This is the poetry I recited for the slam sermon at my church.
The common occupations
Among my relations
Are sex work
And social work
One has their work
Foisted upon them
As an identity
Objectified
For our moral supremacy
The other is normalized
Invisible from all pulpits
Free of proselytizing
When you say prostitute
What I hear is the other
Not my brother or mother
Work is work until it is sex work
Am I right?
Our history of misogyny
Breathing today
In the lessons of the day
Injustice makes sex work
The best work
Tell me what job offers a living wage
When you’re eighteen and without family
Tell me what job offers a living wage
When you’re trans and mentally ill
Tell me what job offers a living wage
When you have PTSD and no degree
Tell me what job offers flexible hours
And let you work from home
Working with your mental illness
Instead of against it
Is it only okay when it is for the rich?
Is it only okay when it doesn’t offend
The sexual purity myth of this society?
You say prostitute
You think destitute
I say sex worker
I think how was that book
How was your date
And did you see that thing?
A normal experience
In a world of indifference
My partner works in a hospital
My partner is a derby coach
My partner makes porn
My partner sells her underwear
My friend is a talented artist
My friend pays for rent as an escort
My other friend is studying social work
My other friend does out calls
Yet another has made sex work her profession
Domination is her expression
Shall I go on?
Their work no more qualifies them to be reduced
Into objects for lessons to the righteous
Than a baker or a painter
Spare your pity
Legalize this economy
Make housing a right
Food a guarantee
Schooling all free
Regard not sex workers as outcasts
But cast out this injustice and inequality
That exist in your mentality
A lack of opportunity
Intertwine sex work with poverty
But sex work is work
Not moral edification
Sex work is work