My Bag

Hello

My name is Jameela Jamil. Welcome To I Weigh Community.

Two years ago we started an Instagram account to try to create a safe and radically inclusive space on social media. A lot of us want to help others and change the world for the better, but don’t know where to start.

Activism can seem daunting. Sometimes it’s just hard and lonely. At I Weigh Community, we don’t believe it has to be that way. We believe in brick-by-brick activism, and making a difference in large numbers. We’re going to have to come together and do this as one to really shift the narrative of our society.

I Weigh Community will introduce you to new voices, artists, activists and movements. These are the people we believe we need to listen to. We are still learning, and we’re inviting you to come and learn alongside us so we can all grow together. It’s never too late to want to help and understand each other better.

This movement is so important to me, and I look forward to getting to know you all.

Love,
Jam x

Decrim Illustration
Decrim Illustration

Decrim New York

On a mission to ‘Decriminalize. Decarcerate. Destigmatize.’ sex workers in New York City, Decrim NY fights on the front lines to help improve the lives of people across the spectrum of transactional sex work; from those who perform sexual labor consensually to those who are coerced into the trade by circumstance.

Decrim NY also fights for communities most impacted by criminalization of sex work, those who are often excluded from the mainstream economy through employment discrimination, shut out of housing options, and criminalized while accessing public spaces by laws like the #WalkingWhileTrans ban.

The Stop Violence in the Sex Trades Act was introduced November 2019 with the help of Decrim NY and seeks to end violence, exploitation, and trafficking without harming people who rely on the sex trade for survival, by removing criminal penalties for buying and selling sex and repealing parts of the law criminalizing sex workers’ places of business.

The bottom line is that prohibition will never be decriminalization, and the current model of criminalizing sex work traps sex workers and trafficking survivors in cycles of violence. Join us as we join them in support.

The three pillars of the work are:

  • Decriminalize sex trade related offenses in New York by passing legislation and enacting policy change that protects people in the sex trades from economic exploitation as well as interpersonal violence.  The level of these offenses often just perpetuate a stigma around the community and do more harm than good to those who perform sexual labor by choice or those who are forced into the work for survival. Advocacy spans from sex workers and people profiled as sex workers, to people who purchase sexual services.
  • Decarcerate people who have been arrested on sex trade-related offenses so that people can move forward with their lives without lingering ties to the criminal legal system that are detrimental to a survivor’s livelihood post trade. Vacate criminal records related to prostitution and end the ongoing entanglement with the court system that the rescue industry produces.
  • Destigmatize the sex trade so that workers have access to housing, education, employment, health care, and other basic needs without restriction. Not everyone trading sex wants to continue doing so and we support evidence-based, harm reduction-rooted policies and funding that supports people’s safety and empowers those seeking different work.