December 17th, the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers, is a day rooted in remembrance, resistance, and collective care.

D17 can be a tender and painful day. Many workers seek connection, warmth, and a reminder that we are not alone as we honor the lives lost to violence and recommit to building a world where our community not only survives but thrives.

We are living through a time when too many in our communities are targets of harm, terror, and violence. It can feel overwhelming. We know the history of strength and survival that we come from. Sex workers also carry the weight of violence, discrimination, and stigma every day. We hold a legacy of magic, survival, and pain.

For every moment our bodies were treated as less than human.

For every life taken by anger or fear.

For every relationship fractured under the weight of discrimination.

For every abandonment shaped by stigma.

For every opportunity quietly taken from us.

It all accumulates, and it is all violence.

Every one of us deserves to work and live in safety. The work we do at BAWS is an extension of the love, protection, and hope our communities have always created for one another.

This year, in the lead-up to D17, BAWS focused on tangible, worker-led protection efforts. With our outreach partners, we assembled and distributed 50 self-defense kits to QTBIPOC street-based sex workers, meeting people exactly where they are with tools that respond to real needs. These kits included personal defense items, harm reduction supplies, safer sex materials, COVID risk-mitigation tools, and small comforts chosen to affirm dignity and care.

We are deeply grateful to the Naughty Nurse Mobile at Lyon Martin and the Street Outreach Team at the Berkeley Free Clinic for getting these kits directly into the hands of workers who need them most.

With the closure of St. James Infirmary, BAWS is now the last sex worker-led organization in the Bay Area. The work continues because it must, and because our community deserves security, autonomy, and collective power.

Thank you to everyone who donated, shared, volunteered, and showed up to care for our community this winter. Mutual aid sparks hope. Mutual aid keeps us alive. Community is how we build a future where violence is not inevitable.

We hope this post offers a small moment of connection and reflection for sex workers in 2025 - a moment to look back at our legacy and our losses, and forward to a future of safety, abundance, and care.