Know Your Rights for Sex Workers

kittenINFINITE explains what your rights are if you are a sex worker arrested on the job, and what you should and should not do when dealing with law enforcement. The SWOP-Chicago gang re-enact some commonly used police tactics in interrogation and how you should handle yourself in each situation.

A Sex Worker-based Approach to Media

Though I know not everyone here is on the SWAN bandwagon, I do think they’re doing some good work.

Here are two news items from their feed about how they’re dealing with mainstream media, sex worker media and getting out their messages. Though these news items are vague on the how-to of it all, I like the concepts.

media sensitization seminar

sex worker training on community media

SWWET School for Johns

Saturday, 9/20, 11 am — 5 pm — SWEET JOHNS’ SCHOOL

S.ex W.ork E.nthusiasts E.ducation and T.raining School 4 Johns is a 6 hour seminar about interacting with Professional Sex Workers. It’s presented for clients, and people interested in becoming clients. S4J deals with all aspects of professional intimate encounters, including but not limited to: Erotic massage, BDSM, erotic dancing (stripping). We will have Professional Providers (including a pro from Nevada), Medical experts, Legal experts, and some demos of professional interaction. Co-sponsored by BAYSWAN and the Sex Workers’ Outreach Project.

At the Center for sex & Culture. 1519 Mission near 11th, San Francisco, CA.

$20-50 sliding scale, please RSVP at mail (at sexandculture.org and put Johns School in the header.

Top 100 Sex Bloggers of 2008

Bliss Warrior compiled a list of the top 100 sex bloggers of 2008, and she did a great job! (My only question: where is Renegade Evolution on the list?)

Please take a look at the list, and check out some of our friends and colleagues.

Oh, and take a look at the bottom of the list.

85-99. Fiammetta, Jill, Robyn, Scarlot, Melissa, Kitten, Karly, Holly, Surgeon, Stacey, Tara, Jessica,Gina, Wendy, and Tori https://deepthroated.wordpress.com

Bliss Warrior: Thank you for recognizing us! xoxoxo

Laura Agustín’s new blog: Border Thinking

Laura Agustín, author of the must-read Sex at the Margins: Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry, has re-vamped her website and launched it as a blog with much-needed international perspectives on migration, culture, economy and sex. Check out Border Thinking.

Here are some of the recent posts:

• Unwanted Rescues: a poster from Thailand
• Sex workers and Violence against Women: Utopic Visions or Battle of the Sexes? (originally published in 2001)
• Leaving Home for Sex (originally published in 2002)

Add Matt Smith of the SF Weekly to the Salacious Sex Work Reporting Blacklist

At the Desiree Alliance this summer in Chicago, there was much discussion around media and one of the ideas that was brought up was to create a blacklist (and a good list) for reporters and interviewers who cover sex work-related issues.

Well I’m starting by adding Matt Smith of the SF Weekly to the blacklist based on this article. Not because it was an article that doesn’t support Prop K or sex workers rights per se, but because of the use of ridiculously sesationalized phrases like “blowjobs-for-badges” and his general tone of discrediting sex workers, their self-reported hardships, and any research conducted by people who have worked in the sex industry about sex work.   He spends the entire article tearing down Alix Lutnick’s SWEAT study, (as well as mis-spelling her name and the St. James Infirmary) and the idea that cops may regularly solicit sex, either as a bribe or as a client, from sex workers, and then only comes in at the very last paragraph to admit that possibly this phenomenon is worth looking into (based on the testimony of a public defender, who as someone who only works with sex workers from the outside is the only person he’s willing to believe on the matter, certainly not anyone who’s ever been in the industry themselves.)  Anyway, for somebody criticizing research techniques and demanding “hard science” this is dirty, sloppy, biased reporting and I don’t think Mr. Smith deserves the privilege of further interviews.

Nina Hartley and Margo St. James host Prop K Benefit Party! (plus easy donation button!)

http://www.yesonpropk.org for Prop K info

Sexual Politics and Sexy Politicos

Hosted by Nina Hartley, Margo St. James, Sadie Lune, Scarlot Harlot, Carol Queen (and many more!)

Friday, Sept 19th,

8 PM-midnight  Sliding Scale from $20-$100 to benefit Prop K
September 19th, 2008
Center for Sex and Culture

At 1519 Mission St. San Francisco (In Between 11th and South Van Ness)

Come early to join Margo at the St. James Infirmary Open House @ 5:30 PM

just down the block at 1372 Mission St

Friends,

I wanted to send you this excellent op-ed which appeared in our paper today.  I also link a very bad editorial against us at the bottom of the page, which is not accurate (of course).

We set up a donor button on YesOnPropK.org, so do visit if you are so moved…even $5 will help towards printing, but $20 or even more would help even more…

http://www.yesonpropk.org/donate.html

Performance Art for Sex Worker Rights at the SFMOMA

On Thurs, Sept 11, I have been chosen to perform a 1-minute piece at the SFMOMA as part of Tony Labat’s project “I WANT YOU” based on the old Uncle Sam Army recruitment posters.
Not only is it just *thrilling* that I will be performing at the MOMA, but there is a competition (which I need your help with!) and a good cause (‘aint there always) attached to this prestigious event.

There will be 50 1 min. performances on Thursday, and the audience members will vote for FIVE (5) winners, who will have portraits and copies of their monologues printed on posters to be placed all over SF during election week.
My performance is about Sex Worker visibility and ending stigma, and also about voting for Prop K. It could really make a difference for a lot of sex workers and make a big impact if posters (paid for by the SFMoMA!) with my message were placed all over San Francisco right before the voters took to the polls. I love using art for politics and politics for art.  In the name of ART, SEX WORKERS RIGHTS, FAME and SEX-POSITIVE POLITICS, please come out to the SFMOMA on Thursday night and vote for me!  Lady Monster and Tara Jepsen and Beth Lisick will also be performing, and remember 5 of us can win!!!!

Live Competition
Tony Labat’s I WANT YOU
Jason Mateo, Emcee; music by Veronica Klaus
Thursday, September 11, 6:30 p.m.
Phyllis Wattis Theater
$10 general; $7 SFMOMA members, students, and seniors.
Tickets are available at the museum (no surcharge) or online at sfmoma.org/tickets (surcharge applies).

On September 4, individuals can deliver one-minute monologues in solo auditions at SFMOMA. A week later, on September 11, fifty contestants chosen by the artist on the basis of these preliminary auditions will appear before a live audience and a host of documentary cameras. At the end of the evening, the audience will choose five winners. Poet and activist Jason Mateo, program director at Youth Speaks, will serve as emcee for the evening, and chanteuse Veronica Klaus

will provide musical interludes between monologues and during post-performance vote-counting. Winners will have their images and monologues printed on an “I Want You” poster, to be put up around the city in the week leading up to the presidential election. Participants will also be featured in Labat’s new video project, I WANT YOU, screening at SFMOMA on November 4th (election day) and December 2nd.

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
151 Third Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
http://www.sfmoma.org/press/pressroom.asp?id=372&do=events

Jeffery D. Klausner, President of California’s STD Controller Association Supports Prop K

Jeffery Klausner authored a well-supported article in today’s SF Chronicle, in response to the Chron’s own editorial board’s terribly written and ill-advised article denouncing Prop K that was printed in yesterday’s Sunday edition. While readership of the Sunday paper is much higher than that of the weekday editions, and the paper’s official stance is not one of support; today’s piece, which I believe references Alix Lutnick’s SWEAT Study, is helping with damage control by shedding a sensible light and some real facts on the issue.

Today’s Article

Claims By Opponents of Proposition K are Opinions Not Facts

Posted on behalf of Maxine Doogan

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
San Francisco, California

Claims By Opponents of Proposition K are Opinions Not Facts

Today the opponents of Proposition K conceded that their key arguments are
mere opinion and not verifiable facts. This concession was a result of a
complaint filed against them charging that their paid ballot arguments
contained numerous “false and misleading” statements.

“The opponents of Proposition K have based their campaign on deceptive scare
tactics alleging that investigations and prosecution of human trafficking
would be negatively affected by Proposition K’s passage. Nothing could be
further from the truth and we ask the opponents of Proposition K to stop
this deplorable strategy.” said Yes On Proposition K spokesperson Maxine
Doogan.

“These kinds of scare tactics are similar to one’s used by anti-gay rights
crusader Anita Bryant in the 1970’s to oppose the decriminalization of
sodomy laws which were used to oppress homosexuals’, said Attorney and civil
rights activists Phil Horne.

“Proposition K will improve worker and public safety by decriminalizing
sex-for-hire work, this Proposition is fundamentally about extending basic
human rights to all members of society regardless of their occupational
status. It in no way prevents the enforcement of laws against human
trafficking, in fact Prop K says the opposite. This ruling should serve as a
warning to the voters of San Francisco of the dishonest practices of the No
on K campaign.” added Doogan

Support the Decriminalization of Prostitution Benefit at El Rio in SF Sept. 5

Here is information I received and I’m forwarding it along to BNG:

Please come to the benefit for Proposition K on the November ballot (decriminalize sex work).  This is a matter of worker’s rights. 

 

Lined up against us is the Republican Party and Pacific Gas and Electric (your utility payments at work thanks to the Public Utilities Commission and Gavin!).

 

With us is the Democratic Party, the Green Party, the Libertarian Party, Jeff Adachi, every San Francisco supervisor except Alioto-Pier, feminists all over the globe, the legal community, and thinking people everywhere.

 

KEEP THE GOV OUT OF YOUR BEDROOM!  SUPPORT WORKERS!  SUPPORT CHOICE FOR WOMEN!

 

TONIGHT (SEPT. 5) AT EL RIO!

  

3158 MISSION

9:00 P.M. 

Again I stand corrected :)

Again I stand corrected.  Thank you Amanda for bringing this matter to my attention.  Months ago I posted an article I found about prostitution in the penguin population.  Through that I recognized that I had chastised Farley for seeing prostitution as a black and white issue.  I told her it was never black and white only to find out there was penguin prostitution which was black and white.

I had challenged Farley and others about the link between sexual abuse, molestation, etc, and the sex industry.  I stand corrected.  While I have not been able to get either the penguin or the seal in the story below to publicly comment, an off the record penguin who stated being a sibling to the penguin assaulted is that the victim in this case had subsequently begun working as a prostitute.  Her career was apparently sealed with a kiss 🙂

Perhaps a moment of levity in an intense time on BnG.

No charged were filed against the male seal

By Charles Q. Choi

updated 12:12 p.m. ET, Tues., May. 13, 2008
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A seal has been caught on camera trying to have sex with a penguin.

This seems to be the first example seen in the wild of a sexual escapade between a mammal and a different kind of vertebrate such as a bird, reptile or fish, “although some mammals are known to have attempted sexual relief with inanimate — including dead things — objects,” said researcher Nico de Bruyn, a mammal ecologist at the University of Pretoria in South Africa.

One summer morning, scientists observing elephant seals on a beach on Marion Island near the Antarctic spotted a young male Antarctic fur seal subduing a king penguin.

“At first we thought it was hunting the penguin, but then it became clear that his intentions were rather more amorous,” de Bruyn recalled today via email.

The roughly 240-pound seal subdued the 30-pound adult penguin by lying on it. The hapless bird of unknown sex struggled, rapidly flapping its flippers and attempting to stand and flee, without luck.

The seal then alternated between resting on the penguin and thrusting its pelvis at the bird in vain attempts to insert its penis for 45 minutes. Natural, unsuccessful sexual escapades by this variety of seal with members of its own species may last as long as this penguin assault did, “but yes, it is quite a long time and thus unusual,” de Bruyn told LiveScience.

The seal then abruptly gave up, moving to sea and completely ignoring the target of its affections. The penguin apparently did not suffer any injury. The scientists detailed their findings in the May issue of the Journal of Ethology.

Sexual harassment is common in the animal kingdom — “Homo sapiens are often testimony to that,” de Bruyn said.

Many species perform some form of sexual harassment on members of their own species, “for a variety of reasons many of which are hotly debated,” he added.

Many species of seal are polygynous, where one male mates with many females. The males often fight each other to control females.

“This system thus promotes extreme aggression in males towards each other, and if a male cannot control a beach, this aggression may spill over to sexual aggression directed at outlying females, pups or even in rare cases other seal species,” de Bruyn said.

And this sexual aggression apparently might leap well beyond the species gap.

The Antarctic fur seals of Marion Island are the only seals known to eat king penguins. The thrill of the hunt felt by the seal the researchers saw may have channeled into its sex drive, as the mating season had just come to an end.

“It may have wanted to eat it and half-way through the chase changed its mind,” de Bruyn speculated. “I personally believe the link between aggressive and sexual behavior is evolutionarily far closer linked than we currently believe. This has obvious implications for humans.”

On the other hand, the amorous seal may simply have been sexually inexperienced and playful, and wanted practice, the researchers conjectured.

“There are many things that we do not understand about ourselves that are mirrored in other species,” de Bruyn said. “Thus by continuing with research efforts on other vertebrates we could learn a great deal about the whys behind human behaviors.”

Sex worker spies on salary

Well just to break up all the serious and amazing work and conflict this community is working on with my patented brand of salacious frivolity I bring you this story reported from Japan by a Brit.

“This woman leads a double life. Her boyfriend thinks she’s a secretary. In fact she is one of Japan’s new breed of professional seducers, hired by embittered spouses to entrap their straying partners. And she’ll stop at nothing to get the desired results.”

Japan’s New Professional Seducers

This is a typically sensationalized (double life! double life!) article about Japanese private eye agencies that make their business out of sneakily forced break-ups and make-ups,  but it also gives a really interesting loophole for legal sex work as well as a fairly repugnant (and expensive!) “Temptation Island” style seduction trap for people wanting to divorce their spouses after they pay to be cuckolded. Man this shit makes basic cheating and/or paying for sex seem exceedingly simple (not that I consider these acts equitable). Of course I wonder just how much of this account is accurate, after hearing the $pread peeps relay their stories about media mis-representation and the Dashiel Hammett-esque format in which this article is written, I’m especially wary. Writers seem generally pretty incapable of fair reporting on anything potentially “juicy”, and hoo-boy do they love some money/sex/secrecy/scandal. At least there is some gender parity in the reporting, I guess.

Also noteworthy is that this article is posted under the Life and Style>Women>Relationship categorization, which just struck me as funny, and the author wrote a book entitled “The Last Concubine” which makes me think they may be a Japanese sex worker fetishist, though that’s just my suspicions talking.

P.S. Keep up the good work and hard thinking everyone. It feels like growing pains, but hopefully in the end we’ll all be a bit taller. I know, that was heightest of me. I’m slapping my own wrist.

Your help is needed to pass Proposition K, a groundbreaking San Francisco ballot measure

Posted on behalf of Maxine Doogan,  Please direct *all* questions and correspondence to persons and organizations reference below.

Dear _____________,

Your help is needed to pass Proposition K, a groundbreaking San Francisco ballot measure that will increase worker and public safety by decriminalizing prostitution.

The current criminalization of prostitution deters many sex workers from reporting violent crimes committed against them and deprives them of the right to legally seek safer working conditions. Proposition K removes these barriers and ensures that sex workers have basic legal protections and the right to organize.

Proposition K Will Improve:

· Worker Safety by ensuring that crimes committed against sex workers can be reported without fear of prosecution and requiring that the Police Department and District Attorney’s Office vigorously enforces laws against extortion, battery, rape and other violent crimes; regardless of the victim’s status as a sex worker

· Public Safety by freeing up the critical resources used to enforce prostitution laws and focusing instead on higher priority crimes like human trafficking, child sexual assault and child labor.

· Public Health by lessening the social stigma that prevents many workers from seeking basic health care services

Momentum is on the campaign’s side. Over 12,000 San Franciscans signed the petition to put Proposition K on the ballot. Proposition K has recently been endorsed by the San Francisco Democratic, Green and Libertarian Parties. However, much work remains to be done.

Passing Proposition K will require an aggressive strategy that will educate voters through direct mail, media outreach and grass roots advocacy. Such an effort will not be possible without your financial contribution.

There are also many other ways to get involved with this critical campaign. Add your name to our growing endorsement list, sign-up to volunteer, or display a “Yes On K” sign.

To contribute make checks payable to:

CUSP Committee United for Safety and Protection
2215 Market St. #548
San Francisco, California 94114

To add your name to the endorsement list please sign below:

____________________ ____________________ ____________________

Name (please print) Signature Title

To be contacted by the campaign about volunteer opportunities or to receive a sign please call (415) 265-3302

Again thank you for your support and please vote Yes on K this November 4.

Sincerely,

Maxine Doogan

Erotic Service Providers Union