2021 International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers Memorial List

This Friday, December 17, 2021, SWOP Behind Bars joins sx workers, allies and advocates from around the world in recognizing International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers. As we come together to remember those lost, we renew our commitment to the ongoing struggle for empowerment, visibility, and rights for all people who trade sex. For nearly two decades our community members have dedicated many months, meticulous care and endless anxiety each year to the collection and creation of the annual memorial list. Each year, the search for names, dates, locations, cause and circumstances of each life and death, reminds us that one day our own names will be on this list.

Men Kill 17 Women in April – Evrim Kepenek (Istanbul)

Forced sex work. Men forced at least 11 women to sex work in April. This figure was 33 in the same month last year. Ten of the women who were forced to sex work were not citizens of Turkey.

Judicial process. There were at least 14 perpetrators who forced women to sex work. Only two perpetrators were arrested. At least 12 perpetrators were detained.

Explanation. The bianet Male Violence Monitoring Report only covers women who lost their lives as a result of male violence. We do not include any violence cases or crimes that are not gender-based.

Throughout the year, we keep track of unidentified murders and suspicious deaths of women in separate monthly tallies but do not add them to the number presented in the headline. At the end of the year, we examine these cases of unidentified murders and suspicious deaths to determine whether the crimes were gender-based. We add the gender-based incidents into the report.

NYC’s Sex Work Exhibition Officially Pops Off

The week-long event will culminate in a town hall with prominent New York politician State Sen. Julia Salazar (D-Bushwick, Cypress Hills, Greenpoint, Williamsburg, parts of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brownsville,  East New York) and progressive Tiffany Cabán discussing sex industry reform legislation in New York State. 
The Stop Violence in the Sex Trade Act, a package of bills that support the full decriminalization of the entire sex industry not just workers or victims, was first introduced in New York in 2019 by Salazar. It has yet to be passed into law. - Ariama Long TIME

New Jersey man, 23, convicted of murdering three women and attempting to slay a fourth | Daily Mail Online

An Essex County (New Jersey) jury deliberated for just two hours on Thursday before convicting Khalil Wheeler-Weaver, 23, who now faces up to a life in prison plus 80 years.

Prosecutors said Wheeler-Weaver, of Orange, killed 20-year-old Sarah Butler, 33-year-old Joanne Brown and 19-year-old Robin West in 2016. They also accuse him of trying to kill another woman, identified in court documents only as T.T. who survived and testified against him at his trial. -Daily Mail Online