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Scarlet Alliance Australian Sex Workers Association

Scarlet Alliance is the national peak sex worker organisation in Australia.

This website is maintained by volunteer sex worker skills, energy and passion! To interact with us directly on social media, join our facebook page or follow us on twitter!
To join Scarlet Alliance download the membership form
To join the Scarlet Alliance FaceBook Group, link here.


Acknowledgment
Scarlet Alliance recognise that Australia is a colony built upon Aboriginal land, we pay our respect to the elders and custodians of this land, current, past and future, and stand in solidarity with the struggles of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. We are a proud member of the Anwernekenhe National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander HIV/AIDS Alliance (ANA).

Scarlet Alliance Executive Committee Position Vacancies

Scarlet Alliance will be holding an election for three positions [2 General Member Positions as well as President] on Tuesday 2nd July 2013 from 12noon to 12midnight AEDT.

Please consider taking advantage of this opportunity to get involved in your national sex worker organisation!

Nominations are now open for these three roles. Nominations close at 5pm AEDT Monday 1st July, 2013. For more information on how to nominate and the roles General Member and President play in Scarlet Alliance please click here. To download the nomination form- please click here.

South Australian Law Reform-Decriminalisation Bill in Parliament right now!

A Rally will be held at 12:30 at Parliament House in Adelaide on Wednesday 5th June. Please come to show your support for decriminalising sex work in South Australia!!


Sex workers gather at Parliament House International, Adelaide

Sex work is currently criminalised in South Australia under laws contained in the Summary Offences Act 1953 and the Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1935. Currently sex workers in South Australia work in fear of the police, without industrial or OH&S protections and are often forced to prioritise avoiding detection over utilising safety strategies.

On the 16th of May 2013 a private members bill was introduced to the House of Assembly, by the Hon Stephanie Key, Member for Ashford, which seeks to decriminalise all forms of sex work for people over 18, include sex work in anti discrimination protections, ensure existing sex work related convictions are wiped from peoples records.

The Statutes Amendment (Decriminalisation of Sex Work) Bill 2013 is due to be voted on by MP's in the lower house, following its second reading on the 20th July 2013 and we need you to tell your local MP to support the bill!

Click here to see the proposed Bill which is in parliament now.

If you are on facebook, like https://www.facebook.com/decriminalisesa to keep up to date and find out more ways you can get involved in supporting this bill!

Sex Workers Continue Protest In Western Australia against Barnetts Bill May 2013


BREAKING NEWS Canada - Supreme Court Justice Richard Wagner has denied several prominent sex worker groups the opportunity to intervene in the Bedford v. Canada appeal, to be heard at the Supreme Court of Canada on June 13th, 2013.

Translated information section of this website now live. Available in Thai, Chinese and Korean

Campaign in Western Australia

People for Sex Worker Rights in WA | Promote Your Page Too

Information Pack on proposed Sex Industry Laws for WA



You may have heard about the laws changing for sex workers and the sex industry in WA. Parliament will consider the legislation later in the year

NEW MEMBERSHIP STRUCTURE

Our Annual General Meeting in November 2012 included a decision to change individual membership. There are now two categories. A free non-voting individual membership and a voting membership that costs $110 for three years membership. To join Scarlet Alliance download the membership form
Or find out more by clicking here

WATCH Scarlet Alliance CEO Janelle Fawkes explain the role of Peer Education in HIV prevention

HIV IS A VIRUS NOT A CRIME - jailing sex workers living with HIV is a travesty of human rights. The recent arrest of a Melbourne sex worker living with HIV is against all good health policy and is not supported by evidence regarding HIV transmission in Australia

REMEMBERING ALLY DANIEL

The following are a list of links to the amazing sex worker activism of NSW based sex worker Ally Daniel who passed away in 2011.

Ally Daniel presentation at NSW Parliament House, Nov 2010

Ally Daniel article for RhED Magazine #16

Today I chose to identify as a sex worker under my real name. Choosing to use my real name is liberating but also a risk…I risk what you may think of me, where and with who you may share that information with and how they may react to me; I risk future employment by telling you (a dilemma I have always been acutely aware of – how do I explain the past 12 years of employment?) This can pose a very real danger in many ways.

The most liberating and empowering experience I’ve had in applying for a job was recently when I was able to apply for a position at SWOP (Sex Workers Outreach Project). Part of the criteria for this position was ‘sex work experience’, so for the first time I was able to include my skills as sex worker in my resume and covering letter; for the first time I did not have to hide who I was or how I gained some of those skills; for the first time in a job application I could be "me"!

...I don’t hide my job because of my feelings about my work - I hide it because of your feelings about my work. It is your ignorance and feelings that victimises, humiliates and degrades me. It is your feelings that make me ashamed of who I am and what I do. I can’t hold my head up high and be proud of myself, until YOU allow me to do so.

It cannot be said enough: sex workers are people – they are your friends, your family members, they are wage earners, tax-payers and parents — and they deserve the same human rights as everyone else. Download PDF of full article

Ally Daniel quoted by Kate Holden in Meanjin 2011

"What other job can a woman walk into, with no recent references or work experience, get employed immediately, work flexible hours to suit her and her family, get a decent wage for a relatively short time at work and get paid cash in hand at the end of her shift so she can pay that very pressing bill the next day?" Link to full story

Ally Daniel academic publication "The sexual health of sex workers: no bad whores, just bad laws" 2010

"Sex workers are a group vilified, discriminated against and without many of the legal and social protections most people take for granted yet since the beginning of the HIV epidemic, sex workers in Australia have enjoyed extremely low rates of HIV transmission. Peer education and sex worker advocacy at individual and systemic levels are necessary to maintain these low rates of transmission." Download PDF

Ally Daniel comments for Scarlet Alliance's 21st Birthday

"“On this day we celebrate the 21st birthday of Scarlet Alliance and recognise we have achieved so much. No longer are we, as sex workers, the pariahs of society. Anti-discrimination legislation, decriminalisation in other states, along with sex worker input into HIV and Trafficking policy and funding are all still on our agenda in 2010. The next 21 years will see sex work further legitimised and put whorephobia in the same basket as racism, sexism and homophobia.”" Link to media release

updated 04 June 2013