SWAAY's mission is simple: to grow the American sex workers' rights movement through real public outreach and providing accessible information about sex work to general audiences.

SWAAY stands for Sex Work Activists, Allies, and You, and our tagline is, "Advocating for understanding, respect, and change by connecting the public with the people and facts behind sex work." Our three-pronged approach is reflected in the web site's structure, meant to draw in people who are new to sex workers' rights issues and help them understand what sex workers do and who we are, give them information about how to be respectful allies and ethical customers, and motivate them to support sex workers in changing the bad laws and social stigmas that affect our lives.

SWAAY.org launched on June 15, 2011.

 

Want to get in touch?

SWAAY can be reached via email at swaay AT swaay.org

Please note that SWAAY is not in the business of engaging in protracted internet debates with our opposition. Please see each section under "Understand Sex Work" to see answers to common myths and frequently asked questions.

Our mailing address is: SWAAY, 2311 N 45th Street #300, Seattle, WA 98103.

 

Want to get involved with SWAAY?

SWAAY is currently seeking short writing submissions from current and former sex workers. Click here for more.

 

Are donations to SWAAY tax deductible? Where does the money go?

SWAAY is not a federally-registered 501(c)3 nonprofit, and your donations are not tax deductible. Becoming an official nonprofit costs a lot of time and money, and requires having a board of directors that disclose their legal identities. This is an additional barrier to sex worker organizing, because most sex workers do not want to publicize our legal names.

As of April 2012, SWAAY is currently $2297.32 in debt for what has been spent to establish the project. During our first year of operation, 2011, expenses broke down as follows: 65% for printing shirts, stickers, and buttons; 14% of for office supplies and shipping; 12% for web site related costs and advertising; 8% for bank fees and credit card interest; and 1% for miscellaneous expenses.

SWAAY is a genuine volunteer-based grassroots project without a paid staff. No one who has worked on SWAAY has received payment other than stickers and/or a complimentary SWAAY shirt.

 

SWAAY wishes to thank our donors

AAG, Alex Howard, Anastasia, Arvan Reese of SexGenderBody.com, Audacia Ray, bernieS, CaseyDancer, John, Kayla T, Laura Armstrong, Mark Stewart, donation in honor of Mistress Roxxie, Paul Forgey, PONY, Queclecumber, Radical Vixen, SafeOffice.com, SelectAnEscort.com, Ted, as well as dozens of others who wish to remain anonymous.

 

Who's behind SWAAY?

SWAAY is the brainchild of a sex worker and pornographer who goes by Furry Girl in her professional life. She was tired of seeing sex workers' rights activism in America tailored to appeal primarily to sex radicals, feminists, and the kink community, and wanted to provide resources for the actual public to learn about sex work as a human rights issue. The project also has a number of other contributors who have written about their own fields of experience and expertise, giving each section of the site an insider's view.

Furry Girl got her start in sex work with a creepy Los Angeles photographer in 2002 at the age of 18. She decided that the mainstream porn industry was not her thing, and started her own membership site where she could get naked for a living on her own terms. She was among the first people producing indie/alt porn with genderqueer and trans models, and now operates four membership sites that have a common theme of defying traditional beauty standards and gender roles, and showcasing authentic sexuality. She blogs at feminisnt.com, tweets as @furrygirl, and when not being a ho or arguing for the ho revolution, she enjoys cats, vegan food, reading, travel, and nerds. Rocket is a stripper in Portland Oregon. She also writes for the Portland sex industry-based publication Exotic Magazine and produces nightclub events as a one-woman promotional company called Go Go Rocket Productions. You can read her blog "They call me Rocket" at rocketisrad.com. Besides stripping (which she loves to do), writing and promoting, she enjoys reading science fiction books, bicycling and hiking. Her favorite things to eat/drink are avocado, Nutella, thai food and soy lattes. She is deathly afraid to sing karaoke. Goddess Helena is macho femme pervette, D/s Mommy & professional & lifestyle dominant. She spends much of her time traveling, writing for various LGBT blogs, organizing art shows, throwing fabulous gay dance parties, presenting workshops on gender, sexuality and BDSM to eager gaybies and kinksters and generally bringing people together to create community. She loves dirty queers, age play, nervous boys, science fiction, vegan cooking, sustainable living, low art, smashing capitalism and post modern identity politics. Danny Wylde is a pornographer, writer, and filmmaker living in Los Angeles, California. He has performed in over five hundred adult productions; been published in Thieves Jargon, Thirst for Fire, Readjust Economies of Desire, and Sex and Murder; and featured at The Los Angeles Comedy Festival and OUTerfest. His blog is trvewestcoastfiction. Maggie McNeill was born and raised in the New Orleans area and after receiving her master’s degree worked as a librarian until a ruinous divorce inspired her to seek higher income as a stripper. After two years she became an escort and then opened her own escort service until she finally retired from the business in 2006. She writes a popular blog named The Honest Courtesan and though she has only been involved in public activism since 2010 she is committed to using her time, energy and talents to advance the cause of sex worker rights.
Audacia Ray is a former sex worker, current media maker and New Yorker who spent three years as an executive editor at the Utne Reader award-winning $pread magazine. She is the author of Naked on the Internet: Hookups, Downloads, and Cashing In on Internet Sexploration and won a Feminist Porn Award for her film The Bi Apple. These days, Audacia is the director of the Red Umbrella Project, which amplifies the voices of people in the sex trade through live storytelling events, media training, and advocacy workshops. Her monthly storytelling series the Red Umbrella Diaries and her blog Waking Vixen were named to the Village Voice’s Best of NYC 2010 list. Learn more about her work at redumbrellaproject.org and audaciaray.com and download the Red Umbrella Diaries podcast for free on iTunes. You can also find her on Twitter and Tumblr. Mindy Chateauvert (dr.mindyc@gmail.com) holds a doctorate in US History and is an assistant professor of African American Studies at the University of Maryland College Park. Her current book project "Sluts Unite!" is a contemporary history of sex workers, human rights and community organizing. She is currently on the boards of the Leather Archives and Museum and HIPS (Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive) in Washington, DC; she is also an organizer for the Positive Justice Project, working to end the criminalization of HIV; and an adviser to NO Justice seeking to abolish sex offender status for women and men in Louisiana convicted for soliciting a “crime against nature.”

Megan Andelloux, founder and director of The Center for Sexual Pleasure and Health in Pawtucket, RI, is a nationally certified sexuality educator through The American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists and is a board certified sexologist through The American College of Sexologists.

Labeled “The Sex Ed Warrior Queen,” she lectures internationally at universities, medical schools, and sexuality institutions on issues surrounding sexuality.

She has had her research published in Nursing For Women's Health and is a contributing author in; "Naked at Our Age", “We Got Issues: A Feminist Response to Cultural Attitudes On Feminism” and “Sex and Society”.

   

 

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