Activist Carol Leigh, who coined term ‘sex work’, has died at age 71

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Carol Leigh, a San Francisco activist who is credited with coining the term “sex work” and who sought, for decades, to improve conditions for prostitutes and others in the adult entertainment business, has died. She was 71.

Kate Marquez, the executor of her estate, said Leigh died, Wednesday, of cancer, the San Francisco Chronicle reported, Thursday.

A former prostitute, Leigh devoted herself to campaigning on behalf of those in the “sex work industry,” a term she coined as the title for a panel discussion she attended at a feminist anti-pornography conference, in 1978, according to an essay she wrote.

The term has become generally used by public health officials, academic researchers and others.

“Carol defined sex work as a labor issue, not a crime, not a sin,” Marquez said. “It is a job done by a million people in this country who are stigmatized and criminalized by working to support their families.”

Leigh was deeply involved in advocacy for and aid to sex workers both in the United States and overseas and her concerns ranged from decriminalization to poverty, drug use and HIV. She also was a video artist and produced award-winning documentaries on “women’s issues and gay/lesbian issues,” according to her biography.

She wrote and frequently performed a one-woman political satire play called “The Adventures of Scarlot Harlot,” and wrote a 2004 book titled “Unrepentant Whore: The Collected Work of Scarlot Harlot.” She also helped produce the San Francisco Sex Worker Film and Arts Festival.

Born in New York City, Leigh had a bachelor’s degree in creative writing when she moved to San Francisco, in 1977. She began working as a prostitute to earn money but her focus changed after she was raped by two men at a sex studio, in 1979, she told SFGate, in a 1996 interview.

She couldn’t file a crime report because her workplace would have been closed.