The Oldest Profession in Alaska History: A Fundraiser for CUSP

The Oldest Profession in Alaska History: A Fundraiser for CUSP

Join Community United for Safety and Protection (CUSP) for an evening of film, history, and conversation exploring sex work, safety, and survival in Alaska and beyond. This unique fundraiser features two powerful short films alongside a dynamic discussion led by two of the most engaging voices on the topics, with swag and fun door prizes to keep the night lively!

Short Films:

• Lady Los Angeles (2023, 15 min) – In post-COVID East LA, a young Latinx trans femme sex worker fights to survive after being deplatformed, navigating chance encounters and hard choices in a world that erases her existence.
• Anti-Trafficking: Harming While Trying to Help (2020, 6 min) – This Canadian short by SWAN reveals how well-meaning anti-trafficking campaigns can unintentionally harm the people they claim to protect.

Discussion & Q&A: Step into Alaska’s untold past with Maxine Doogan, former Anchorage parlour worker and fearless sex worker rights advocate, and David Reamer, Alaska’s hippest historian. Together, they’ll explore over policies, scandals, and stories—from a 1923 double murder in Juneau to today’s anti-trafficking laws—and reveal how history continues to shape safety and public perception today.

This is a fundraiser and proceeds support CUSP’s mission to fight for equal rights, safety, and dignity for sex workers and sex trafficking survivors.

Maxine Doogan is a sex worker, author, and activist with over three decades of advocacy advancing sex workers’ rights in Alaska and nationwide. Cofounder of Erotic Services Provider Union, the ESPLER Project, and CUSP, leading legal challenges and policy reforms that protect sex workers’ safety, civil rights, and privacy. Doogan continues to work in the industry, create media, and organize initiatives to challenge criminalization and promote justice.

David Reamer is an academic and public historian interested in the intersections of community development and social justice. He is a coauthor of the 2022 Black Lives in Alaska and the Co 2023 Alaska Historian of the Year. He writes daily about Alaska history on social media, weekly for the Anchorage Daily News, and sometimes elsewhere.