Julianna Brown and Claire Macon are co-authors of this abstract.

Background
Supporting sex workers and understanding movement in and out of the sex trade has always been a foundational element of harm reduction. While sex work often gets siloed as an independent theme within harm reduction; we look to understand sex work and sex worker’s rights movements as a core part of historical and modern harm reduction practices.

Methods
This project draws on qualitative and autoethnographic methodologies as work that grew out of community-based research among sex workers. Our primary data was collected through 100 surveys and 35 semi-structured interviews with sex workers in RI, USA during 2021.

Results
Involvement in the sex trade is a practice that allows for financial stability and intra-community support while simultaneously being criminalized and stigmatized. The isolation and violence experienced by sex workers is borne of stigma and criminalization and takes the form of surveillance, police brutality, carceral violence, housing discrimination, and the myriad shapes of social stigma. From long before sex workers were designated “social evil” and vectors of disease within the US at the turn of the 20th century, sex workers have been a part of ongoing movements for racial and migration justice, queer liberation, and rights for drug users. Working in the sex trade is dynamic and rather than a risk to be discouraged is a core part of many people’s relationship to harm reduction.

Conclusion
Through highlighting the central role of sex workers within harm reduction due to the shared experiences of stigma and criminalization, we find clarity in returning to harm reduction’s core philosophy of supporting one another as we look to address the root causes of harm in our lives. Positioning sex work as neither inherently good nor evil and sex work as a practice rather than an identity allows for ongoing solidarity within the harm reduction movement.