So, I went to MN…

To view the, ahem, “unbiased” film the Price of Pleasure and then engage in a discussion/ Q&A session about pornography on Friday.

Oh, did I mention the other side of the issue was represented by Prof. Robert Jensen?

Well it was.  Jensen and myself, discussing this film and pornography at Augsburg College in chilly MN.

Rather than repost the entire long thing I wrote about it, I’m just going to use the power of the link…

But I do have to say I found it amusing and annoying the man had a hard time looking me in the eye and was pretty dismissive of, oh, the sex worker speaking for herself in the room.

Liveblogging Ashley on 20/20: or, Diane Sawyer Is So Pimp

Irreverence, yes, but with how much gravity can we approach yet another tv news feature on prostitution? I did kid when I said we were all in our La Perla. Okay, I am, but also combat boots. And a cocktail.

9:29 PM Lubricating with “The Real Housewives of Atlanta.” The hooker memoir nerd in me is remembering way too many scenes in like every Michelle Tea book about incalls blasting trash tv while waiting for clients to show up.

9:41 PM Chatting with Peridot Ash about managing all these different identities we have: workers, bloggers, activists, all that. (Tonight she’s twittering this, too.)

9:56 PM Gina de Vries just arrived. 4 minutes to showtime. Too many laptops. Good times.

10:00 PM “Girl at the Crossroads?” At least they got her a better makeup artist than Deborah Jean. Oh, the montage: she had a cat! Popular girls with Persians can become sex workers, too!

Liveblogging Ashley Alexandra Dupre, tonight at 10

Join us tonight at Bound, not Gagged for a bi-coastal live blogging of 20/20, which returns again to the subject of prostitution in America. The star of their segment is Ashley Alexandra Dupre.

The woman most (unfortunately? wrongly?) often described as “the downfall of former New York state governor Eliot Spitzer” is speaking directly to the press in depth for the first time, including People and tonight, Diane Sawyer, who just can’t get enough of fancy hos.

We’ll be here at 10 o’clock Eastern and Pacific. In La Perla thongs, of course.

Transgender Day of Rememberance is Today:Duanna Johnson RIP

In LA, my desire to reach the transgender community has been met with some resistance by transfolk who are angered at being profiled wrongly of being prostitutes-but I say to anyone who is outraged at being profiled as a prostitute should resist state violence which occurs to those who are criminalized for prostitution.  Being transgender and crossdressing is no longer a crime, and in states like CA are protected (not that laws or being a lawmaker or law enforcer stop people from brutality and violence).  PLEASE light a candle, tip a 40, burn an incense, smoke a bowl or whatever for all of our TG sisters and brothers who we have lost in the struggle for justice or livelihood…

Why Florida’s AG didn’t sign onto the Craigslist agreement

Florida attorney general Bill McCollum was one of ten state Attorneys General who refused to sign onto a recent agreement with Craigslist to police their Erotic Services advertisers. Here’s why:

Attorney General McCollum decided not to sign the agreement because of several concerns, including the fee for posting ads.

His spokeswoman says that fee is a problem because it creates the appearance that paying a fee legitimizes ads for prostitution on Craigslist.

Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster says while legal escort services and massage services are welcome on the Web site, offers of prostitution and other illegal services are absolutely not welcome.

Buckmaster says he’s confident that the credit card verification and fee to post will be valuable tools to fight illegal activity.

Craigslist says the cash from erotic ads will be given to charity, as yet undecided.

The Florida attorney general’s office says that’s another problem with the agreement: it’s unclear where the money is going and how it will be distributed.

Buckmaster says the recipients have not been announced yet, but prominent on the list will be groups that do good work in the fight against child exploitation and human trafficking.

Again with the fourteen year olds.

A rather typical story about the “rise” of prostitution (this time, in Hawaii) quotes without comment the following two statistics:

Here are a few more statistics on prostitution from the FBI:

• The FBI states the average age of entry into prostitution is 14-years-old.
• The average life expectancy of a prostitute is 5 to 7 years.

This thing about fourteen being the “average” age of entry into prostitution has been showing up even more lately. Can anyone find an original citation for the stat?

(I’ve added a Bust Tracker to the right sidebar here at Bound, not Gagged. When we find news stories about busts or increases in policing, we’ll be adding them there first. You can subscribe to the RSS feed of our Bust Tracker here.)

Call for Submissions: Whore Lover

Hello Ho-land,

I’m working on an anthology of writing by the non-paying partners of sex workers. I would love if you distributed this widely and encouraged people you know to submit, while I definitely want some established writers as contributers, its also very important to me to represent the stories of more ‘regular’ people who don’t necessarily identify as writers.

Thank you!

Sadie

p.s. I am open to hearing suggestions for the title, I have a long list of possibilities, but none that I’m totally in love with yet.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Call for Submissions: Whore Lover (working title)
Deadline: March 4th 2009
Compiled/Edited by Sadie Lune

Whore Lover: Lovers and Partners of Sex Workers Speak
An anthology of non-fiction essays written by the non-paying partners (queer-trans-straight) of sex workers about their experiences and feelings regarding their unique position in the marketplace of love.
From casual dates, to long term relationships, to going down in flames, Whore Lover will explore the personal narratives of people attracted, intimate and in love with those who work in the sex industry.  Present and former lovers and partners of sex workers are encouraged to submit. Whore Lover is looking to represent the stories of a multiplicity of people: people of color, trans, queer, gay, straight, of all ages. Partners in all areas of the sex industry will be featured.

Topics of interest include but are not limited to:
*Day to day negotiations
*My partner and I turned each other out
* I was a trick and then became a lover
*Loving a Sex Work Celebrity
*My partner’s job turns me on
* My partner’s work inspired me to be a sex work client
* I’m a sex worker and I only date other sex workers
*How I deal with family and friends around my partner’s work
*How I’ve dealt (or not) with my own ego around my partner’s sex work
*My partner switched jobs within the industry and how that worked for us
* My partner’s sex work is a secret from everyone (including me?)
*I broke up with my partner because of sex work

People who have dated/loved/married all variety of sex workers including but not limited to: porn actors, strippers, FBSM/sensual massage providers, street-based workers, tantra providers, erotic body workers, sexual surrogates, escorts, fetish workers, phone-sex workers, pro-Dominants and pro-submissives,  are welcome to submit.

A limited number of interviews are possible to those who are interested in having their voices heard but  feel more comfortable talking than writing. First-time writers definitely welcome. No poetry, please.
Pseudonyms or anonymous submissions are fine and will be honored.
Pieces should be between 1000-7000 words.

Please submit via email attachment (pdf or doc file) to: partnersanthology@gmail.com

Sex workers do harm reduction

From moralhighground, a fantastic video on how, when it comes to harm reduction, sex work is not the harm we’re talking about:

Public Service: $pread’s Holiday Donation Drive

Jordan Fox gives us the skinny on $pread Magazine’s outreach project and the 6K needed to get it going annually. $pread Magazine (www.spreadmagazine.org) is an all-volunteer and independent publication by and for people in the sex industry and those who support our rights. 1 out of every 5 copies of $pread is donated to sex workers who can’t afford the subscription. Please donate to $pread this Holiday to help us keep it up! Contact spreadoutreach@gmail.com for more information.

A Kevin Folie from NBC is spamming the hell out of us…

Here’s what he wants you to know:

Joe.J
http://originals.cnbc.com. | kevin.folie@nbcuni.com | 64.210.199.231

On Tuesday, November 11th at 10 p ET Melissa Francis examines the world of high-end prostitution in the CNBC Original “Dirty Money: The Business of High-End Prostitution”. In every city in America sex is for sale and much of it operates in plain view. But, there’s one corner of the trade protected like none other… the business of high-end prostitution where clients can spend hundred of thousands of dollars each year. It’s a secret world with rules and practices that will change everything you think you know about the buying and selling of sex. Join Melissa as she ventures into this secret world.

For web extras visit http://dirtymoney.cnbc.com.

I’m sure we can count on NBC for something fair and balanced and not the least bit sensational. I mean, if women are getting paid thousands of dollars, then they’re not dirty and inhuman like all the other hookers right?

*For future reference friends in the media- there are people here operating this blog, you’re welcome to contact us at boundnotgagged@gmail.com to share info of this sort. Don’t spam us please, it’s a waste of our time.

Prostitution Prohibitionist Hypocracy

Here’s something I find both interesting and disheartening:  There are some people and organizations who on the one hand, vehemently denounce force and coercion against people working as prositutes if such actions are commited by pimps, clients, and traffickers… but on the other hand, they seem to have no problem with the police using force and coercion against sex workers by forcibly handcuffing them and forcing them into the police car where they are taken to jail and forced to live in cages, or perhaps, coerced by being told that they will go to prison if they don’t go through a diversion program.

A letter to Obama and Biden

I wrote this letter at a site I found via a link from NOW. You can write a letter too! It is quite a neat idea.

http://change.gov/page/s/yourvision
Dear President-Elect Obama and Vice President-Elect Biden,

I am so pleased with your victory, particularly because I worked very hard on your campaign, and had vowed to leave the country for the next four years if you didn’t win (I don’t want to leave, thus, my volunteering and working so hard for your election!). But as your landslide victory proves, there is amazing alacrity in this country and its people!

My vision for the country includes making social justice issues a priority. One of those issues that is close to my heart is human rights, and seeing the US recommit to a rights-based approach in policies to address HIV/AIDS, economic disparity, and women’s, minorities’, and marginalized communities’ issues.

I am a sex worker rights advocate, and assistant director of the Desiree Alliance. We work towards decriminalizing prostitution with New Zealand as our model, as theirs is a policy approach that has been the best in terms of safety for those it purports to help: the very people who engage in the sex industry. This approach is supported by Ban Ki Moon of the UN, Peter Piot of UNAIDS, and Michel Kazatchkine of Global Fund for Aids.

We are discouraged at the current administration’s approach to sex policy in America- from extremely harmful (and ineffective) abstinence-only education to fight teen pregnancy (which has increased teen pregnancy exponentially, and left up to one out of four teenaged girls in Las Vegas with an STD), the dangerous conflation of trafficking and prostitution (which ameliorates neither situation), to the fatal anti-prostitution oath* that has been tied to USAID and PEPFAR funding (which has condemned millions world wide to death from AIDS, or has otherwise-unfunded organizations teaching abstinence to sex workers as a means of averting HIV infection). These policies have been disastrous, scientifically unfounded, and fly in the face of all evidence-based approaches which are taken as best practices globally.

We have a vision of an America where we can have logical, educated, and evidence-based discussions about sex policies that affect our communities. We envision an America in which an entire class of women (mostly minorities) are not criminalized and imprisoned for making an economically feasible occupational decision to engage in consensual transactional sex, and we envision an America where sex workers and their allies can participate in discussions surrounding the making of policies which directly affect them.

We take great heart in the fact that you’re a reasoned and balanced team, and we look forward to working with you to renew America’s leadership in sound, sane, and sensible sex policies both here and internationally.

With warmest congratulations and in great anticipation of great things to come,

S

*Please take a moment to watch this short 13-minute video about how this oath has affected people globally:

http://www.sexworkersproject.org/media-toolkit/TakingThePledgeVideo.html

PROPOSITION K: AN IMPORTANT STEP FOR WORKERS RIGHTS

Posted on behalf of ESPU

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For More Information Contact:
Erotic Service Providers Union
415-424-9428
info@espu-ca.org

PROPOSITION K: AN IMPORTANT STEP FOR WORKERS RIGHTS

Proposition K, a ballot measure that would have  increased worker and public safety by decriminalizing prostitution, came up short  on election day but exceeded a similar effort four years ago in Berkeley by 5 percentage points.
While the Erotic Service Provider Union, main proponents of the proposition, are disappointed by the result they recognize that that Proposition K is an important first step towards ensuring that basic and fundamental human and worker rights are extended to all members of society.

³This is a phenomenal effort for a class of workers who have been criminalized for 95 years! While it is disappointing not to gain equal protection for all, we prevailed on educating the press and the public that we are a work force has to be taken seriously and must have the right to seek safer working conditions instead of being criminalized² said Measure K proponent Maxine Doogan.

Spitzer Won’t Be Charged With Prostitution

When it rains hooker news, it pours: Spitzer to go uncharged?

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Michael J. Garcia said today that his office had uncovered no evidence that Spitzer used public or campaign funds in a series of payments to a shell company, QAT Consulting.

“We have determined that there is insufficient evidence to bring charges against Mr. Spitzer for any offense relating to the withdrawal of funds for, and his payments to, the Emperors Club VIP,” Garcia said in a prepared statement.

Justice Department policy generally discourages bringing criminal charges against customers who purchase the services of prostitutes or transport them across state lines. Lawyers for Spitzer had argued that prosecutors would need to indict all of the services’ clients, not just Spitzer, to prove they were not singling out the controversial New York Democrat.

Spitzer released a statement saying that “I understand the Office of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York has decided that it will not bring criminal charges against me. I appreciate the impartiality and thoroughness of the investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office and I acknowledge and accept responsibility for the conduct it disclosed.

Craigslist Crackdown: 40 Attorneys General sign on to demand policing, mandatory credit card records for Erotic Services — UPDATED

In a move to appease law enforcement, Craigslist announced today that they will limit Erotic Services postings only to those who can pay a fee with a valid credit card. This comes several months after Craigslist changed their Erotic Services ad policy to require a valid telephone number in order to post.

Under the watchful eye of law enforcement in 40 states, Craigslist pledged Thursday to crack down on ads for prostitution on its Web sites.

As part of Craigslist’s agreement with attorneys general around the country, anyone who posts an “erotic services” ad will be required to provide a working phone number and pay a fee with a valid credit card. The Web site will provide that information to law enforcement if subpoenaed.

Craigslist has also agreed to sue 14 software and Internet companies that help people who post erotic service ads to circumvent the Web site’s defenses against inappropriate content and illegal activity.

Connecticut State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who demanded last March that Craigslist remove all Erotic Services postings, was behind the push. This seemed laughable at the time — especially given Craigslist’s agnostic stance on their Erotic Services section. So what’s going to change, for Craigslist and for sex workers?

Moving Forward Against Criminalization

Photo: Sex worker activists in Mexico City, August 2008, International AIDS Conference

Sex worker activist & BNG contributor Wendy Vinaigrette is currently in Europe, where she offers these reflections on lessons learned from Prop K:

I was overjoyed by the alliances that were built or that surfaced as a result of this campaign.

I also knew there were a lot of organizations against it – some that surprised me. For instance, the GLBT newspaper the Bay times refused to endorse the proposition. They fell for this argument that it would promote trafficking.

A friend informed me that a certain union – I think it was the Longshoremen´s union decided not to endorse prop k because someone did a presentation there about the legislation being written by someone who managed sex workers. This made me upset because, if so many sex workers are saying for themselves, decriminalization is better, then the union should respect that. Decriminalization allows for unionization.

Clearly however, we did get a lot of support for the proposition. We are getting closer to decriminalization. Now, it is our job to use the momentum from the campaign to continue our work. To closely examine how we lost and to not make the same mistakes again.

Update Prop K – 91,017 votes and counting

We very proud that 91,017 people (counted so far) voted for us and K secured over 42% of the votes!

The tally as of Wednesday afternoon, Nov 5, is:
Yes 91,017 42.43 %
No 123,508 57.56 %

In a crucial way we are winning, because we clearly demonstrate that sex workers are in the forefront of the political process. The coalition and alliances have been very strong!

In 2004 Measure Q in Berkeley secured 36% of the vote, so as you see we are ascending. It is clear that in the long run sex workers rights and participation is rising. Decriminalization is happening!

There was an amazing response from sex workers, sex worker groups and many allies including labor, health and human rights advocates around the country (and some from around the world!), contributing, emailing, fund raising, phone calls, and rooting for us! We had wonderful volunteers from all quarters, and we made many new friends who will be supporting us in the long run.

Thank you to all our donors and supporters. This meant so much to all of us! You kept our spirits up and allowed us to mount this campaign!

The elections for Board of Supervisors went in a liberal direction so that portends good support for new plans!

Carol Leigh
YesOnPropK.org

Craigslist Erotic Services Predator Convicted, Thanks to Sex Workers’ Testimony

A 25 year old San Jose, CA man has been convicted of assaulting and robbing several sex workers he hired from Craigslist. He’s facing up to 200 years in state prison.

The ad on Craigslist urged men to call “Miss Bossy” for a date: “Attention Gentlemen — you have entered a world where your deepest desires and wildest fantasies can turn into reality.”

San Jose resident Kanari Nelson’s fantasy was to choke women till they lost consciousness and sexually assault them until they were bruised and bleeding.

Nelson, 25, was convicted this week of sexually assaulting and robbing “Miss Bossy” and other women in a rare case that underscores the vulnerability of prostitutes in the computer age. He faces a maximum of more than 200 years in state prison.

“Anytime this guy wanted to sexually assault somebody, he just had to go online and pick from a menu,” said Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney James Leonard, who won the case.

Santa Clara County’s case against Nelson initially included three women, whom he was charged with luring to his San Jose apartment and assaulting. One of the women committed suicide before the trial and those charges were dropped. But authorities believe Nelson attacked as many as 12 women.

An Open Letter to those who voted No on Prop K

I don’t live in San Francisco. I don’t even live in California. I live in one of those traditionally, until last eve, red states. Republican, moral right, conservative red. I also happen to be a sex worker. Now, where I live? Something even like Prop K on a ballot? Well, that’s like a kid who has long since known the myths of childhood still believing in the tooth fairy. I’d expect a Prop K on my ballot the same way I’d expect a couple bucks under my pillow for a lost molar at age 40. However, even seeing a Prop K? Anywhere? Well, that made me want to believe. It gave me, and countless other sex workers out there, in and out of San Francisco, some sort of hope. It gave us this crazy idea that maybe, just maybe, we counted as humans to the rest of you, that we mattered, even just a little bit, to the rest of you.

Those of you who voted no, and those of you who campaigned for others to vote no, and those of you who claim to care about us, make book deals and educational credentials off of us and convinced others to vote no…well, you’ve proven that hope was ill-fated and you do not care, and that no matter what we, actual sex workers, say or do or plead for, we don’t matter, not even a little bit, to you. We don’t count as humans the way you do.

Prop K did not making trafficking legal. Prop K did not make the sexual abuse, rape, or exploitation of minors legal. Those things are and would have remained illegal. Prop K would not have ended sex worker outreach or exit programs. Yet those were the arguments you used to shoot down Prop K. You worried about your precious neighborhoods, which apparently mean more to you than the lives of sex workers and prostituted people. You used the lives and stories of the very people you then threw to the lions to make your case and defeat something that would have meant so much to all of us, even those of us who live in places where things like Prop K are just a fanciful dream.

SF Mayor Gavin Newsom Demonizes Tenderloin Sex Workers

SF Mayor Gavin Newsom has made it clear: violence against sex workers isn’t nearly so important as “cleaning up” neighborhoods.

“If Prop K passes, can you imagine living here?” he asked, motioning to the surrounding Tenderloin streets.

“This is serious business,” he said. “We’re trying to clean up the Tenderloin.”