This event is co hosted by: SWAP - Sex Workers' Action Program Hamilton, SWAN Waterloo - Sex Workers' Action Network of Waterloo Region, Butterfly: Asian and migrant sex workers support network, Maggie's: Toronto Sex Workers Action Project, Sex Workers Advisory Network Sudbury - SWANS, SafeSpace London, and Les ami(es) de Stella. It is sponsored by the McMaster Office of Community Engagement, and the Women & HIV/AIDS Initiative (WHAI).
The panel discussion will include these speakers:
Executive Director of Butterfly: Asian and migrant sex workers support network - Elene Lam Executive Director of SWAP - Jelena Vermilion A Member of SWAN Waterloo - Sex Workers' Action Network of Waterloo Region - Jaz Executive Director of Les ami(es) de Stella - Sandra Wesley Board Member of Maggie's Toronto - Monica Forrester
International Whores' Day or International Sex Workers Day is observed annually on June 2 of each year, honours sex workers and recognises their often exploited working conditions. The event commemorates the occupation of Église Saint-Nizier in Lyon by more than a hundred sex workers on June 2, 1975 to draw attention to their inhumane working conditions.[1] It has been celebrated annually since 1976. In German, it is known as Hurentag (Whore's Day). In Spanish-speaking countries, it is the Día Internacional de la Trabajadora Sexual, the International Day of the Sex Worker.
THE PROSTITUTES OF LYON SPEAK (LES PROSTITUEES DE LYON PARLENT) dir. Carole Roussopoulos, 1975 46 minutes. France. In French with English subtitles.
"The state is a pimp. The greatest one!"
In 1975, escalating tensions between the local government and sex workers in Lyon, France came to a head. Following a scandal linking the vice squad with area brothels, the police made a show of cracking down on sex workers, dramatically increasing fines for soliciting, and retroactively retrieving an old law which condemned repeat offenders to prison. Dozens of women suddenly faced jail time and the loss of custody of their children.
Pushed to the edge, on June 2nd, about a hundred women took over the church of St. Nizier in the center of Lyon. They set up a dormitory inside the church, as well as a monitor on the street outside to broadcast their message to onlookers and passersby. Their protest action itself was short lived, but it captured national attention, and sparked a wave of similar church occupations throughout France. Today it is commonly regarded as the birth of the modern sex workers rights movement.
Pioneering feminist documentary filmmaker Carole Roussopoulos visited St. Nizier during the occupation to speak with activists about their lives, their work, and the repression they faced as sex workers. She recorded these interviews with the utmost simplicity, forgoing artifice to bear witness to their stories. In this vital document, she invites us to do the same
