Top Stories This Week

• What’s happening at Woodhull;
• Fighting the Right’s attempt to erase Black history;
• Requiring employers and insurers to provide PrEP coverage;
• Safer sex work and a safer internet;
• Abortion rights as workers’ rights;
• New York’s Adult Survivors Act; and
• Tess’ take on punishing survivors. 

Upcoming Spokes Hub Programs: 

Spokes Hub is a virtual educational program aimed at supporting new advocates in developing their voice and authority on issues relating to sexual freedom. Participants are encouraged to deepen their understanding of complex issues through peer learning and research, and to expand their advocacy skills through writing and public speaking. Spokes Hub is currently dedicated to advocates with lived experience in the sex trade.

Coming Up: 

Beyond Decrim: Anti-Criminalization & Equity
Wednesday, May 2
12:00 pm PT / 2:00 pm CT / 3:00 pm ET
Taught by Justice Rivera
Register Here

Race, Class, Sex & the Sex Trade
Thursday, May 17
12:00 pm PT / 2:00 pm CT / 3:00 pm ET
Taught by Moses Moon
Register Here

We're Hiring! 

Are you a Social Media Manager or Content Creator who is knowledgeable, creative, and passionate about your work? Do you have a proven track record of successful social media campaigns? Do you want to be part of a dynamic team on the front line of the sexual freedom movement?

If you answered yes, then Woodhull has an opportunity for you because we’re seeking a person to join our dynamic team and manage our social media presence. The deadline to apply is May 8th at 5 pm ET.

Learn more about apply here. 

We're Going Live with The Cupcake Girls! 

Join us for a conversation about sex work, sex trafficking, and the difference between the two next week on Instagram Live. Woodhull COO Mandy Salley will be joined by Woodhull Board Member Savannah Sly and Executive Director of The Cupcake Girls Amy-Marie Merrell. We will be live on Woodhull's Instagram Page, @WoodhullFreedom. ASL will be provided. See you there! 

(Ayo Walker/Truthout; Adapted: Normal Rockwell)

Educators and Publishers Are Fighting the Right’s Attempt to Erase Black History (Truthout) 

Eleanor J. Bader highlights educators’ and publishers’ fights against the Right’s attempts to erase Black history: “For its part, Haymarket has made several free book downloads available and has mailed more than 850 books to Florida readers whose right to read has been limited. Throughout the rest of the country, resistance has also ramped up and includes the formation of Banned Book Clubs, public celebrations of Banned Book Week, free book distributions, lobbying statehouses, and marching, protesting, petitioning and speaking out against legislative attacks on students, teachers, unions and progressive pedagogy.”
Read more.

(Austen Risolvato/Rewire News Group illustration)

Sex Just Got More Dangerous Thanks to This Texas Judge (Rewire News Group) 

Lisa Needham writes about a court decision to end the ACA rule requiring employers and insurers to provide PrEP coverage: “In the last several years, U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor has made a cottage industry of gutting the Affordable Care Act. His latest decision in Braidwood v. Becerra, which mostly applies nationwide, eliminates the requirement that insurers cover a wide swath of vital preventative care. The decision also contains a big win to conservative Christians, continuing their ability to cement their worldview as the only one that matters and eliminating decades of work from queer activists all the way back to the 1980s.”
Read more.

(Electronic Frontier Foundation)

Podcast Episode: Safer Sex Work Makes a Safer Internet (Electronic Frontier Foundation) 

Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Cindy Cohn and Jason Kelley interview public interest technology lawyer Kendra Albert and sex worker, activist, and researcher Danielle Blunt about safer sex work making a safer internet. Blunt says: “I think a really important thing when we’re talking about FOSTA-SESTA is to talk about how the things that keep sex workers safer also keep folks who are vulnerable to labor exploitation and the sex trade, and those who are experiencing circumstances of trafficking safer as well. And what FOSTA/SESTA did was make access to community, to harm reduction resources to the spaces where we make money to the spaces where we organize less accessible and some of them completely disappeared from the web.” Read more.

(Tayfun Coskun / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Abortion Rights Are Workers’ Rights (Jacobin) 

Anne Rumberger argues that abortion rights are workers’ rights: “Access to abortion is being attacked across the country after the fall of Roe v. Wade. Each new curtailment of reproductive rights means that states where abortion is still legal are expanding their services to meet the needs of out of state patients. This amounts to increasingly difficult conditions for reproductive health care workers. At the same time, these workers are facing a hostile working environment as their newly formed unions are being punished by employers.” Read more.

(Erik McLean via Unsplash)

New York’s Imprisoned Women Brave Risks to Sue Sexual Abusers Under New Law (The Appeal) 

Molly Hagan writes about the Adult Survivors Act (“ASA”), which briefly waives New York’s statute of limitations requirements to file sexual abuse lawsuits: “Despite the ASA’s enactment, incarcerated women will, for the time being, continue to contend with the ongoing institutionalized sexual abuse that existing claims describe. The claims—corroborated by official reports—cast doubt on the adequacy of current protection measures and indicate that rules are arbitrarily enforced. This information, advocates say, will only be valuable if policymakers and the public choose to act on it.” Read more.

(Mark Ralston/AFP)

Tess’ Take: Punishing Survivors for Survival in Oklahoma (Woodhull’s Sex & Politics Blog) 

Tess Joseph shares her take on punishing survivors for survival in Oklahoma: “[A] glimmer of hopeful news arrived for survivors: the Domestic Abuse Survivorship Act, authored by Rep. Toni Hasenbeck (R). In short, the bill allows for survivors of domestic/interpersonal violence to introduce evidence of their abuse in court and receive a lower sentence. In February 2023, Oklahoma’s House unanimously passed the bill, sending it on to the state Senate. To be clear, this is good news – many survivors in Oklahoma will benefit from the bill, should it become law. But Samantha Michaels notes that survivors deserve much better than the bill as it currently stands.” Read more.

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