Sex workers and their allies have protested their exclusion at the global AIDS conference in Washington, D.C., by holding a separate conference, the Sex Worker Freedom Festival, in Kolkata, India. At the conference’s opening on Saturday, Ruth Morgan Thomas of the Global Network of Sex Work Projects said the event was being held to include the voices of marginalized sex workers.

Ruth Morgan Thomas: “The Sex Worker Freedom Festival is organized because of the U.S. travel restrictions that prevent sex workers from all over the world going to the Washington AIDS Conference to participate, as we have done since 1988 when the conferences started. And we are here to talk about our rights — of sex workers, that are fundamental to us being able to end AIDS.”