The event commemorates the occupation of Église Saint-Nizier in Lyon by more than a hundred sex workers on June 2, 1975 to draw attention to their inhumane working conditions.
In Spanish-speaking countries, it is the Día Internacional de la Trabajadora Sexual, the International Day of the Sex Worker.
After two murders and the unwillingness of the government to improve the situation, sex workers in Lyon occupied the Saint-Nizier church in rue de Brest and went on strike.
The striking workers sang political chants and demanded decent working conditions and an end to stigma.
[3] A reading entitled "Women without rooms" in Bochum, Germany on 29 May 2011 documented that the situation of sex workers has not improved since 1975.