'They Don't Want to Include Women Like Me.' Sex Workers Say They're Being Left Out of the #MeToo Movement (TIME)

Read the full article by Samantha Cooney at time.com

Like millions of others, Melony Hill took to social media last fall to say “me too.”

The 36-year-old Baltimore resident disclosed on Facebook and on her blog in October that she had experienced sexual violence. But rather than receiving an outpouring of support, Hill said she’s gotten messages saying that she deserved to be sexually assaulted — because she has worked in the sex industry for 20 years.

Sex workers are particularly vulnerable to sexual violence on the job, but have few good options to report it. Sex workers of color and transgender sex workers are thought to be at even greater risk for experiencing violence, according to the Sex Workers Outreach Project. Several consensual sex workers spoke to TIME about how they feel they have been excluded from the public conversation around #MeToo and the nationwide reckoning on workplace harassment.