About Us

Mission Statement

Sex Workers Action Group Kingston (SWAG Kingston) is a sex positive group run by sex workers, people with lived experience, allies, and agency members who strive to improve the lives of sex workers in Kingston and surrounding area.

We are open to:

  • Current and former sex workers of all genders, from all sectors
  • Supporters of sex workers who share SWAG Kingston’s values & beliefs

Our goals are to:

  • Provide practical, emotional, community, and legal support to sex workers
  • Sensitize and educate the public and local service agencies about sex work
  • Fight discrimination and stigma associated with sex work
  • Promote the decriminalization of sex work

Values & Beliefs

  • Sex work can be consensual, legitimate, valuable, honourable, important, and real work, but SWAG Kingston also recognizes that this is not the case for all sex exchanges
  • Sex workers are the experts of the industry and their own lives, and must be actively and meaningfully included in all areas of services and policy development
  • Sex workers deserve the same legal, human, and labour rights as any other persons in Canada including, but not limited to adequate standards of living and the provision of social and health services
  • Sex workers need to be able to access public services without discrimination or judgement
  • The decriminalization of sex work is imperative to the health, safety, and well-being of sex workers

Why decriminalization?

  • Decriminalization is the removal of all prostitution-related offences from the Criminal Code for consenting adults
  • Decriminalization improves the safety, security, working conditions, and autonomy of sex workers
  • Decriminalization allows for sex workers to more easily access health and legal services without fear of being charged with prostitution-related offences
  • Decriminalization decreases the social stigma and discrimination of sex workers
  • If sex work was decriminalized, the laws which protect sex workers would still exist (e.g. laws on extortion, coercion, forcible confinement, assault, sexual assault, threatening, child exploitation, etc.)