Not Your Rescue Project: Migrant Sex Workers Fighting for Justice: NYC Edition
Hear from the co-authors of Not Your Rescue Project, the first book on migrant sex worker struggles and organizing, and from Red Canary Song about how migrants in the sex industry are being affected by immigration raids and racism–and how their anti-fascist resistance in the massage parlor serves as a blueprint for creative resistance and solidarity for everyone.
Yves Tong Nguyen (they/she/he) is a Vietnamese queer disabled abolitionist organizer and cultural worker who is currently organizing with Red Canary Song and Survived & Punished NY, and formerly organized with Free Them All 4 Public Health. They are personally concerned with supporting survivors of all forms of violence through organizing and informal community support. They have experience in supporting sex workers, migrant workers, and survivors of gender-based violence, particularly criminalized survivors of abuse.
Chanelle Gallant is a movement writer, organizer, strategist and consultant and co-author of Not Your Rescue Project: Migrant Sex Workers Fighting for Justice (Haymarket Books, 2024). She co-founded the Migrant Sex Workers Project, SURJ-Toronto and has provided training and advocacy on sex work and racial justice, from city hall to the United Nations. Chanelle sits on the national board for Showing Up for Racial Justice and Catalyst Project and has helped to move millions into organizing through donor advising and grassroots fundraising. She holds an MA in Sociology and was a Lambda Literary Fellow. Find her at chanellegallant.com
Elene Lam is an activist, artist, community organizer, educator, human rights defender and the coauthor of Not Your Rescue Project: Migrant Sex Workers Fighting for Justice. She has fought for sex worker, migrant, gender, labor and racial justice for over 20 years. She is the founder of Butterfly (Asian and Migrant Sex Workers Support Network) and the co-founder of Migrant Sex Workers Project. She has used diverse and innovative approaches to advocate social justice for migrant sex workers, such as leadership building and community mobilization. She holds Master’s degrees in law and social work and a Ph.D. in social work, where she studied the harms of the anti-trafficking movement. She was awarded the Constance E. Hamilton Award for Women’s Equality by the City of Toronto.
Red Canary Song is a grassroots organization of Asian and migrant sex workers and massage workers, organizing transnationally. Our work is in the tradition of sex worker mutual aid, and we center base-building with migrant massage workers through a labor rights, migrant justice, and PIC abolitionist framework. We believe that the full decriminalization of sex work is necessary for the safety and survival of massage workers and trafficking survivors.
We, ourselves, are not a 501c3 nonprofit as we work against saviorism and the nonprofit industrial complex that often positions themselves as rescuers of Asian and Migrant sex workers, massage workers, and other marginalized groups who engage in informal labor economies. We do not participate in advocacy, social work, or activism as a career. We are a volunteer-based group with a core collective of sex workers, massage workers, and trusted allies who are fiscally sponsored by a 501c3 organization that manages our donations, grants, and taxes, while we get to autonomously make organizing decisions to serve our community on a direct needs basis.
Mutual aid, as opposed to charity, does not connote moral superiority of the giver over the receiver. Our mutual aid includes, but is not limited to: interpretation/translation services, connection to legal, medical, and immigration services, emergency cash, courtroom support, groceries, medical & hygiene supplies, clothing and other forms of care. We promote safety, health, pride, and mutual care, whilst fighting stigma, isolation and systemic violence.
Please donate to help us cover event costs and worker transportation.
Butterfly is a grassroots, community-led organization centering the voices and leadership of Asian and migrant sex workers. For over a decade, the organization has mobilized and supported more than 5,000 Asian and Migrant massage and sex workers through outreach, advocacy, mutual aid, and community-based education. Butterfly advocates for decriminalization and abolition, including an end to the anti-trafficking industry. Through developing member-led support networks, community leadership, and grassroots organizing, Butterfly ensures migrant sex workers’ voices are heard at the local, federal, and international level. By centering these perspectives, Butterfly unmasks the intersecting and deeply rooted oppressions woven into multiple systems. As a member of national coalitions such as the Canadian Alliance for Sex Work Law Reform and the Migrant Rights Network, Butterfly builds solidarity across allied movements, positioning migrant sex workers at the forefront of broader struggles for racial, economic, and gender justice
