On Thursday, June 2nd from 6:00 - 8:00pm we're spotlighting our new staff, programs, services and supports for sex workers across Toronto! Register here.
What is International Whore's Day?
From the Global Network of Sex Work Projects:
On 2 June 1975, approximately 100 sex workers occupied Saint-Nizier Church in Lyon, France, to express their anger about their criminalised and exploitative living conditions. They hung a banner from the steeple which read ‘Our children do not want their mothers to go to jail’, and launched a media campaign to broadcast their grievances to the world. Their action made national and international news headlines, started a strike that involved sex workers from all over France, and created a legacy of activism that is celebrated each year on International Sex Workers’ Day.
The sex workers occupying Saint-Nizier Church demanded, among other things, an end to police harassment, the re-opening of the hotels where they worked, and a proper investigation into a series of sex worker murders. Sex workers in other French towns heard of the occupation in Lyon and, in solidarity, took sanctuary in churches in Marseille, Grenoble, Montpellier and Paris. Across the country, French sex workers joined the action by taking part in an eight-day long strike.
Despite the national impact of the protest, the police refused to engage with the protestors’ grievances and threatened increasingly harsh punishments. Eventually, the police cleared the church after eight days and, though the occupation and strike did not result in law reform, sex worker activists credit it as the spark that ignited the contemporary sex workers’ rights movement in Europe and the UK. More from the Global Network of Sex Work Projects Learn more at internationalwhoresday.com
How is Maggie's Toronto Celebrating International Whore's Day?
On Thursday, June 2nd from 6:00 - 8:00pm/est we're hosting a virtual event introducing community to our brand new programs, services and staff team at Maggie's! Over the last two years we've been working hard to meet community needs through the COVID-19 pandemic, organizing emergency funds, vaccine clinics, mutual aid efforts, food justice programming and more, and as we move into 2022, we've expanded rapidly, revamped most of our core programming and introduced new projects, new outreach efforts and new opportunities to connect across sex working communities! Join us Thursday, June 2nd from 6:00-8:00pm/est on Zoom (Register Here!) to meet our staff, learn more about our programs and how to get involved as we gear up to launch Toronto's first sex worker parenting program and an in house case management program!