As we all stood, waiting to march, people approached us to ask about the red umbrellas on our backs. We explained that the red umbrella has been a symbol of sex workers’ strength and resistance to discrimination since the beginning of this century. This march gave us opportunities like this, to look strangers in the eye and explain what these rights mean to us. During the march itself, we had the same experience that many other people in D.C. had: We couldn’t really move or march much of anywhere past the estimated 500,000 people gathered. We had no cell phone service, so we didn’t know what exactly was happening. We got separated, and then found one another again (thankfully, the BOY BYE sign was easy to spot). We could barely hear Angela Davis. We saw a woman with a “Sex Work is Work” sign, and started chanting those words until she made eye contact and joyfully embraced us. We missed Janet Mock saying the following in her speech: “Our approach to freedom need not be identical but it must be intersectional and inclusive. It must extend beyond ourselves. I know with surpassing certainty that my liberation is directly linked to the liberation of the undocumented trans Latina yearning for refuge. The disabled student seeking unequivocal access. The sex worker fighting to make her living safely.” On social media, we saw other sex workers with other signs:Don’t tell me you’re a nasty woman if you don’t support sex workersMy body is my businessSave us from savioursThe next day, while decompressing over spicy Bloody Marys, Lorelei told me that the best part of the march was seeing the unified rage of people of very different identities. “A woman with ‘Black Arab immigrant’ written on her sign looked at Madeline’s sign, looked us in the eyes, and silently held her fist in the air in support of us.” she said. “I put my fist in the air in support of her — identity politics don’t divide us.” Exhausted yet fired up, we discussed what the next four years and beyond hold for us. Jeff Sessions, Trump’s attorney general appointee, has already sworn to “vigorously prosecute” obscenity laws which target adult pornography. Amnesty International has called for the decriminalisation of sex work, but there is a long battle ahead in convincing people that decriminalisation is the best choice for economic, transgender, and racial justice. Fortunately, Saturday’s march taught me an important lesson as we forge ahead: Sex workers will march, whether we’re included or not. Maybe one day our signs won’t have to assert basic facts, like sex work is work. And perhaps the next time a women’s march is planned, sex workers won’t be excluded (even temporarily) from the feminist platform or made out to be victims. If Saturday proved anything, it’s that sex workers are in this with the rest of women and our allies — and we are all more powerful when we march together. But until we are explicitly welcome, rest assured that we will continue to bring the bodies we use for our livelihoods and wellbeing into the streets to fight for the rights we all deserve. See you next time.