Full Decriminalization Is Full Freedom: Tamika Spellman On Belonging And Towards Black Sex Worker Liberation
Activist, sex work advocate, and community organizer, Tamika Spellman. Photo courtesy of Tamika Spellman.
By Jaimee A. Swift
A pioneering activist and advocate, Tamika Spellman (she/her/hers) is leading a movement so that present and future Black and Brown sex workers in Washington, D.C., can truly know what full freedom and Belonging is and means in a world that tries to criminalize and control their bodily and political autonomy and agency.
Trigger Words: Police violence, violence against women.
Tamika Spellman’s interview is a part of ‘Voices in Movement’ December 2019 theme, ‘On Belonging.’ To read the descriptor of ‘On Belonging’, please click here.
I was super nervous to interview Tamika Spellman because if you do not know, Ms. Tamika is an activist icon, which means she is a big deal, and should always be treated as such. I remember getting prepared for the interview: my hands were sweating, I had a slight nervous tick in my neck, and all I could remember thinking was: I am about to interview Tamika Spellman. As I called her and I told her how much it was an honor to speak with her, she told me, “Baby, the pleasure is all mine.” And it was in the comfort of her voice, where I begin to feel at ease––I began to feel like I was talking to a warm yet feisty elder in my own family. It felt like I was speaking with someone who was from home.
While Ms. Tamika, 52, is not from my home, she is trying to create a home, a society, and a world where full freedom, belonging, and liberation for Black and Brown sex workers shifts from radical imaginations to substantive realities. Originally from Buffalo, New York, as a long-term Washington, D.C. based resident and as a proud sex worker and transgender woman, Spellman has been organizing for decades to challenge, address and stop the stigma, and criminalization, and police violence that chronically and structurally impacts Black and Brown transgender women who conduct and engage in consensual and survival sex work.
In D.C., police abuse and misconduct against sex workers is rampant. Moreover, due to discrimination and stigma, Black and Brown transgender women are often neglected and denied access to resources such as housing, employment, healthcare, and other services, and rely on survival sex work to live. Having experienced first-hand such prejudice and violence, it is Spellman’s life’s work to serve those who are the most marginalized in society.
As the Policy and Advocacy Associate at HIPS, a harm reduction community based agency in D.C., Spellman hands out safer sex supplies and access to overdose prevention supplies. She has spoken at countless events, panels, and conferences about harm reduction; the dangers in conflating consensual sex work and sex trafficking; and more. Spellman is also a member of the Sex Worker Advocates Coalition (SWAC), a group of individuals, organizations, and allies advancing and promoting human rights, safety, legislation, and health and wellness of sex-workers and those who are profiled as sex workers in Washington, D.C.
SWAC also created DECRIMNOW, a “campaign and movement to decriminalize sex work and to promote the well-being and safety of people in the sex trade.” In June 2019, Spellman and other SWAC members were the radical leaders, organizers, and supporters of the Community Safety and Health Amendment Act. Originally introduced in October 2017 as the Reducing Criminalization to Promote Public Safety and Health Amendment Act of 2017, the 2019 Community Safety and Health Amendment Act pushed to remove current legislation that criminalizes and penalizes those who engage and exchange in consensual sex work.
While the 2019 bill did not pass, Spellman is relentless and unwavering in her dedication for true radical transformational change. She shows no signs of stopping her activism until full decriminalization, human rights, anti-police and anti-policing, and substantive resources for sex workers are actualized. In other words, she will not stop until Black and Brown sex workers are fully, truly, and actually free to assert their political and bodily autonomy.
I spoke with Ms. Tamika about what led her into activism and grassroots organizing; how she learned to Belong to herself; what brings her joy; and what a Black Woman Radical means to her.
You are one of the powerhouses and leaders behind the revolutionary decriminalization bill in Washington, D.C., which could make it the first U.S. city to decriminalize sex work. Decriminalizing sex, as you wrote, is “an imperative for gender equity, public health, and racial justice.” How would decriminalizing sex work allow and offer women, particularly Black women who engage/conduct consexual sex work, a sense of Belonging in society?
Tamika Spellman (TS): “We have always been members of society, we are just the ones that have been looked down upon. There is a history of negativity surrounding sex work but only when it comes to Black people and sex work. As long as it is the Mae Wests of the world and the Hollywood glitz and glamour of white women making ends meet it is fine but when it comes to Black and Brown people engaging in sex work, it became a nefarious activity. Miss Lily was hot mad because her husband is paying to have sex with Black people but prior to that situation it was free. Sex workers could do the work but they could not collect the coins behind the work because they had overseers that were using them. When we had gained our freedom, a lot of sex workers went into the business of sex work but because it was led by Black and Brown people, it became a criminal activity. So, this is just to bring it full circle and to bring us back into the forefront of society. We should not be criminalized for something that everybody else does. We have to go to this mode to humanize humans. We have to break stigmas down to humanize a human in a country that treats dogs better than they treat human beings.”
“As long as it is the Mae West’s of the world and the Hollywood glitz and glamour of white women making ends meet it is fine but when it comes to Black and Brown people engaging in sex work, it became a nefarious activity.”
You have dealt with so much opposition, slander, and mistruths surrounding the decriminalization bill and with sex work in general. How do you combat this?
TS: “I hit them back with facts. People do not like it when you spout facts back at them. The biggest portion of our opposition are coming from the anti-trafficking side. They are solely dependent on the relationship with the police and they do not want any interruptions in the way this system is set up. They still prefer to have partial decriminalization, the Equity model, or Nordic model instead of a full decriminalization model. They do not do outreach. They do not have any concrete resources to help people. They want to say, ‘Oh, we are rescuing all these victims of sex trafficking and sex work’, and in all actuality, those who are unfortunately in trafficking have a missing set of resources they need to enable them to walk away or get out of trafficking. So I hit those who oppose full decriminalization with the facts: Where is your housing that is not a group home? Where is your financial support for these people who want to move on? Where is the education and the job training with a real job that you have made communication with a business or industry that will take these people on? They don’t have any of these things set up but they are all throwing in their little angles on why decriminalization is bad. If we do not have police so concerned with consenting adult behavior, they will actually have time, means, and motive to stop children from being trafficked and those adults who do not want to be in that realm.”
“So I hit those who oppose full decriminalization with the facts: Where is your housing that is not a group home? Where is your financial support for these people who want to move on? Where is the education and the job training with a real job that you have made communication with a business or industry that will take these people on? ”
“Those are some of the ways we are clapping back to let them know that this is not what is going to happen, that this is not a part of that law, and this is what we are asking for and here are the reasons. We want laws relaxed to stop putting people in jeopardy of having interactions with police that are negative. Sex workers have overwhelming negative interactions with police. A lot of crimes happen to us but we do not go to the police at this juncture because their first line is to figure out how they can criminalize or take advantage of me. So, what are we actually asking for when people are not advocating for full decriminalization? Full decriminalization is the most logical choice. Models have been used from the partial decriminalization––the Nordic model, in-demand model, the equity model, whichever they want to call it––have been implemented in other countries and there is still harm to the sex worker. Why would we ask for something that is still as harmful as full criminalization? It makes absolutely no sense. If we want to make some concrete changes so that the police actually do their jobs and find victims, they should stop arresting them to begin with because that arrest record is a catalyst from prohibiting people from moving forward. A lot of the police’s victims end up going back to those sex worker scenarios and often go back to the trafficker they left because the police don’t have anything concrete to offer them to facilate the change they say they want for these people. You can’t speak out of one side of your mouth and not have the other side filled with resources and things that people need. So there is my clapback for that.”
Tamika Spellman. Photo courtesy of Tamika Spellman.
What led you to become an activist? What was the moment or catalyst that prompted you to say ‘enough is enough’?
TS: “I first started out in activism in the early 1990s, speaking on the behalf of homeless transgender and gender non-binary people. I was homeless at the time and the way the shelters were treating us was unconscionable. I dabbled in activism back and forth when needed but right now I am at a point with this movement that it is an absolute necessity it happens. I am 52. In all honesty, I can walk away from sex work at any time. But what type of person would I be if I did not try to change world I want to leave behind for those who still need to do sex work today and in the future? That is why I am an advocate, baby –– to change this world.”
“But what type of person would I be if I did not try to change world I want to leave behind for those who still need to do sex work today and in the future? That is why I am an advocate, baby –– to change this world.”
How have you learned to Belong to yourself?
TS: “It took a lot because being transgender is not easiest life to live. People often say, “Well, why would you do this, that, and the third’ –– nobody chooses to be transgender. Me wanting to be comfortable in my own skin is why I made this transition because I was never comfortable in the other form. I suffered a lot with my own family and with society in general because nobody wanted to see that change in me. A lot of society thinks, ‘Why would you want to be a woman? They are the least powerful of any.’ Especially when it comes to cis white males, they are the top of the food chain. That is not fair and they need to be busted down and need to be equal to a woman –– whether she is cisgender or transgender. There is also the element of being Black because Black people have been disenfranchised since the moment this country has been incepted. There has not been in equality or justice for us, even after emancipation. We still fight today for recognition and acknowledgment.”
“No matter what I do as a person, that does not mean I should be disrespected, treated differently, or looked down upon. All these charges against me are being led by my own government. All the rhetoric around transgender people using bathrooms and all the nefarious things they try to apply to my community, is led by the government. It is sickening this country talks about how we are all blended together or America is a melting pot –– that is bullshit. It is only a melting pot when it is about ethnicities that come from countries that are mostly white. There is no melting pot when it is about people coming from countries that are Black and Brown. I am in this to change all of those dynamics. Everyone should be treated with dignity and respect––whether they are a sex worker, drug user, homeless, or if they have mental health issues. Stop stigmatizing human life and learn how to deal with and make people understand that this is not the route that we should be going down as a society.”
“The Bible has always been my guide –– and yes, I am a Christian, a drug user, and a sex worker. Look at that. But I know what the Bible says –– I am supposed to be my brother’s keeper. How am I keeping my brother when I am standing in judgment of him?”
“The Bible has always been my guide –– and yes, I am a Christian, a drug user, and a sex worker. Look at that. But I know what the Bible says –– I am supposed to be my brother’s keeper. How am I keeping my brother when I am standing in judgment of him? It is unfathomable that we live in this overwhelming Christian society but then we won’t open our hearts or our wallets to give to those who are less fortunate. Instead of trying to help someone that is hungry, we walk past them. What kind of signal does that send to people? What type of signal does that send to this world? This has to change. I am just doing the work God put upon me. When you look at what Jesus was, he was an advocate and he spoke up for the same people I am speaking up for.”
What gives you joy these days?
TS: “My children, my grandbabies, and my great-grand babies bring me joy. My extended family also gives me joy. I have a lot of kids who are not born of me. My acquired family brings me joy because a lot of times in the transgender and in the lesbian, gay, and bisexual communities, many of our families kick us to the curb. We adopt one another so that people have a sense of family still. I live in a group home under No Justice, No Pride. No Justice, No Pride is a collective of trans women that support other trans women. I am in one of the houses as a monitor. I have tried to foster a regular and normal home life for the young girls who live in the house with me. I cook dinner every evening and I fuss at them just like I am their mama. I try to guide them and be a positive influence even in a world that does not want that to happen. So, those are some of the things that I get joy from. I am a simple person. The smallest things can make me smile. A lot of those small things are the biggest things in my life.”
“A Black Woman Radical to me is a sista who is unapologetically Black and that speaks their mind and does not relent for anyone or anything.”
With all your activism, your leadership, and your work, you have done so much to create safe spaces, a more inclusive society and world for Black women to belong. What does true liberation and freedom for Black women look like to you?
TS: “Stigma free. True liberation means full employment for all. It means women being paid the same as a man for the same job. It means men respecting women’s right to choose for themselves. It means my government supporting the idea that women can make decisions on their own without them trying to monitor their wombs. Autonomy. Free agency. That is where I am at and that is what I want to see for ourselves in the future. I want it to be leveled across the board for every race in this country and in the whole world. You know, holding a person back because they choose not to work for free anymore is not good policy and finding new and better ways to keep your thumb on their neck because they do not want to work for you for free anymore, is not the way to go. We have to show them why that is the wrong policy and what we are asking for is for the betterment of society as a whole. It means just laws that are not unfairly distributed. It means true freedom across the board for Black women.”
What does a ‘Black Woman Radical’ mean to you?
TS: “A Black Woman Radical to me is a sista who is unapologetically Black and that speaks their mind and does not relent for anyone or anything. That is one reason why my employer at HIPS has me in the position that I am in because I do not bite my tongue, I speak the truth, and my lived experiences are actually more valuable than society wants it to be. That is why this movement has gotten to this point because I speak so frankly. It means being unapologetically Black, powerful, moving, and dramatic –– that is what a Black Woman Radical is.”
You can follow Ms. Tamika on Twitter at @Tamikahs66.
For more information about HIPS, please click here.
For more information about the Sex Workers Advocates Coalition, please click here.
For more information about DECRIMNOW, please click here.
For more information about No Justice, No Pride, please click here.