Mountain View, CA

Tara Burns has been on my radar for a decade, but I didn't have the pleasure of actually speaking with her until last week. A sex worker, writer, researcher, and activist who lives off the grid in Alaska, Burns has been at the forefront of fighting bad policies surrounding sex work and sex trafficking. Since 2020, she has served as research and policy director for the Rhode Island chapter of the sex worker rights group Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics (COYOTE ), which recently put out Sex Work Policy: Participatory Action Research By and For Sex Workers, a great compendium of research conducted by Burns, COYOTE, other sex worker rights groups, and Brown University.