Having condoms is important to me because I prevent myself from STIs
and HIV.
I know I'm safe with condom.
It's my protection.
We want to protect ourselves with a condom.
But policemen are taking condoms from us.
The police,
the police don't like condoms. They throw them away.
They throw it away.
When I don't have
condom, I risk my life.
My name is Maureen. --My name is Lydia.
Christiana. --My name is Chris Balao. --My full name is Angeline Palmala Dabraine.
My name is Precious Baanda.
I work at night,
on the street. --I'm a sex worker.
My name is Marlen De Lao,
I'm
from Jackson Heights, Queens.
I'm a sex worker.
The police, --The police,
The police
see sex workers
as dirty things, cheap. --They have a very bad attitude towards us.
They harass us, they hit. --Sexual harassment,
They treat us like dirt, and like animals.
A police will find you at night. --They hit us,
they call us names. --The police touch touch many sex workers
in their private parts. --The police ask us what we have in our bags.
They throw away our condoms.
If they find condoms,
they take condoms from you.
And they say it's the proof,
so that you are a prostitute.
They will take you, because of the condoms that you had in your pocket. And then they arrest us.
The message is going to be sent to not carry condoms. --They give it the message that we have to protect
ourselves
from disease,
but in the same talking
they ask that I'm going to go to jail for using a condom or for walking around with a condom?
I don't understand.
So now I know if I'm going to be working on the street I have to put the condoms,
you know, like put it in a very like,
private place, not to be found. Or basically walk around with no condoms,
or not use condoms at all. Because I'm going to get arrested for just having one or two
condoms.
Even sometimes when I'm dressed decently and I'm only having
a condom in my handbag they come and arrest me. And they don't even have
evidence that I'm a sex worker.
Police destroy our condoms because they see sex workers as useless people.
But a sex worker
is a human being.
I want to say to the police, --I'd like to tell the police, --I'd like to tell Police Officers that
they must stop.
Stop taking condoms. --I just want to show policemen that
they can't do with us what they want to. --I'd like to beg them to do their job right.
No matter what the person's line of work is, no matter
what the person's sexuality is, no matter what the person's gender is, everyone
should be using condoms in this city.
It's how we raise our children.
As a sex worker, I put food on the table. --It's how we pay our rents.
I make my money with condoms. --It's how we are living.
We'd like to be free.
They should protect us. --Sex workers are human beings, --And we are their sisters.
I want to say to the police: stop
taking the condoms. --They must stop.