New mural in San Francisco advocates for sex workers' rights and LGBTQ rights
People walking down the 1800 block of Market Street in San Francisco may notice something new.
Along the side of the SF LGBT Center, local artist Tanya Wischerath spent days painting a bright and bold mural honoring sex workers' rights.
"Sex worker justice is LGBTQIA+, racial, disability, immigrant, gender, HIV, justice," Wischerath said, reading aloud part of her mural. "Really hope that anyone who has felt the effects of discrimination or marginalization because they fall into any of these categories, take a moment to examine their relationship internally with sex work and how they've been conditioned to think about it."
Wischerath has collaborated with DecrimSexWorkCA, a community group that advocates for human rights and the well-being of sex workers.
"The mural isn't about necessarily glamorizing sex work. It's about giving dignity and justice to a group of people that already exist and will continue to exist," she said.
The fight to protect the marginalized is personal for Wischerath.
"I came out when I was 13 in San Francisco. And, I found a lot of support, a lot of community," she told CBS News Bay Area. "And I feel that it's especially important now to look backwards as we go forwards. Because there's a lot of fragmentation in the community."
She finished the mural in a couple of days, and community activists have since gathered to write down their own message on the mural.
"To celebrate the contributions of Q, Trans, BIPOC, sex workers, and everything that we've done here in the state of California, and continue to do for sex worker rights and marginalized identity rights," Lotus Lain, the vice president of DecrimSexWorkCA, told CBS News Bay Area.
She hopes that this mural will be one means of raising more awareness.
"Listen to sex workers. A lot of these laws that they passed do not include our voices, and yet they regulate our livelihoods and how we're able to conduct business, how we're able to make money, how we're able to live. And fundamentally, that is not right," she said.
As for Wischerath, she hopes that for those who see the mural, they will walk away with this message.
"It feels so celebratory, that's it almost like saying there's no shame, you know it's a rejection of that tool," she said. "Historically, celebration is really a big part of resistance. And we're on the side of the LGBTQ building and I wanted to honor that history."
The mural was officially unveiled on May 31, intentionally timed with "International Whores Day" on June 2, a global day of advocacy for sex workers' rights. Organizers said their goal is to celebrate the contributions of LGBTQ and BIPOC sex workers, while pushing for greater protections and decriminalization.
