The Red Umbrella Project is a

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

based non-profit organization that advocates on behalf of sex workers and strives to empower them by giving them a voice.

History

The Red Umbrella Project was founded in 2010 by writer and activist Audacia Ray. As a former sex worker, Ray witnessed first-hand the

discrimination Discrimination is the act of making unjustified distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong. People may be discriminated on the basis of race, gender, age, relig ...

against sex workers by police and society. Ray envisioned an organization where sex workers could come together to share their stories, advocate for change and help one another. She chose the name The Red Umbrella Project because in 2001 during the

49th Venice Biennale The 49th Venice Biennale, held in 2001, was an exhibition of international contemporary art, with 65 participating nations. The Venice Biennale takes place biennially in Venice, Italy. Prizewinners of the 49th Biennale included: Richard Serra a ...

of Art in

Venice, Italy Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The islan ...

, sex workers demonstrated against inhumane work conditions and human rights violations by holding up red umbrellas, making this a symbol of resistance to discrimination. In 2009 Ray started hosting storytelling events for sex workers at the Happy Ending Lounge on New York's Lower East Side. The goals of these workshops and storytelling events were to shine light and empower sex workers, but it soon became apparent that these sex workers shared several common burdens. Many identified as trans or

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against those with same-sex desires or relationships in the late 19th century. Beginning in the lat ...

, there was an alarming rate of HIV/AIDS cases among them, they feared carrying condoms due to the criminalization of condoms, and most of all they were tossed aside and mistreated by most of society, when all they were doing is trying to make a living and find economic opportunity.

Advocacy issues

Sex-worker diversion programs

In 2014 New York City created a series of special courts for sex workers arrested on prostitution-related charges. The new courts, known as

Human Trafficking Human trafficking is the trade of humans for the purpose of forced labour, sexual slavery, or commercial sexual exploitation for the trafficker or others. This may encompass providing a spouse in the context of forced marriage, or the extrac ...

Intervention Courts (HTIC), treated all sex workers as human trafficking victims, and through a variety of

bullying Bullying is the use of force, coercion, hurtful teasing or threat, to abuse, aggressively dominate or intimidate. The behavior is often repeated and habitual. One essential prerequisite is the perception (by the bully or by others) of an imba ...

tactics forced defendants to forgo their constitutional right of a trial by jury and agree to a

plea bargain A plea bargain (also plea agreement or plea deal) is an agreement in criminal law proceedings, whereby the prosecutor provides a concession to the defendant in exchange for a plea of guilt or '' nolo contendere.'' This may mean that the defendan ...

of a sex worker diversion program which consisted of a court mandated treatment program, followed by adjournment in contemplation of dismissal (ACD). The Red Umbrella Project argued that the city's intentions were good and that the new court does help people who are forced into sex work. However, the court still treats the sex workers like criminals and makes the assumption that all sex workers are victims of human trafficking and that no one does sex work out of free will, for their personal economic gain. There may also be assumed discrimination within the workforce due to the fact that many sex workers are of color, queer or trans. The counseling and assistance offered through the court mandated treatment program provides them with no way of economic opportunity other than sex work. The Red Umbrella Project wants to see the sex-worker diversion program restructured with an emphasis on

economic empowerment Empowerment is the degree of autonomy and self-determination in people and in communities. This enables them to represent their interests in a responsible and self-determined way, acting on their own authority. It is the process of becoming strong ...

through job training and economic opportunities.

HIV/AIDS and trans health disparity

The Red Umbrella Project along with the Nation Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) and Best Practices Policy Project (BPPP) published a report that transgender people in the sex trade are twelve times more likely to be living with HIV/AIDS than transgender people who were never involved in the sex trade and twenty-five times more likely to be living with HIV/AIDS than the general population. The Red Umbrella Project points to the fear of

condom A condom is a sheath-shaped barrier device used during sexual intercourse to reduce the probability of pregnancy or a sexually transmitted infection (STI). There are both male and female condoms. With proper use—and use at every act of in ...

s as being used as evidence of prostitution along with profiling of race and gender by police officers where: "Women and trans people having condoms on them is criminalized, whereas a white cis male having condoms on him is looked at as safe-sex practice." The Red Umbrella Project and other advocacy groups have been able to push for reform in heavily liberal cities such as New York City, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., but other more conservative cities such as Phoenix use condoms as evidence as part of their anti-prostitution campaign Project Rose.

The Red Umbrella Diaries

The Red Umbrella Diaries started as a monthly story-telling event at the Happy Ending Lounge on New York's Lower East Side that sought to shed the stigma around sex work, make it less isolating and show that it can be both

exploitative The exploitation of natural resources is the use of natural resources for economic growth, sometimes with a negative connotation of accompanying environmental degradation. It started to emerge on an industrial scale in the 19th century as the ext ...

and empowering" at the same time. The Red Umbrella Diaries was listed by '' The Village Voice'' as "The Best Way to Meet Sex Workers (for Free)", and was listed as "Best of New York City's Sports and Recreation" in 2010. The monthly event eventually led to a documentary produced by Audacia Ray and multi-

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

-Winning director David Kornfield and funded by the Red Umbrella Project. The documentary featured seven sex workers telling their stories about trading money for sex on the streets of New York City. The documentary premiered at the

Portland Film Festival Portland Film Festival is a non-profit organization which hosts events and programs in Portland, Oregon. It was founded in 2013 by Joshua Leake with the help of Jay Cornelius. Their main event called the Portland Film Festival is an annual inde ...

, in Portland, Oregon and at the IFC theater in New York City, and was a Doc NYC official selection.

Memoir writing workshop

In 2012, the Red Umbrella Project started offering memoir writing workshops in New York City which was made possible in part by a grant from Poets & Writers. The peer-facilitated workshops were open to all people with experience in the sex trade and allowed sex workers a safe space to build writing skills, share their stories with others, and get feedback from their peers. Attendees of the workshop have the option of having their work published in the Red Umbrella Project's biannual literary journal ''Prose & Lore'', and to share their work on stage as part of their Page to Stage workshop.

References

{{Authority control Organizations established in 2010 Prostitution in New York (state) Sexuality and society Sex workers' rights Organizations based in New York City Sex worker organizations in the United States 2010 establishments in New York City