San Francisco Was Built by Sex Workers. Kaytlin Bailey Wants You to Know It.

Kaytlin Bailey is a polymath — a performer, writer, educator, historian, podcaster, and, as it happens, a former journalist for Broke-Ass Stuart! I had the extreme pleasure of seeing her live show The Oldest Profession back in December. Lucky for San Francisco, she’s touring again! I was so delighted to catch up about The Oldest Profession and San Francisco sex worker history, just in time for Pride month. Catch Kaytlin at The Lost Church in North Beach this Sunday June 7th!

Let’s pretend for a moment I know nothing about sex work and sex worker history. What’s the most important thing for me to learn today?

I want people to walk away from this show knowing (in a deep, unforgettable, undeniable way) that sex workers have always been important members of our community. This is a show I hope sex workers bring their moms to. It really brings people together and changes peoples’ minds about this issue.

What should people reading this know about SESTA-FOSTA, especially during (both) Trump administration(s)?

SESTA-FOSTA — which stands for Stop Enabling Sex Trafficking, and Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (sounds good, right?) — was the only piece of bi-partisan legislation that Trump was able to sign into law in his first term. And it was sold to the American people as a way to protect vulnerable woman and children from sexual violence and exploitation. But of course, the law didn't do that. Instead, it made sex work more dangerous, and life harder for sex educators, queer people, and women with spicy opinions on the internet.

Why are you touring during Pride month? What should we know about the intersections between queer & trans communities and sex worker communities?

Sex workers and queer community have always been in this together. We have been sharing the same spaces and being thrown onto the same literal and proverbial fires since before the beginning. This is true during the witch and heretic burning, it was true during the moral panic around the HIV/AIDS pandemic, and it’s true right now when policy makers are deciding what is obscene and who "the children" need protecting from. 

So much of the contemporary sex worker rights movement was built by people in the trans rights movement. Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera here in the United States, Roberta Perkins in Australia, and Carmen Rupe in New Zealand. New Zealand became the first country to decriminalize sex work because Georgina Beyer, the first openly trans woman in the world elected to Parliament, had lived experience as a sex worker and cast the deciding vote.

Why is San Francisco a stop on this tour? What do you want us to know about sex worker history, activism, and organizing here (historical and present-day)?

COYOTE, Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics, was founded in San Francisco. So many legends in the sex worker rights movement live, or lived here, and I'm blessed to know some of them. I like to come hang out with my friends. 

There's a new mural on the side of the SF LGBT Center advocating for sex worker rights I want to see in person. Plus I love the Lost Church Theater; it's great to be able to perform there!

Somewhat relatedly, and since your show is at the Lost Church: Do you have anything to say about North Beach and Chinatown as storied neighborhoods with sex work lore? Any cool or interesting things you’ve found in your research and want to share?

We did a few episodes about the Barbary Coast, the red light district in the 19th century and the brave sex workers who protested the campaign to close their brothels on January 25, 1917. They lost that fight, and the brothels were shut down on Valentine's Day that same year. But what they said — the points they made — are as true today as they were 110 years ago.

And Ah Toy, one of the first Chinese women to arrive in San Francisco who helped create both the red light district and Chinatown. She was a strong advocate for herself and her business. She defended her ability to work independently until the moral panic and anti-Chinese racism made that impossible. 

San Francisco, like so many cities, was built by sex workers.

Anything else you’d like to add?

This is a show I want sex workers to bring their moms to. But you don't have to have any direct experience to to enjoy it. If you’re curious, if you like history, or funny women — you'll have a great time.

Gina Stella dell’Assunta is a writer, performance artist, and cultural worker from San Francisco. You can find her online @queershoulder, and support her work directly at patreon.com/queershoulder.