Calling Offsides

Calling Offsides is a public education and community engagement campaign organized by Red Light District by TW!O [RLD], an Atlanta-based advocacy organization supporting sex workers’ rights by creating social paradigm shifts. As major sporting and other large-scale events come to our communities, public conversations about human trafficking often intensify. Unfortunately, these conversations usually rely on misinformation and sensationalized narratives that blur the distinction between consensual sex work and human trafficking. By reinforcing harmful stigmas, these narratives contribute to the marginalization, criminalization, and increased abuse of both victims being exploited and sex industry workers, many of whom are among the most vulnerable members of our communities.

The name Calling Offsides draws inspiration from one of sport’s most recognizable penalties. In the context of this campaign, “calling offsides” means challenging misinformation, disinformation, harmful stereotypes, and bad-faith narratives that distort public understanding of sex work and sex trafficking. Calling Offsides invites communities, advocates, service providers, and allied organizations -- including trafficking prevention and survivor advocacy groups that support sex workers’ rights -- to speak up when misinformation enters the conversations. Through this campaign, RLD seeks to promote accurate, evidence-based information, strengthen community partnerships, and encourage public responses that distinguish between consensual labor and exploitation.  

The campaign is built around three core goals:

1.         Debunking Trafficking Myths

2.         Securing Public Commitments from Community Partners

3.         Shifting Public Messaging Around Sex Work and Sex Trafficking

What’s Included

The Calling Offsides Toolkit provides practical resources that organizations and community members can use to educate, engage, and mobilize their communities.

• “Red Card” Myths Graphics

• Support /Report Slogan Illustrations

• Game Plan Petition

• Sex Work is Work Declaration

• Know the Difference Checklist

• Scorecard Factsheet Infographic