INTIMATE ACCESS is a small collective of sex workers, disability justice-informed organizers and our co-conspirators based on lək̓ʷəŋən Traditional Territory. We are an accessibility-focused, community-driven project aimed at facilitating peer-led advocacy, education & financial relief for chronically-ill & disabled sex workers living & working on Vancouver Island.
The title for the project was inspired by the works of Disability Justice advocate Mia Mingus’s writing on Access Intimacy, which she describes as “that elusive, hard to describe feeling when someone else ‘gets’ your access needs” (2011).
Values
As a collective composed of multiply-disabled white femmes utilizing an activist framework grounded in the lived experiences of queer and trans disabled folks of color, we acknowledge the deep lineage of Disability Justice as one that centers the most impacted and marginalized disabled folks.
We recognize the ways we benefit from white supremacy and settler colonialism, and aim to practice accountability for our own systemic and structural advantages through uplifting sex workers whose disability oppression is compounded along other axes of power and struggle.
FOSTER COALITION-BUILDING/CROSS-MOVEMENT SOLIDARITY
We seek to promote much needed solidarity between the disability community and the sex worker community, both of which face intersecting challenges and systemic barriers that often go unrecognized or unaddressed due to societal stigmas and misconceptions. We hope to bridge this divide by creating a platform for mutual understanding, collaboration and coalition. By fostering dialogue and building trust, we believe that we can amplify our common goals of autonomy, dignity, and justice.
RESISTING ISOLATION THROUGH DIGNITY & BELONGING
Sick & disabled sex workers are at a compounded risk of isolation stemming from whorephobia, stigma, ableism & eugenic state policies, all of which can push workers further into the shadows in an efforts to avoid being outed and/or doxed.
Medically high-risk sex workers who’ve been shut out of society due to COVID-19 minimization and pandemic denialism makes attending in-person events inaccessible. We want to offer a more accessible way of being in community and fostering connection that doesn’t put workers at an increased risk of exposure while doing so.
