us, whether by direct violence, the violence of the state, which criminalises us when we work together (any building used by more than one sex worker can be raided as a brothel), or those who would rather speak for or about us than listen to us.
This day has been marked by sex workers to commemorate the harms done to our community since 2003, in reaction to the comments of the “Green River Killer” who murdered at least 71 women. “I picked prostitutes as victims because they were easy to pick up without being noticed. I knew they would not be reported missing right away and might never be reported missing … I thought I could kill as many of them as I wanted without getting caught."
In fact, it is possible to target violence against sex workers: all it takes is the political will. In Liverpool, crime against sex workers is treated as hate crime: there is a 68% detection rate for rapes committed against street sex workers and 90% of violent cases that went to court resulted in convictions.
The International Union of Sex Workers, which called this vigil, campaigns for the “Merseyside model” to be adopted nationwide, and for policies that give people in the sex industry the full protection of the law. We challenge the social exclusion of people who sell sex by demanding that those most affected are involved in decisions about policy.
We campaign for freedom to choose and respect for those choices, including the absolute right to say no, for everyone in the sex industry, whether they are there by choice, circumstance or coercion.
Look for the red umbrellas and candles.