Bella Robinson - a sex worker rights activist - has
worked in the sex industry for over thirty years. She is the director of Rhode
Island chapter of COYOTE (Call Off Your Old Tired
Ethics) since 2009, and a board member of ESPU (Erotic Service Providers Union) and the
ESPLER Project, or ESPLERP (The
Erotic Service Providers Union Legal, Education and Research Project).
In
1976 the Rhode Island chapter of COYOTE sued the Rhode Island Attorney General,
in the landmark case COYOTE vs. Roberts, regarding the
constitutionality of the state’s prostitution laws, resulting in the
decriminalization of indoor sex work between consenting adults.
Founded in 2004, ESPU is a California based non-profit
supporting the decriminalization of prostitution. ESPU envisions sex workers
gaining agency through the model of industrial organizing for legal,
occupational, social and economic rights.
Bella is also a board member of ESPU affiliate, the ESPLER
Project. ESPLERP is a diverse community-based - erotic service
provider led - group seeking to empower the erotic community, and
advance sexual privacy rights through legal advocacy, education and research.
In our legal advocacy, we seek to create change through a combination of
impact litigation, policy statements, and by voicing our concerns for our community
in political arenas. Through educational trainings and outreach, we will
empower and build capacity to address discrimination of erotic service
providers and the greater erotic community. Lastly, ESPLERP strive to
archive and rate much of the research which has been done by the sex worker
community, and build on this history with research which seeks to be
increasingly inclusive, respectful, and ultimately, relevant to the erotic
service providers, the larger erotic community, and those who need factual
information on our community.
We will have the privilege of meeting Bella at our 2015 UALE Summer School. Thanks to Bella for an intriguing submission!
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