[9] She also co-founded BAYSWAN, the Bay Area Sex Worker Advocacy Network, in 1990,[10] and was an original member of ACT UP.
[5] According to former ACT UP member Terry Beswick, "Carol was the fairy godmother of the early AIDS direct action groups of San Francisco.
Her sex-positive safer sex messages were way ahead of their time and were a blast of fun amidst all the doom and gloom.
"[10] In San Francisco, Leigh also joined the AIDS activist organization Citizens For Medical Justice and collaborated with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.
This invention was motivated by my desire to reconcile my feminist goals with the reality of my life and the lives of the women I knew.
[6] Her onstage persona was the "Scarlot Harlot", and she regularly performed at clubs and theaters, including the Great American Music Hall and the Holy City Zoo,[5] as well as rallies and as part of the Sex Workers Art Show tour.
[6] Other films she directed and produced include the documentary Blind Eye to Justice: HIV+ Women in California Prisons, narrated by Angela Davis.
[10] During the AIDS crisis in the United States, Leigh decided to leave San Francisco and move to Texas where she intended to form an educational organization to promote safe sex: T.W.A.T.
[7] The San Francisco Sex Worker Film and Arts Festival was founded by Leigh in 1999,[5] which she also co-produced with Erica Elena Berman and Jovelyn Richards.