PATTAYA, Thailand – This week on the Adult Site Broker Talk podcast, it’s part two of the show’s conversation with Phoenix Calida of the sex worker advocacy organization Sex Worker Outreach Project (“SWOP”), the podcast announced today.
Originally from Chicago, Phoenix is a long-time advocate for sex workers’ rights. In her youth, she experienced both poverty and police violence, a background that primed her for her future role as an advocate for sex workers, seeking to prevent others from suffering the same in their own lives.
When not working for and speaking out about sex workers’ rights, Phoenix can be found “in the garden or under a pile of yarn and crochet hooks” the announcement noted.
Established in 2003, SWOP is “a national grassroots social justice network dedicated to the fundamental human rights of sex workers and their communities, focusing on ending violence and stigma through education, community building, and advocacy,” the announcement explained. The organization’s goal is to “uplift and protect sex workers through advocacy, education, and community support.”
Bruce the adult site broker, host of the podcast and CEO of Adult Site Broker, said that in part two of his conversation with Calida, “we discuss more about sex worker rights and the possibility of decriminalizing sex work.”
Asked why we need to talk about the stigma against sex work and sex workers, Phoenix said that, put succinctly, “stigma kills.”
“It’s the stigma that allows bad laws to happen,” Calida added. “It’s the stigma that makes people ignore when bad policies and laws are presented. It also makes people ignore when violence happens to sex workers. One of the things that I do with SWOP is the December 17th list. Essentially, part of my job involves reading about sex workers who have been murdered, at least three times a week and it’s very heavy and it’s very brutal and a lot of that is because of the stigma where people are just like, ‘oh, no one cares if you’re a sex worker and you get assaulted or you get murdered or, you know, you get hurt in some way.’ Whether it’s from bad policy, or a bad law, to someone like literally strangling you to death, there’s just this assumption that your life has less value because you did sex work. And that is the cost of stigma.”
You can listen to Phoenix Calida of SWOP USA on Adult Site Broker Talk now at AdultSiteBroker.com/podcast.
For more information and to keep up with the latest from the organization, visit SWOPUSA.org and follow SWOP USA on X @swopusa.
