Four Detroit escorts who used Backpage to advertise have been found murdered, and a stripper is missing. All of them are black and mid- to late twenties.

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20111226/METRO01/112260388

http://www.freep.com/article/20120106/NEWS01/201060479/Dozens-pray-for-missing-mom-of-6-other-women-working-in-sex-industry

Signal boost. Please be careful.

An additional note from SWP: they were not “escorts”, and she is not a “stripper”. These were and are PEOPLE who worked in the sex industry as escorts and a dancer. Please do not take our humanity away and replace it with a job title. Be careful, workers in and around this area and elsewhere. Be safe, be vigilant, be well. SWP

Submission: Petition Google at Change.org

http://www.change.org/petitions/google-stop-donating-to-inappropriate-organizations

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Excerpt from http://www.swaay.org/action/google.html
Google announced last week that they are making the largest-ever corporate donation to “ending modern day slavery”: an impressive $11.5 million dollars. We applaud and support Google’s desire to fight slavery, forced trafficking, and exploitative labor conditions, but Google’s funding recipients include three NGOs that cause serious harm to sex workers around the world: International Justice Mission, Polaris Project, and Not for Sale. As front line sex worker support services struggle for funding to serve their communities, it is offensive to watch Google shower money upon a wealthy faith-based group like the International Justice Mission, which took in nearly $22 million dollars in 2009 alone. (In contrast, the St. James Infirmary, a San Francisco clinic that provides free healthcare to sex workers, operated on only $335k in 2010.)

* We demand an immediate end to Google’s funding of any organization that crusades against sex workers’ human rights and safety, especially the violent, forcible “rescue” and imprisonment of sex workers in the developing world.

* We demand a disclosure of how much money Google has already given to International Justice Mission, Not for Sale, and the Polaris Project — three organizations whose work includes fighting against improving conditions for sex workers, especially in the developing world.

* We demand an apology from Google in the form of equal donations to community-based nonprofits that respect all sex workers’ rights and dignity by providing non-judgmental services such as free condoms and safer sex information, medical care including HIV testing and treatment, harm reduction for drug users, counseling and support groups, legal aid, and public education around these issues. Five standout nonprofits that deserve Google’s money: San Francisco’s St. James Infirmary, New Orlean’s Women With A Vision, New York’s Sex Workers Project, India’s VAMP (a project of SANGRAM), India’s Durbar, Cambodia’s Women’s Network for Unity, and the Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers.