Celebrating Margo St. James & Her Legacy of Sex Worker Advocacy

Submitted by the Event Organizer

On Thursday, June 17 at 6pm, join the Tenderloin Museum, St. James Infirmary, and sex worker rights advocates Carol Leigh and Carol Queen to celebrate the life of legendary sex worker rights advocate Margo St. James and to discuss how her legacy lives on in the Tenderloin and through the current movement to decriminalize sex work.

Founder of the prostitute’s rights organization COYOTE (Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics) and St. James Infirmary, the first peer-based occupational health and safety clinic in the U.S. right here in the TL, Margo St. James left this world on January 11, 2021 and her passing marks the loss of a foundational force in both sex worker rights advocacy and in San Francisco’s culture and politics. She navigated the city’s Bohemian beatnik and free-love hippie eras with a savvy, feminist critique that laid-bare the hypocrisy and inequity in prevailing views and city policy on prostitution. She was a brilliant organizer who fomented solidarity for sex workers across the globe, and by the 1970s, her annual Hooker’s Ball fundraisers at the Cow Palace attracted tens of thousands of attendees; at the 1978 Ball, she made a most sensational entrance on the back of an elephant!

While her talent for spectacle raised awareness of sex workers and her decades of indefatigable efforts ultimately shifted conversations about sex work both locally and globally, one of the most important aspects of St. James’ legacy are the vital, on-the-ground resources for sex workers through St. James Infirmary, located right in the heart of San Francisco and a historical locus of the city’s sex trade: on Polk Street in the Tenderloin.

Today, St. James’ legacy is vibrantly alive in the activities of St. James Infirmary as well as the efforts to decriminalize sex work. Join us on June 17 to learn about Margo’s storied life and extensive legacy from two of her dear friends, collaborators, and life-long sex worker advocates Carol Leigh, who coined the term “sex work,” and Carol Queen, a founder of SF’s sex-positive space for education and experimentation the Center for Sex & Culture. Hear about the services and resources available through St. James Infirmary (and fellow sex worker resource org Rad Mission Neighbors) from Celestina Pearl, St. Jame’s Infirmary’s Outreach Director; activist Cesar Espinosa will share about the ongoing efforts to decriminalize sex work in California.

Additionally, we’ll share some video tributes to Margo (organized through the Old Pro Project) and hear some love letters to Margo, read by the Carols and sex worker activist Felicity Azura. DJ Durt from St. James Infirmary will spin records during the preshow to set the mood for remembering Margo.

Disclaimer: Please double check event information with the event organizer as events can be canceled, details can change after they are added to our calendar, and errors do occur.