In Celebration of International Whores Day

by Laura LeMoon

International Whores Day on June 2, also known as International Sex Workers’ Rights Day, celebrates a sex worker revolution. In Lyon, France, in 1975, over 100 sex workers seized control of a church and protested poor working conditions, police harassment, and overall stigmatizing treatment. It was a day of revolution on behalf of labor rights, and it was the first mass global movement in recorded history to posit sex work not as a moral issue but as a labor rights issue. Seeing sex work as a labor issue has led to the global movement toward decriminalization, and the successful decriminalization of sex work in New Zealand — the only country that currently enjoys full decriminalization of prostitution.