Pulling Back the Sheets: Sex, Work and Social Justice Register Now!

~Desiree Alliance Presents~
In partnership with BAYSWAN, Sex Workers Outreach Project-USA, SWANK, H.I.P.S. Different Avenues, COYOTE, Best Practices Policy Project, $pread Magazine, St. James Infirmary, Harm Reduction Coalition, PONY, SWOP-Chicago, SWOP-Las Vegas, SWOP-Los Angeles, SWOP- Northern California, SWOP-Arizona, SWOP-Portland, & SWOP-EAST
“Pulling Back the Sheets: Sex, Work and Social Justice”
July 16-20, 2008 Chicago, IL
REGISTER NOW!
The Desiree Alliance [...]

Just a few pics from IHRA

I was able to round up pics from a few different cameras. I know penny has more pics and video and I expect that there will be a more in-depth report about IHRA in the future. I just wanted to post a few pics and let you all know that the sex workers totaly kicked [...]

Desiree Alliance Conference Registration is Open!

~Desiree Alliance Presents~
In partnership with BAYSWAN, Sex Workers Outreach Project-USA, SWANK, H.I.P.S. Different Avenues, COYOTE, Best Practices Policy Project, $pread Magazine, St. James Infirmary, Harm Reduction Coalition, PONY, SWOP-Chicago, SWOP-Las Vegas, SWOP-Los Angeles, SWOP- Northern California, SWOP-Arizona, SWOP-Portland, & SWOP-EAST
“Pulling Back the Sheets: Sex, Work and Social Justice”
July 16-20, 2008 Chicago, IL
REGISTER NOW!
The Desiree [...]

Spitzer call girl sues ‘Girls Gone Wild’ for $10 million

By CURT ANDERSON, Associated Press Writer
MIAMI - The call girl linked to the downfall of former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer sued the founder of the “Girls Gone Wild” series on Monday for $10 million, claiming he exploited her image and name to advertise the racy videos
Ashley Alexandra Dupre, 22, contended in the lawsuit [...]

KPFA- Norma Hotaling

From Erotic Service Provers Union:
Greetings,
Hey guys, We need to respond to this. Norma Hotaling was on KPFA
saying that the
petition drive is being run by traffickers and madams and pimps just like it was in Berkeley.
http://www.kpfa.org/archives/index.php?arch=25814

It seems that Aimee Allision, a Green party member and the host of the morning show in KPFA needs to [...]

Navy officer tells of life as an escort

Baltimore Sun:
A Navy officer could face punishment — including a discharge — after testifying Thursday that while stationed at the Naval Academy in Annapolis she moonlighted for the alleged prostitution ring run by the so-called “D.C. Madam.”
Lt. Cmdr. Rebecca C. Dickinson managed the Naval Academy’s food [...]

The D.C. Madam Case, All Sordid Out

By Dana Milbank Washington Post
Friday, April 11, 2008; A03
Yesterday, it was the turn of a young naval officer to take the stand; the case will almost certainly end her career. The prosecutor, Daniel Butler, had the woman spell her name slowly and clearly, then had her talk about when she was “aggressive” with a client, [...]

Call for Submissions

Feminism For Freaks
At its best, feminism offers an emancipatory potential from gendered oppression, inequality, and violence. At its worst, however, feminism can work to simply affirm the rights of middle-class, heterosexual,white women, and exclude the voices of already-marginalised groupssuch as women of colour, trans* women, sex workers and so on.
LikeDerrida’s democracy, a truly liberatory feminism [...]

Feminist Carnival of Sexual Freedom and Autonomy

The Feminist Carnival of Sexual Freedom and Autonomy homepage is a collection of links to blogs that will host future editions of this carnival, promoting the sexual rights and freedom of women.
The first edition is up at Uncool blog.
The next edition will be held at Labyrinth Walk on the 21st April 2008. The call for [...]

NY Times Makes Attemp at Correction

Editors’ Note: March 30, 2008
An article on March 16 profiling three sex workers in the wake of Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s resignation after revelations that he patronized prostitutes misconstrued how two of the women, identified by the pseudonyms Faith O’Donnell and Sally Anderson, said they earned a living. The resulting misrepresentation [...]

Twitter, iPhones Let Sex Workers Spread Their Gospel

By Regina Lynn at Wired
When the Eliot Spitzer sex scandal heated up headlines earlier this month, every media outlet in the country suddenly began scrambling to talk to a sex worker.
The downfall of Spitzer, the New York governor who resigned after his private sex life unexpectedly became public, generated an enormous amount of interest [...]

Spitzer linked to most recent NYC bust

Woman arrested by NYC Vice still no legal consequences for Spitzer…

From Gawker:
We never thought we’d see the day when the Governor of New York’s illegal sex trysts would give us only a renewed sense of ennui, but: Okay, we get it. The guy liked hookers. If the Post keeps this up, lots of other valuable [...]

Lawyering and Organizing for Sex Workers’ Rights

CUNY Outlaws presents
“Lawyering and Organizing
for Sex Workers’ Rights”
Tuesday April 1, 2008 at 6pm
CUNY Law School Auditorium,
6521 Main St. in Flushing Queens

Join us for Dinner and the Film, “A Safer Sex Trade”, to be followed by a discussion that addresses how criminalization and stigmatization of [...]

East Side Madam with America’s Largest Black Book Busted

Yesterday afternoon a 32-year-old woman was busted for running a prostitution ring on the East Side of Manhattan that charged $900/hour for its services. Kristen Davis (no relation to the Sex and the City star…probably) operated four websites, sending her gals to one of two apartments she kept for the illegal trysts (the magic apparently [...]

In (Partial) Defense of Eliot Spitzer

by Tristan Taormino the Village Voice
When news of Eliot Spitzer’s link to a prostitution agency first broke, “Why Do Powerful Men Cheat?” stories sprang up all around us, from morning shows to the nightly news. Within the framework of the cheating-husband narrative, no one made the distinction between employing a sex worker and having an [...]

Shame on Diane Sawyer

As sex workers, allies, and activists, we are deeply concerned about the “Prostitution in America” report that aired on “20/20″ hosted by Diane Sawyer.
Although prostitutes are the people most strongly affected and harmed by existing prohibitionist policies against prostitution, the report did not feature prostitutes’ perspectives on the legal status of prostitution. The only person [...]

Kristen’s Mom

…she wasn’t worried about her daughter after news erupted that she was the prostitute Spitzer slept with, causing his fall from power. “She is a very bright girl who can handle someone like the governor,” she said.
NY Post 
Has anybody been able to find interviews with Spitzer’s parents?

Awesome interview at Feministe

Holly interviews Sienna Baskin from Sex Workers Project.
The barebacking thing is slightly different, because its about a client asking for an experience that could be physically unsafe for the sex worker. My experience has shown me that this is very unusual. Sex workers who have access to safe sex stuff—and the power to use it—universally [...]

Sex 2.0 is April 12th!

Come join us in Atlanta!
Sexing Up Social Change & Social Media — Melissa Gira and Stacey Swimme
The non-profit web, it’s so hot right now. But what of us sex activist outlaws — working queer politics, throwing feminist actions, laboring for sex worker rights, and promoting sexual health uprisings? Many of our community members are super [...]

Have You Been Spitzed Today?

HAVE YOU BEEN SPITZED TODAY? CALL TO BLOGGERS!
via SWOP-Tucson
If your readers are still jerking off to Spitzergate, use this button to direct them back to BnG for sex worker coverage of the story.
(Thanks MizViv!)