Legal Solutions to Sex Work Criminalization

Land Acknowledgement:

Multnomah County exists on the ancestral land of the Multnomah, Wasco, Cowlitz, Kathlamet, Clackamas, Bands of Chinook, Tualatin, Kalapuya, Molalla, and many other tribes. We are here because this land was occupied, and its people displaced and killed by colonists and settlers. We acknowledge and honor all of the descendants of the original caretakers of this land. We recognize and honor the resilience of those descendants who are among us.

We also acknowledge that Black people were not allowed to live independently, own property or earn wages in Oregon until 1926. The history and current reality of anti-Black policies are evident all around us in the segregation of our neighborhoods and deeply disparate treatment of our black and brown children, among a myriad of other evidence. How Black and brown people are policed in this community is our life and death concern.

We work in solidarity with all who would dismantle institutions of white supremacy. We recognize that many among us have been trained to uphold these institutions and maintain these oppressive systems in ways that, if unstudied, will remain unconscious and complicit in ongoing violence. We recognize that those among us who are white benefit directly from the systems we wish to dismantle.

We encourage you to think beyond this acknowledgment and consider how to work in solidarity to uplift the collective power, leadership, creativity, and wisdom of Indigenous and Black communities in Multnomah County and beyond. Please take a moment to offer respect and appreciation to the Indigenous peoples whose traditional homelands and hunting grounds are where residents of Multnomah County live, learn, work, play and pray.

Taken from the Equity Subcommittee of the Multnomah County Coalition

Against Domestic and Sexual Violence