2025 in Review

Image of a red umbrella open in a rain storm with a yellow half moon in the night sky.

Congratulations on making it through 2025, a year that demonstrated how deeply interconnected our liberation is, even as the far right worked to divide us; New Moon is taking a moment to rest and reflect on the challenging landscape we're navigating together and the wins we’ve accomplished in response.

Unsurprisingly, the cruelty, control, and outright bigotry fueling the rising authoritarian agenda in the U.S. has profoundly impacted our communities. Sex workers have long endured dystopian surveillance technologies, violent state overreach, and widespread misinformation that mischaracterizes us and our work. As a largely criminalized population, sex workers and survivors of commercial sexual exploitation often know how to build community networks of care. We leaned into this wisdom heavily in 2025, with the phrase "We take care of us" guiding our work as we watched the intentional dismantling of civil society.

This post contains highlights from our 2025 work as well as photos (cartoonized for discretion) of our events, grantees, and programmatic participants around the US.

Responding to the Threats of 2025:

Outside of our usual programming, New Moon responded to 2025’s emerging realities in the following ways:

• Mobilized $10,000 in emergency grants for harm reduction supplies to 10 sex-worker led organizations, in light of public health cuts.

• Raised $12,000+ in funds to distribute to sex working parents impacted by delayed SNAP benefits, in partnership with SWOP Behind Bars.

• Equipped 30 high profile advocates with subscriptions to online data privacy tools.

• Adapted our Spokes Hub programming to be responsive to what local advocates have been facing throughout the year.

• Ran a “Political Impact Survey” answered by 50+ organizations to understand the current needs, strengths, and gaps in the movement for sex workers’ rights.

• Hosted an online Leadership Gathering to collectively process the Political Impact Survey data and generate ideas for acting on it in 2026.

• Ran a pilot program aimed at engaging adult entertainers to educate their audiences on current issues.

• Stewarded the convening of a new coalition centering sex and sexuality.

• Migrated our technologies and adopted additional digital best practices.

Snapshot of 2025 Accomplishments

Our core programs grew in participation and impact.

• Moving Money into Movement

  • Channeled $287,000+ into sex worker-led organizations in the US.

  • Gave monthly grants of $1,000 to 15 sex worker-led organizations operating in 15 unique regions of the US doing HIV prevention and care work, which is made possible by our ViiV AMP grant.

    • Collectively, the 15 groups in this cohort reported the following impact to New Moon:

      • 2,200 - 4,100 people served with HIV/AIDS prevention services

      • 810 - 1,475 with HIV/AIDS care services

      • 985 - 1,825 with HIV/AIDS relevant referrals

      • 2,500 - 4,100 with education to prevent or treat HIV/AIDS

      • 840 - 1,600 reconnected with HIV/AIDS care

  • Joined the Steering Committee of the Sex Health Alliance hosted by AIDS United to shape their 2026 strategy.
    

• Capacity Building

  • Launched the Sex Worker Health & Harm Reduction Cohort, which generated its first report on recommendations to health providers engaging with people who trade sex.

  • Provided coordination for a multi-state advocacy sex workers rights strategy in New England, contributing to legislative wins in Rhode Island.

  • Piloted a projected aimed at fostering conversation and the identification of common causes between activists with polarized stances on sex trade policy.

  • Hosted a day-long Sex Worker Advocacy Institute at Creating Change.

  • Spokes Hub, our virtual leadership academy for advocates with lived experience in the sex trades, had a fantastic year:

    • We hosted 34 classes (skills based and topical deep-dives) led for and by people with lived experience in the sex trades. Examples of classes include:

      • Legislative Advocacy 101 with Becca Cleary of Decriminalize Sex Work

      • Decriminalization without Erasure: HIV Criminalization, Sex Work, and Inclusive Strategy with the Center for HIV Law & Policy

      • Behind the Research: Why Sex Workers Should Participate, and How They Can Do So Safely with Delphine DiTecco

      • Stories of Ancient Sex Workers - Sacred and Profane with Cleopatra

      • De-escalation Training for Indoor Live Events with by DeX Santillan and Lady Lark

    • Hosted our 7th graduation, amounting to a total of 50+ program graduates. Graduation presentations included:

      • Sex Work and Sex Media by Monique Starr

      • Starting a Conversation on Bridging Gaps Between Sex Workers and Survivors, Lateesha Coleman

      • The Paradox of Legal Brothels in America: Pimping in Disguise, Chuck Freakin-Bats

      • For more graduation presentations, check out the Spokes Hub home page!

    • Spokes Hub graduates engaged in 135 unique acts of advocacy, and in turn were rewarded a total of $27,805 in “Awards Pool” payments. Exmaples of Acts of Advocacy undertaken include:

      • Cedar created infographics (here and here) for students seeking to become therapists to help them become more sex worker-competent.

      • Huck helped organize "Care Package" a mutual aid market for allied groups to assist with making care packages for street based sex workers in Atlanta.

      • Alison from Pelvic Sanctuary attended the Reform Conference in Detroit to network with organizations focused on harm reduction and decriminalization.

      • Mothh and KWD appeared on Radio Kingston to promote Kaytlin Bailey’s educational one-woman show The Oldest Profession.

  • Our team provided countless hours of technical assistance and mentorship to over a dozen grassroots leaders and organizations on topics related to digital security, budgeting, conflict resolution, and leadership sustainability.
    

• Philanthropic Education

  • Hosted our first philanthropy plenary entitled “Let’s Talk about Sex & Sex Work in Philanthropy” at Funders for LGBTQ Issues.

  • Hosted our first panel aimed at underscoring sex workers as central partner to addressing sex trafficking at Womens Funding Network.

  • Co-authored the “From Do-No-Harm to Inclusion: Toolkit for Funders on the Topic of Sex Work” with contributors to the Sex Work Donor Collaborative.

  • Co-Director Melodie KG participated in the Global HIV Philanthropy Fellowship hosted by Funders Concerned About AIDS.

  • Spoke at 7 philanthropic and adult industry conferences and 2 podcasts on the topic of sex workers rights.

  • Hosted two sex worker-facing educational modules on community fundraising.

  • We compiled submitted our 2024 re-granting data US to Human Rights Funders Network, Funders for LGBTQ Issues, and Funders Concerned About AIDS to contribute to an accurate snapshot of the funding landscape for sex workers.
    

Members of the Sex Work Donor Collaborative launching their new report at the Commission on the Status of Women summit in NYC, 2025.