25 Jul Sex Workers, Drug Users Protest Stigma During AIDS Conference
A crimson wall made its way across Washington D.C., Tuesday as more than 1,000 sex workers, drug users and AIDS activists — many of them carrying red umbrellas to fend off the rain — marched toward the White House to protest the stigma associated with their activities, a stigma they believe contributes to the spread of HIV/AIDS.
Protesters held up signs reading “Fight AIDS! No More Drug War!” and “Stop the Witch Hunt against Sex Workers.”
“Sex work is work” the group chanted, responding to demonstration leaders holding megaphones.
The demonstrators were calling for the decriminalization of drugs and sex work, which they argue would encourage people to practice safer sex.
Quincy McEwen, a sex worker inGuyana, marched in today’s protest for sex workers’ rights.
“It’s our body, our business,” said McEwen. “You can give oral sex for free, but if you collect money for it it’s illegal. That’s wrong.”
“That stigma is allowing the disease to spread,” she said.
The march was one of five protests that joined — in front of the White House — different groups affected by HIV and AIDS. The demonstrations coincided with the 19th International AIDS Conference, which is taking place in the nation’s capital this week, the first time theU.S.has hosted it in 22 years. Until 2009, aU.S.travel ban denied visas to people who had HIV.