Last month, independent porn producer Liara Roux came out publicly—as queer and trans to their clients, and as a sex worker to their family—in an essay on Motherboard:

I definitely cried a lot while writing it; it was definitely a very emotional piece for me to write. When I put it on my Twitter, the responses were sort of overwhelming. People also felt really moved by it, and a lot of people who had been considering coming out to their parents or who had already come out to their parents, [said] they felt it really spoke to their experiences.

When advocacy groups started organizing to lobby their representatives in Washington, DC, Roux was there. Sex workers and advocates gathered on Capitol Hill on June 1 to make the case for sex worker rights and to raise awareness about FOSTA-SESTA, a law that was posed as a way to end sex trafficking but which sex workers say is literally killing them.

The following day, they took to the streets in cities around the country for jubilant rallies that celebrated and empowered them. Roux described that experience:

There had never been a sex worker lobbying day at all. Once we start making our voices more heard and start advocating for ourselves, more powerful change will be possible.