BAYSWAN

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Bay Area Sex Worker Advocacy Network (BAYSWAN) is a nonprofit in the San Francisco Bay Area that fights for the rights of sex workers. It aims to improve working conditions, expand benefits, and end discrimination for people in both legal and criminalized parts of the adult industry. BAYSWAN shares information with social services, policymakers, the media, politicians, and law enforcement to help them support sex workers.

BAYSWAN began as a joint project sponsored by the Exotic Dancers Alliance and the Coalition on Prostitution and Street Outreach Services Consortium, with partners like the Asian AIDS Project and Haight Ashbury Free Clinics. The goal was to build a network of service providers and community members to defend the rights of sex workers and to improve communication with government agencies.

Its work covers financial security, housing, social support, mental health, medical care, HIV/STD prevention, substance abuse, harm reduction, and protection from violence. It also focuses on educating the public about sex workers’ rights and health through its website and media.

BAYSWAN runs PENet, the Prostitutes’ Education Network, an online resource about rights and issues for sex workers. PENet provides studies and information on topics such as decriminalization, human rights, violence, health, and policy trends, with materials for students, educators, and activists.

Since 1999, BAYSWAN has helped sponsor the San Francisco Sex Worker Film and Arts Festival, which features films, live performances, workshops, and related events to raise awareness about sex work.

In the 1990s, BAYSWAN supported Lusty Lady Theatre workers in their push to remove one-way mirrors and unionize, which led to the Exotic Dancers Union in 1997. The venue later became a worker-owned cooperative before closing in 2013.

In 1998, BAYSWAN helped lay the groundwork for St. James Infirmary Clinic, the world’s first occupational health clinic run by sex workers, opened in 1999 with support from the San Francisco Department of Public Health.

BAYSWAN’s director, Carol Leigh, serves on the advisory board of St. James Infirmary.

BAYSWAN has also spoken out about policing and trafficking policies, urging careful treatment of sex workers and opposing broad anti-trafficking laws that could affect legal sex work.