Scarlet Alliance Australian Sex Workers Association
This website is maintained by volunteer sex worker skills, energy and passion! We apologise that the interactive sections are now offline and direct you towards our facebook and twitter pages for interactivity instead.
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).
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.
South Australian Law Reform- back on the table
Sex workers gather at Parliament House International, Adelaide
Sex workers in Adelaide have been meeting with key figures in law reform; MP Steph Keys & Minister Gail Gago to ensure that next week's bill will benefit local South Australian sex workers. The bill was narrowly defeated late last year, after campaigning by anti-sex work feminists. More news as it comes to hand, link to more information here
Translated information section of this website now live. Available in Thai, Chinese and Korean
- ยินดีต้อนรับสู่ สการ์เล็ท อะไลอันซ www.scarletalliance.org.au/thai
- 澳大利亚性工作者协会公司的目标 www.scarletalliance.org.au/chinese
- 스칼렛 얼라이언스, 호주 성 노동자 사단 www.scarletalliance.org.au/korean
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 formOr 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
- Scarlet Alliance has been running a contemporary campaign on this issue since 2008.
- Link to joint statement by HIV organisations in Australia, 2008
- Link to Scarlet Alliance media release "HIV is a virus not a crime" Australian HIV Orgs Respond, 19 September 2008
- Link to database of laws that criminalise HIV across Asia 亚洲艾滋法律数据库 . The data base is run by Asia Catalyst.
- For more information...
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 storyAlly 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 PDFAlly 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 21 May 2013
