It makes me so angry when people say, "We never hear from people who are happy doing sex … - Melissa Gira Grant

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The people blocking buses in Murrieta, California, didn't come from radical groups, they were everyday Americans who were perfectly willing to frighten those children

Melissa Gira Grant

It makes me so angry when people say, "We never hear from people who are happy doing sex work. " Well, that's because they're working. The activism privileges people who hated doing sex work, are no longer doing it, and have a job at a social service organization, for example, that trains them on how to speak to the media. We are hearing from those people quite a bit.

Activism, People, Privileges, Speak, Working

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I have to do this all the time - choosing what to print based on how it might come back to harm people from whom I've earned trust.

Back, Based, Choosing, Earned, People, Print

Look at how successful the domestic workers movement has been. But it's different when it's your husband hiring someone. Domestic workers quite literally say, "You need to get your house in order. You can't join this movement unless you look at yourself. " And they're very forgiving, amnesty for everyone. "You haven't been paying into your nanny's unemployment insurance? That's cool, we'll teach you how to get right and go from there. " What would the parallel be around sex workers? I don't know if there can be one.

House, Husband, Literally, Successful, Unemployment

Women in the past thought all they had to do was see if he comes home late, or smells like cigarettes. But nothing's really changed, right? People still cheat. They're going to do what they're going to do. But now that sex work is more private, there's that chance to have a double life.

Cigarettes, Home, Life, Past, People, Private

This is the hardest thing to articulate: I think that there is a legitimate space for sexual commerce. And like every other industry, particularly the service industry, the workers are getting the short end of the stick. Are there some industries that just shouldn't exist? Yes. But I don't think the sex industry is one of them. As it currently operates it's not damaging, necessarily, but it might itself be damaged. It's busted.

Damaging, Legitimate, Like, Operates, Thing, Thinking

I hesitate talking about a program for change because we're in this moment where no one is listening to sex workers about how things should change. So I'm even speaking less as a former sex worker and more as a person trying to see the bigger picture that might be hard to see when you're doing sex work full-time, or running a social service organization, or doing all the things that a lot of sex worker activists are doing. It's hard work, and they don't necessarily get the time to step back and see the whole picture.

Former, Hard Work, Listening, Running, See, Things