December 17 is recognized worldwide as the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers—a day of remembrance, resistance, and solidarity.

It began in 2003 in San Francisco as a memorial for the victims of the Green River Killer. Gary Ridgway, who confessed to murdering more than 70 women—many of them sex workers—said he targeted them because he thought no one would notice if they disappeared. His words revealed a truth sex workers already knew: stigma and criminalization make our lives more vulnerable to violence, while the wider world often looks away.