Demanding solidarity, not salvation: sex work and global health

There is increasing attention paid to solidarity in global health, but its substance and definitions remain contested. We explore the tensions between global health institutions’ historic approaches to sex work, their commitment to health and human rights and how these are connected to or disconnected from solidarity. We foreground the protracted and incomplete evolution from international health approaches to sex workers as spreaders of pathogens that should be punished, to sex work health programmes that are situated within human rights principles. Thus, substantial resources and material changes to laws, policies and programmes are required to action claims of ‘standing in solidarity’ with sex workers. We argue that the drastic cuts to global health funding initiated by the Trump Administration in January 2025 require careful consideration of what ‘solidarity’ with the most marginalised entails and bold action.