People who work in the sex trade and their supporters will be out in force on Saturday (December 17) to draw attention to the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers. Mz. Scream, a Vancouver dominatrix, told the Straight by phone that from 2 to 4 p.m., there will be a rally outside the Vancouver police station at 312 Main Street. It will be hosted by Jen’s Kitchen, which delivers food to survival sex workers on the streets of the city.

Mz. Scream said that the rally will send a message that, even though serial killer Robert William Pickton is in jail, violence is still meted out against street-level sex workers on a daily basis.

“I think that there needs to be decriminalization of sex-trade work,” she stated. “There needs to be a safe work site akin to the idea of Insite [the supervised-injection site], where the street-level worker can have a safe place to work—where it’s supervised and they have access to harm-reduction supplies and violence-prevention strategies.”

In the evening, Mz. Scream will host an event between 8 p.m. and midnight at Prophouse Café (1636 Venables Street) to collect donations of working clothes and umbrellas for sex workers. She encourages anyone who attends to bring a red umbrella, which is the symbol for the antiviolence movement for sex workers.

Meanwhile, Mz. Scream said that on the same day she plans to launch a new website ( www.nakedtruthawards.com ) for anyone who wants to submit nominations for their favourite adult entertainer of the year. The nominations close on December 31. The third annual Naked Truth awards will be handed out next year to sex workers, including exotic dancers and burlesque performers, as well as people who advocate on behalf of those who work in the industry.