The International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers (IDEVASW) started on December 17th, 2003 when serial killer Gary Ridgway admitted killing over 70 women in Washington State in the 80s and 90s. When his rampage ended, he said he had picked prostitutes as victims because they were “the easiest targets” and that “no one would miss them.” Well, he was wrong about that. Many of the family and friends did and still do grieve. The sex worker community’s grief is now memorialized every December 17th: The International Day To End Violence Against Sex Workers is an annual global event to highlight violence faced by sex workers.

In early December of this year, a Texas-based United States Border Patrol Supervisor, Juan David Ortez was convicted of killing four street-based sex workers in 2018, expressed similar sentiments as other serial killers saying; “They are dirty…I wanted to clean up the streets.” He was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole and his victims will be remembered at this year’s virtual event, hosted by Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics (COYOTE), Rhode Island.

“Current anti-prostitution laws enable violent predators to target our community because they know that our illegal status deters many of us from coming forward and making police reports,” said Bella Robinson of COYOTE Rhode Island. COYOTE RI is seeking to get an immunity bill like California’s 2019 SB233 so that victims and witnesses can make reports without getting arrested for prostitution in Rhode Island. 

“Ultimately, we demand decriminalization of our occupation now as a means to begin to respect our human rights and dignity, helps guard us against violence and abuse, and improves our access to justice,” said Maxine Doogan of the Erotic Service Providers Legal, Education and Research Project in California. 

In 2016, Amnesty International passed a policy calling for the decriminalization of sex work, which spells out the harm caused by criminalization and how it puts sex workers at great risk of violence. In September 2022 COYOTE RI filed an amicus brief urging the DC Circuit court to overturn a harmful sex trafficking law. “FOSTA violates the constitutionally protected and life-saving speech of sex workers and sex trafficking survivors,” said Tara Burns, COYOTE RI’s Research Director. “It has increased sex trafficking and violence against sex workers, and even more so against sex trafficking survivors. It endangers public safety by further alienating people in the sex industry from police and making crimes against sex workers and sex trafficking survivors harder to investigate.” 

COYOTE RI is a grassroots sex workers’ led organization focused on harm reduction, legal reform, and public education.