Labor trafficking doesn’t always involve chains or cages. Sometimes it looks like contracts written in legalese, passports held just out of reach, or threats veiled as “rules.” It’s coercion in a cocktail dress. It’s violence dressed up as opportunity.

When it comes to “bad girls of the Bible,” Eve takes the crown as the original troublemaker. She’s the woman who - according to centuries of sermons, paintings, and pop theology - single-handedly ruined paradise.

She was twelve the first time the bruises should have mattered. The teacher noticed. The nurse filed a report. A caseworker visited the...

This myth isn’t just about who people imagine when they hear the words “sex worker.” It reflects who feminism has historically chosen to see and who it has chosen to leave out.

The sex worker rights movement has long explored how the public—and too often, the courts—struggle to grasp the realities of exploitation, especially when it hides behind wealth, consent, or celebrity. We’ve written about coercion, manipulation, and the blurry gray lines that survivors are expected to define in black and white.

On July 2, 2025, a Manhattan federal jury delivered a split verdict: Sean “Diddy” Combs was acquitted of racketeering and sex trafficking, but convicted on two counts under the Mann Act—transporting individuals across state lines for prostitution. The public reaction was swift and polarized. Some called it justice served; others saw it as yet another reminder that wealth and fame insulate men from real accountability.

When a certain child rescue organization—you know, the one whose name sounds like a Christian indie band—published their recent reflection titled “Mistakes happen in anti-trafficking work. We must learn from them,” a strange thing happened across the sex worker rights community.

In what could be seen as the most expensive DUI in Massachusetts history, Karen Read was found Not Guilty this week of second-degree murder in the death of her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe.

Good morning, Red Umbrella fam. Hope your coffee is strong and your boundaries stronger, because this weekend delivered a full-course meal of carceral nonsense, QAnon fever dreams, ICE agents crashing into elementary school zones, and a grown man throwing himself a military parade for his birthday.

When people imagine what “freedom” looks like for trafficking survivors, they often picture a dramatic rescue or a courtroom triumph—handcuffs off, a predator jailed, a survivor walking into the sunlight.

This past weekend, Los Angeles found itself at the epicenter of a fierce showdown: thousands hit the streets in defiance of ICE raids and...

Education is more than a classroom, a test, or a diploma. For criminalized women, survivors, and sex workers, it’s a form of resistance. It’s a survival strategy. It’s a way to reclaim power in systems designed to keep us voiceless.

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM), a time set aside to educate, honor survivors, and call for an end to sexual violence. But...

When we talk about mass incarceration in the United States, the conversation often centers around numbers—how many people are locked up,...

What happens when the law is wrong?

Survivors bring with them a unique set of survival skills honed through their lived experiences of exploitation and violence.

For survivors of exploitation, and particularly with multiple intersecting issues like domestic violence,

Mass incarceration is not merely a statistical issue; it is a profound human rights crisis, disproportionately impacting women

Gender-based violence (GBV) and intimate partner violence (IPV) are pervasive issues that disproportionately affect women

Trauma-informed care (TIC) is an approach to healthcare, social services, and corrections that recognizes the widespread impact of trauma an