BAYSWAN
Encyclopedia
Bay Area Sex Worker Advocacy Network (BAYSWAN), is a non-profit organization in the San Francisco
Bay Area which works to improve working conditions, increase benefits, and eliminate discrimination
on behalf of individuals working within both legal and criminalized adult entertainment industries. The organization provides advice and information to social service, policy
reformers, media outlets, politicians, including the San Francisco Task Force on Prostitution and Commission on the Status of Women (COSW), and law enforcement agencies dealing with sex worker
s.
-based organizations about the rights of sex workers and others employed in the adult entertainment and sex industries, including prostitution and exotic dancing. Information is provided through the organization's website and through the media as a source for stories or opinion pieces relating to sex workers and sex industries. Bayswan also works to improve working conditions and to eliminate discrimination against workers within both the legal and criminalized adult entertainment industries, and organizes sex worker rights advocates who work at various agencies as outreach workers.
BAYSWAN sponsors the Prostitutes' Education Network (PENet), an educational website on sex workers' rights and issues. and works to educate the general public about sex work, and promotes education about safe sex
, AIDS
and sexually transmitted disease
amongst sex workers, their clients, and the general public, including organizing events and sponsoring conferences such as the San Francisco Sex Worker Film and Arts Festival.
Guide to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Internet Research, features "information and resources for sex workers, activists, educators, and students on issues such as decriminalization, human rights, violence, pornography, art, health, and current trends in legislation and social policy in the United states and internationally. It also includes a section on resources for students studying sex work and a listing of videos for educational purposes." According to BAYSWAN, PENet collects information from studies going back to the 1980s and works to accurately represent the current trends in prostitution and help influence human rights issues effecting prostitutes including human trafficking
and exploitation
against women and minors.
Film."
, a peep show
in San Francisco, in their effort to persuade club management to remove the one-way mirrors in customer booths that allowed customers to clandestinely photograph and videotape dancers, the product of which they feared would begin appearing on the Internet or on bootleg videos without dancer permission or compensation. BAYSWAN provided website support for the efforts of the Exotic Dancers Alliance,, which took part in the Lusty Lady unionization effort; the website in turn helped to garner public support for the workers as well as inquiries from other exotic dancers and sex workers throughout the country. The group ultimately approached Service Employees International Union
Local 790, and in April 1997 Lusty Lady employees voted to unionize, forming the Exotic Dancers Union (EDU), the first sex workers organization of its kind. The union is still active at the venue, which is now a worker-owned cooperative
.
, BAYSWAN participated in laying the foundation for the St. James Infirmary Clinic
the world's first occupational health and safety clinic run by sex workers with support from the San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH). A jailed prostitute had her blood drawn without consent and to prevent a public outcry BAYSWAN and COYOTE brokered a deal with the SFDPH. Presenting Priscilla Alexander’s paper on sex worker occupational health and safety they reached an agreement that the SFDPH would "have access to information about the occupational hazards and health status of sex industry workers but only if that research was developed by and with the input of sex industry workers themselves. There would be no more non-consensual blood draws in jail; sex workers would have the opportunity to run their own occupational health and safety clinic." "The St. James Infirmary is a peer-based Occupational Safety & Health Clinic for sex workers, and was founded in 1999 by COYOTE as a joint project between Exotic Dancers Alliance (EDA) and the STD Prevention and Control Services of the City and County of San Francisco Department of Public Health. These partners shared common philosophies and worked to share services, resources, and expertise for the benefit of all sex workers." BAYSWAN's director, Carol Leigh, is a member of the Advisory Board.
Kamala Harris
for not following the 1989 San Francisco Board of Supervisors policy establishing San Francisco as a "city of refuge
" and assisting California (state) and U.S. (federal) law enforcement agencies who re-victimized women caught in a cycle of exploitation in a series of massage parlor
raids. In an op-ed
essay Leigh pointed out previous police efforts and mistakes while educating about how mislabeling and forcing the women to either testify that they were prostitutes or illegal aliens
. She stated, "Before we buy into the "sex slave" melodrama, we should consider the complexities of sex work, migration and trafficking
. Framing the range of abuses in the sex industry as a moralistic concern about "sex slaves" obscures the real violations (and advantages) of this industry
. Until we can begin to support rights for migrant workers and craft policies to support their needs to work, we are stuck in a quagmire
that attracts, then rescues "innocent victims."
-Iowa
} in the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee as being shortsighted. She stated, "Forced labor (and) kidnapping should be targeted, but this legislation broadly targets the sex trade in general" (including legal businesses like escorts and strip clubs).
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
Bay Area which works to improve working conditions, increase benefits, and eliminate discrimination
Discrimination
Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on their membership in a certain group or category. It involves the actual behaviors towards groups such as excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to another group. The term began to be...
on behalf of individuals working within both legal and criminalized adult entertainment industries. The organization provides advice and information to social service, policy
Policy
A policy is typically described as a principle or rule to guide decisions and achieve rational outcome. The term is not normally used to denote what is actually done, this is normally referred to as either procedure or protocol...
reformers, media outlets, politicians, including the San Francisco Task Force on Prostitution and Commission on the Status of Women (COSW), and law enforcement agencies dealing with sex worker
Sex worker
A sex worker is a person who works in the sex industry. The term is usually used in reference to those in the sex industry that actually provide such sexual services, as opposed to management and staff of such industries...
s.
Origins
BAYSWAN was founded as a collaborative project sponsored by the San Francisco-area Exotic Dancers Alliance and the Coalition on Prostitution and Street Outreach Services Consortium, which included the Asian AIDS Project, the Haight Ashbury Free Clinics, Inc., the Institute for Community Health Outreach, New Leaf Community Services, Proyecto Contra SIDA Por Vida, and Tenderloin AIDS Resource Center. Its purpose at founding was to create a network of social service organizations, service providers, and community members to advocate on behalf of sex workers, massage parlor employees, escorts, exotic dancers, and other sex industry workers to protect their civil, human, and workplace rights as well as to improve communication between sex industry workers and government agencies, social service providers, and other organizations throughout the Bay Area. BAYSWAN's efforts encompassed the financial, housing, social support, mental health, and medical needs of sex industry workers, including HIV/STD prevention, substance abuse issues, harm reduction, and protection from violence.Activities
BAYSWAN's principal work is to make available resources provided by sex workers' and other human rightsHuman rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
-based organizations about the rights of sex workers and others employed in the adult entertainment and sex industries, including prostitution and exotic dancing. Information is provided through the organization's website and through the media as a source for stories or opinion pieces relating to sex workers and sex industries. Bayswan also works to improve working conditions and to eliminate discrimination against workers within both the legal and criminalized adult entertainment industries, and organizes sex worker rights advocates who work at various agencies as outreach workers.
BAYSWAN sponsors the Prostitutes' Education Network (PENet), an educational website on sex workers' rights and issues. and works to educate the general public about sex work, and promotes education about safe sex
Safe sex
Safe sex is sexual activity engaged in by people who have taken precautions to protect themselves against sexually transmitted diseases such as AIDS. It is also referred to as safer sex or protected sex, while unsafe or unprotected sex is sexual activity engaged in without precautions...
, AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
and sexually transmitted disease
Sexually transmitted disease
Sexually transmitted disease , also known as a sexually transmitted infection or venereal disease , is an illness that has a significant probability of transmission between humans by means of human sexual behavior, including vaginal intercourse, oral sex, and anal sex...
amongst sex workers, their clients, and the general public, including organizing events and sponsoring conferences such as the San Francisco Sex Worker Film and Arts Festival.
Prostitutes' Education Network
BAYSWAN sponsors the Prostitutes' Education Network (PENet), an educational website on sex workers' rights and issues. PENet provides online access to studies and documents from U.S. and international sources and, as described in The Harvey Milk InstituteHarvey Milk Institute
Harvey Milk Institute, located in San Francisco, California, was the largest queer studies institute in the world, and was founded by Jonathan David Katz. It was named in honor of Harvey Milk....
Guide to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Internet Research, features "information and resources for sex workers, activists, educators, and students on issues such as decriminalization, human rights, violence, pornography, art, health, and current trends in legislation and social policy in the United states and internationally. It also includes a section on resources for students studying sex work and a listing of videos for educational purposes." According to BAYSWAN, PENet collects information from studies going back to the 1980s and works to accurately represent the current trends in prostitution and help influence human rights issues effecting prostitutes including human trafficking
Human trafficking
Human trafficking is the illegal trade of human beings for the purposes of reproductive slavery, commercial sexual exploitation, forced labor, or a modern-day form of slavery...
and exploitation
Exploitation
This article discusses the term exploitation in the meaning of using something in an unjust or cruel manner.- As unjust benefit :In political economy, economics, and sociology, exploitation involves a persistent social relationship in which certain persons are being mistreated or unfairly used for...
against women and minors.
San Francisco Sex Worker Film and Arts Festival
Starting in 1999, BAYSWAN has been a sponsor and organizer of the San Francisco Sex Worker Film and Arts Festival at multiple locations, with activities including presentation of films by and about sex workers, live performances by sex worker artists, leather and latex sex toy bazaars, sex-related workshops and panels, and one year even a Good Vibrations-sponsored tutorial entitled "How to Make Your Own PornPORN
Porn is a common short form for pornography. It may also refer to:* Progressive outer retinal necrosis, a disease of the retina* PORN, a French industrial rock band...
Film."
Lusty Lady
In 1996 and 1997, BAYSWAN provided support to the workers at the Lusty Lady TheatreLusty Lady
The Lusty Lady is the name of a peep show establishment in the North Beach district of San Francisco. It was also the name of another now-defunct location in downtown Seattle...
, a peep show
Peep show
A peep show or peepshow is an exhibition of pictures, objects or people viewed through a small hole or magnifying glass. Though historically a peep show was a form of entertainment provided by wandering showmen, nowadays it more commonly refers a presentation of a sex show or pornographic film...
in San Francisco, in their effort to persuade club management to remove the one-way mirrors in customer booths that allowed customers to clandestinely photograph and videotape dancers, the product of which they feared would begin appearing on the Internet or on bootleg videos without dancer permission or compensation. BAYSWAN provided website support for the efforts of the Exotic Dancers Alliance,, which took part in the Lusty Lady unionization effort; the website in turn helped to garner public support for the workers as well as inquiries from other exotic dancers and sex workers throughout the country. The group ultimately approached Service Employees International Union
Service Employees International Union
Service Employees International Union is a labor union representing about 1.8 million workers in over 100 occupations in the United States , and Canada...
Local 790, and in April 1997 Lusty Lady employees voted to unionize, forming the Exotic Dancers Union (EDU), the first sex workers organization of its kind. The union is still active at the venue, which is now a worker-owned cooperative
Cooperative
A cooperative is a business organization owned and operated by a group of individuals for their mutual benefit...
.
St. James Infirmary
In 1998, together with Carol Stuart at COYOTECOYOTE
COYOTE, or Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics, is an American sex worker activist organization. COYOTE's goals include the decriminalization of prostitution, pimping and pandering, as well as the elimination of social stigma concerning sex work as an occupation.Though it is frequently described as a...
, BAYSWAN participated in laying the foundation for the St. James Infirmary Clinic
St. James Infirmary Clinic
The St. James Infirmary, abbreviated SJI, was founded by members of the sex worker activist community in 1999 and is a peer-based, full spectrum medical and social service organization serving female, transgender, and male sex workers and their families. Located in the South of Market district in...
the world's first occupational health and safety clinic run by sex workers with support from the San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH). A jailed prostitute had her blood drawn without consent and to prevent a public outcry BAYSWAN and COYOTE brokered a deal with the SFDPH. Presenting Priscilla Alexander’s paper on sex worker occupational health and safety they reached an agreement that the SFDPH would "have access to information about the occupational hazards and health status of sex industry workers but only if that research was developed by and with the input of sex industry workers themselves. There would be no more non-consensual blood draws in jail; sex workers would have the opportunity to run their own occupational health and safety clinic." "The St. James Infirmary is a peer-based Occupational Safety & Health Clinic for sex workers, and was founded in 1999 by COYOTE as a joint project between Exotic Dancers Alliance (EDA) and the STD Prevention and Control Services of the City and County of San Francisco Department of Public Health. These partners shared common philosophies and worked to share services, resources, and expertise for the benefit of all sex workers." BAYSWAN's director, Carol Leigh, is a member of the Advisory Board.
San Francisco massage parlor arrests
In 2005 BAYSWAN addressed San Francisco District AttorneyDistrict attorney
In many jurisdictions in the United States, a District Attorney is an elected or appointed government official who represents the government in the prosecution of criminal offenses. The district attorney is the highest officeholder in the jurisdiction's legal department and supervises a staff of...
Kamala Harris
Kamala Harris
Kamala Devi Harris is an American attorney. She is the 32nd and current Attorney General of California following the 2010 California state elections. Harris has worked as an author and a politician and has served as District Attorney of San Francisco since 2004...
for not following the 1989 San Francisco Board of Supervisors policy establishing San Francisco as a "city of refuge
Safety
Safety is the state of being "safe" , the condition of being protected against physical, social, spiritual, financial, political, emotional, occupational, psychological, educational or other types or consequences of failure, damage, error, accidents, harm or any other event which could be...
" and assisting California (state) and U.S. (federal) law enforcement agencies who re-victimized women caught in a cycle of exploitation in a series of massage parlor
Massage parlor
A massage parlor is a business where customers can receive a massage. Sometimes the term is synonymous with brothel as the term "massage" may be used as a euphemism for paid sexual favours....
raids. In an op-ed
Op-ed
An op-ed, abbreviated from opposite the editorial page , is a newspaper article that expresses the opinions of a named writer who is usually unaffiliated with the newspaper's editorial board...
essay Leigh pointed out previous police efforts and mistakes while educating about how mislabeling and forcing the women to either testify that they were prostitutes or illegal aliens
Illegal Aliens
Illegal Aliens is a 2007 film starring Anna Nicole Smith and Joanie Laurer. This comedy/science-fiction film is made in the mold of classic 1980s B-movies. Hitting stores on May 1, 2007, the release of the movie was pushed back following the death of Smith in February 2007 and it is her final film...
. She stated, "Before we buy into the "sex slave" melodrama, we should consider the complexities of sex work, migration and trafficking
Human trafficking
Human trafficking is the illegal trade of human beings for the purposes of reproductive slavery, commercial sexual exploitation, forced labor, or a modern-day form of slavery...
. Framing the range of abuses in the sex industry as a moralistic concern about "sex slaves" obscures the real violations (and advantages) of this industry
Industry
Industry refers to the production of an economic good or service within an economy.-Industrial sectors:There are four key industrial economic sectors: the primary sector, largely raw material extraction industries such as mining and farming; the secondary sector, involving refining, construction,...
. Until we can begin to support rights for migrant workers and craft policies to support their needs to work, we are stuck in a quagmire
Quagmire
Quagmire may refer to:* Water infused earth or a bog. Solid ground may turn to quagmire following substantial rainfall.* By extension, a situation that is difficult to get out of.* A tactical defense made when defending a territory close to a river...
that attracts, then rescues "innocent victims."
Proposed federal legislation to tax sex workers
Leigh, cofounder and director of BAYSWAN, who is also a bisexual feminist author and artist, criticized 2006 proposed legislation introduced by U.S. Senator Charles Grassley (RRepublican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
-Iowa
Iowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
} in the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee as being shortsighted. She stated, "Forced labor (and) kidnapping should be targeted, but this legislation broadly targets the sex trade in general" (including legal businesses like escorts and strip clubs).