The City Council of West Hollywood is voting on a Massage Workers Rights and Safety Initiative today at their meeting. SWOP Los Angeles has submitted a letter in support of the item to be entered into public record, a copy of which is available below for use as a template for submitting your own letter. You can find instructions on how to give public comment here.
Please feel free to use and distribute widely!
Esteemed Members of the West Hollywood City Council,
I am writing on behalf of Sex Workers Outreach Project Los Angeles in order to voice support for the Massage Workers Rights and Safety Initiative. As a sex worker peer support group, we do outreach, advocacy and community service throughout the Los Angeles Area, including in West Hollywood. From our work in the field, we have seen that over and over again, sex workers have been intensely impacted by policies that we did not ask for, but which claim to be intended to make our lives safer. We have learned firsthand that sex work policy cannot make us safer unless it is led by sex workers.
From that perspective, it is vital for West Hollywood to allocate the necessary resources to listen to and serve massage workers’ needs. In order to do so effectively, the parties conducting the outreach must be both trustworthy in the eyes of the massage workers, and also have the language and cultural skills to communicate effectively with said population. Due to the historically contentious and abusive relationship between law enforcement and the sex worker population as exemplified by the case of ex-Lieutenant Dave Smith, we support Councilmember Erickson’s recommendation to establish a Massage Workers Rights and Safety Initiative that aims to provide culturally and linguistically sensitive outreach, education, and linkage to services that is separate from the functions of law enforcement and often false narratives of human trafficking.
In this vein, SWOPLA supports the recommendation to issue a Request for Proposals from specialized organizations who may already be working in the space of massage worker advocacy and labor rights. As an organization, we stand in support of basic human rights for all workers regardless of their occupation, and urge the city of West Hollywood to allocate the necessary funds for such an initiative once suitable community partners have been identified.
Sincerely,
SWOP Los Angeles