Sex Worker Rights Advocate Blog Launches

More blogs are launching on the subject of sex worker rights! Snip from Sex Worker Rights Advocate:

… 20/20 could have addressed how the criminalization of prostitution compounded the problems Brandi Britton was experiencing and played a major role in “pushing her over the edge” with tragic results. Britton was an escort and a professor who worked for Palfrey…

Like Brandi Britton, many sex workers have been persecuted under these prohibitionist policies toward prostitution and I can only imagine how many more sex workers also committed suicide, as Britton allegedly did, after being persecuted and chastised.

Other sex workers & advocates & allies with blogs, send us your links or leave a comment below. Our blogroll is on its way.

Sunday Afternoon Palfrey Video Roundup

Below the cut, enough Sunday political teevee on prostitution & powertripping to make you want to crawl back into bed with a vibrator. Or, in bed with us bloggers.

First up:

Vlogger Kittycatastrophe on safer sex & the fallout of Tobias’ agenda to end health education to sex workers… while he hires them, of course. “Giving out condoms is apparently against the word of God… I don’t think condoms were around back then, but anyway…”

Working the Intersection Of Sex and Power

Lily Burana
writes in the Washington Post today:

Oh, Deborah Jeane, what are we going to do with you?

Yes, you, Deborah Jeane Palfrey — aka Miz Julia, former proprietress of the alleged escort service Pamela Martin and Associates, the 50-year-old California girl who’s had Washington all a-dither.

You surrendered your phone records and took your plight to ABC — all in your own defense, of course. Facing racketeering charges and possible prison time, a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.

Full Story

Fox News Says: Legalize Prostitution!

From News Hounds

The first eight minutes of this morning’s (May 5, 2007) “Forbes on Fox,” one of the four shows that comprise Fox’s “Cost of Freedom business news block,” was about the “DC Madam.” Not caring that it was 11:00 a.m. EDT (think: vulnerable little babies using the clicker to look for cartoons), Fox went to a split screen. In the biggest screen, Fox showed a lot of “t” (I guess the “a” part isn’t legal at that time of day). The discussion, which was more of an afterthought since the video of tits was obviously the main “news,” concluded, per the chyron at the bottom of the screen, that prostitution should be legalized. It read: “‘DC Madam’ Lesson: Legalize & Tax Prostitution!”

News: Prostitutes found dead…

I think it is interesting that whenever sex workers are found dead, they are always identified as such. How many times have you seen a headline: “Waiter found dead”? Or, “Accountant found dead”? These people die, but they are not usually identified by their occupation.

Just a thought.

Statement of Sex Worker Human Rights

To end misconceptions about sex worker human rights, here is the SWOP East Sex Worker Human Rights Statement.  Many thanks to Canada’s IUSW for being the inspiration for this statement.

Sex Worker Human Rights

from SWOP East  http://www.swopeast.org

by Jill Brenneman

Ending criminalization of sex work involving consenting adults creates opportunity for positive social change.  With an end to criminalization, sex workers are no longer marginalized for abuse and victimization by customers, the legal system and law enforcement.  Instead, the legal system would serve to protect sex workers, to represent them in the event they are victimized by a crime.  Rather than having to fear the police and be easy targets for renegade cops abusing their positions, sex workers would be able to access assistance from the police just as any other citizen victimized by a crime.  STORM’s website has many testimonials from individuals victimized in the sex industry that had no recourse due to current social views regarding sex work, criminality and the stigma and marginalization that comes with them.

Current policies of criminalization also really serve no value for those either in the sex industry in a non-consenting situation, trafficking victims or those underage.  Those who; coerce, traffic or exploit both adults and youth are aware that criminalization keeps the victims from viewing law enforcement and the legal system as allies to assist them in getting out of the sex industry.  The victim becomes imprisoned by a system that is allegedly setup to protect them.   It is both unrealistic and simplistic not to recognize that people who prey on those who are coerced into the sex industry will use criminalization – the knowledge that the victim fears being punished by the law as a criminal – as reinforcement in a dynamic of fear that makes it difficult for such a victim to leave. Predators use criminalization and the legal system to coerce and deny access to people under their influence who want to leave the sex industry.

The right to form and join professional associations and unions allows for empowerment of sex workers to have greater authority and rights within the sex industry through the strength of a group and networking.

Sex Work, Taxation, and Representation.

Currently the Internal Revenue Service requires individuals to report income earned from illegal sources.  Criminalization denies the sex worker access to legal rights and representation related to taxation as admission of how the income is earned may not be covered under client privilege.  This causes denial of the ability to receive accurate and complete legal rights and representation.   Ending criminalization would allow the sex worker to fulfill requirements of paying taxes, consult with tax specialists without fear of the session being used against them in court.

Coercion, violence, sexual abuse, child labor, rape and racism.

Sex workers should be entitled to protection from coercion, violence, sexual abuse, child labor, rape and racism just as any employee in any citizen working in any occupation in the United States of America is.  Coercion is enforced by criminalization.  Knowing that turning in the coercing party may lead to the sex worker being arrested is a substantial barrier from leaving a coercive situation.  Those that coerce are aware of this dynamic realizing the victim has little recourse to escape the coercion through the legal system without significant risk.  The victim is likely to think of themselves as a criminal because of current laws and social attitudes and to see the legal system and law enforcement not as those that can bring justice but as those who will likely arrest, prosecute and further victimize the person they should be protecting.

Sexual abuse and rape in sex work is virtually unaddressed as an issue.   Social attitudes most often assume sex workers can not be sexually abused, assaulted or raped by virtue of being a sex worker.   Sex workers are at very significant risk of sexual abuse and rape.  Exchange of money for agreed upon services does not negate the fact that anything beyond what the sex worker consents to is rape.  Payment of money or anything else of value is not a blank check to force any sexual act upon a sex worker.  Yet, current legalities and social attitudes make bringing a rapist of a sex worker to justice virtually impossible.  Many rape crisis centers either will not accept clients that are sex workers or are improperly trained to assist them.  Medical care providers are also often improperly trained or not trained at all to deal with rape and sexual assault of sex workers.  This along with criminalization leaves the sex worker often unable or unwilling to access medical services after an assault.  Sex workers are easy targets for violence.  Violent offenders realize the marginalization and criminalization aspects of sex work leave the sex worker with little legal recourse in the event of being victimized by violence.  Violence sometimes extends all the way to the murder of the sex worker with little legal interest as in the case of the Green River Killer, Gary Ridgeway who killed dozens of prostitutes before finally being caught.  Had the victims been seen as “regular women” rather than prostitutes there would likely have been a much higher emphasis on the capture and prosecution of the killer.

One of the most controversial topics is child labor related to the sex industry.  The vast majority of youth in the sex industry in the US are runaway/throwaway youth.  There is a significant issue that often goes unaddressed.  Critics will state that youth should not be in the sex industry.  They are correct.  However, this requires more than press releases, position statements and pusillanimous policies of government.  The youth that are in the sex industry often have no other way to earn money.  They are in a situation of survival sex which is trading sex for survival needs.  It is nothing short of a waste of time to state this problem exists without concrete solutions.  Suggestions advising the youth to just go home are unrealistic.  Often times the youth left for a reason, the street was safer than home or where thrown out.  Going home may not be an option.  Suggestions advising them to go to the local McDonald’s or like employer and get a “normal job” are absurd.  Where do they get the work permits?  What do they list as an address on the job application?  What telephone number do they give for the job application?  What do they do while they are waiting for this “normal job” to consider and process their application?  Unless resources are created which provide food, clothing, shelter and education this will always be a problem.

In many countries outside the US, child labor is a different issue.  Families so poor they have no choice but to either have the children work in the sex industry or even sell children into the sex trade are common scenarios.  The basic issue is poverty and often sexism as the male child is considered more valuable, the female child more easily dispensable into the sex industry.  Children are not a tourist attraction and it is the responsibility of governments to address this issue including the governments of the “first world” countries to punish their citizens that engage in child sex tours.  It is simplistic to blame the parents of these children.  Poverty has to be addressed as a global issue.  Also, often unaddressed is the myth that a job in a sweatshop making minimal money for epic work hours is a better option for children or anyone for that matter.  Both amount to little more than slave labor.

Compounding the problem is current the US Governments ban on funding unless organizations helping child sex labor victims unless they take a specific anti prostitution pledge.  This is absurd.  The problem isn’t going to be legislated away with a quick stroke of the pen, a nice photo op, with mission accomplished written as the answer to this problem.  Access to needed resources including medical attention, prophylactics, and education on sexually transmitted diseases are being denied by an alleged effort to fight human trafficking by cutting off funding to agencies that “collaborate with traffickers”.  Until the issues of poverty and other factors are addressed in realistic form, this is going to be a problem.  Denial of service for political gain through the December 19, 2003: Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2003 is nothing but a disingenuous play to convince the world that a social problem is being addressed.  What is really happening is an unrealistic US Government has aligned with some feminists and the religious right to posture about fighting trafficking while their actions endanger and often end the lives of victims around the world.  Victims supposedly helped by this legislation.

Legal support or sex workers who want to sue those who exploit their labor.

The focus on fighting to end the sex industry and continuing to maintain the status quo of criminalization places too much emphasis on the punishment of men that are either pimps or clients.  Forgotten is both the reality that women and transgendered bear the brunt of arrests.  Also lost in the fight to end the sex industry is the reality that criminalization takes away civil remedies for sex workers that are exploited for their labor.  The current social and legal environment empowers those who exploit the labor of sex workers as criminalization leaves no option for legal recourse.  Knowing the legal and social implications of sex workers attempting a lawsuit to gain compensation for exploitation of their labor, those who exploit have little to fear in using current circumstances to their advantage.  This leaves the sex worker vulnerable to inadequate payment for doing their job, exploited by having to pay a series of fees to work such as in the case of many strip clubs, overtime pay laws become irrelevant as many sex workers are not even paid an hourly wage but instead tips and only after paying fees to club management, bartenders, security, disc jockeys and other staff.  In the event the sex worker suffers exploitation or harm there is little ability to sue for financial, physical or emotional damages.  In the event of workplace injury there is often no workers compensation, disability pay or other benefits.

Ending criminalization would allow for labor rights allowing sex workers to file suit against those who exploit their labor, to seek compensation for various forms of damages, fair compensation for their work, legal benefits in the event of injury resulting from accident or negligence on the part of the employer and a much stronger legal remedy having the effect of keeping potentially predatory employers accountable for their actions.

Clean and safe places to work

Ending criminalization would bring sex work out from underground.  Without fear of arrest, incarceration, criminal record and other legal issues, sex workers would have the same legal protections as an employee of any other industry.  Rather than having to fear law enforcement, it would become the police’s responsibility to enforce the same laws and same rights afforded employees of other industries.  Ending criminalization, stigmatization, marginalization and other forms of isolation and discrimination would provide opportunities for clean, safe work environments, access to medical services without fear of being victimized by the judgment of the medical provider or denial of services due to their occupation.  Ending criminalization would allow for the same laws which protect workers in other industries from workplace hazards to be enforced providing clean and safe work environments for sex workers.

The right to choose whether to work on our own or co-operatively with other sex workers.

Current legal environments in various countries, states, provinces and municipalities either force sex workers to work together as in the case of legalized brothels in some counties in Nevada, or to not be able to work together in other areas fearing it would bring too much awareness and catch the attention of law enforcement.  Sex workers need to have the right to choose their work environment just as any other individual does.  That choice may be to work for an employer, to work as an independent or to create their own business of the size they choose.

The absolute right to say no.

One of the greatest flaws of criminalization is the absolute lack of protection from clients or employers refusing to respect the sex workers boundaries.  There is virtually no recourse for a sex worker forced into sexual acts against their will either by a client that exceeds the agreed upon terms or an employer that forces the sex worker to go beyond personal boundaries as part of their job.  The exchange of money does not eliminate the sex workers right to say no, it does not give a client the right to exceed the sex workers boundaries and does not give the employer the right to force a sex worker to engage in sexual acts against their will, ones they consider dangerous or simply ones they do not feel comfortable with.  Sex workers have the right to their own bodies and if and when that is violated they need the right to recourse.  Current legal and social stances often deny the sex worker the right to control what happens to their bodies. 

Brian Ross Back-pedals on Statement About White House

From: SilentPatriot at Crooks and Liars

(You can view the video at that link)

Last week:

“There are thousands of names, tens of thousands of phone numbers, and there are people there at the Pentagon, lobbyists, others at the White House, prominent lawyers — a long, long list.

But last night on “20/20,” Ross completely reversed course and said:

As usually is the case in Washington, much of it is dull. There are no members of Congress we can find in these phone numbers, no White House officials. Quite frankly, but for the few exceptions, most of the men on this list just aren’t newsworthy.

What accounts for that sudden shift? A week ago the White House was involved, but now they’re not? The last thing I want is anyone falsely accused of anything, but how did an extra week with the phone records lead Ross to conclude that people who he last week said were involved no longer aren’t? That’s just weird if you ask me.”

Karly writes:

Of course there was somebody in the White House. By announcing in their teasers that they’ve got “…others in the White House,” wouldn’t you expect that somebody got concerned and made some calls? They ought to check out the calendars and corresponding phone records of all the lobbyists on that list. That would be extremely informative. I have no doubt that high-level politicians of all allegiances can be traced back to that agency and any of the other similar agencies in the DC region.

One of the theories that I’ve heard from successful women who’ve worked in the DC area is that it’s a very lucrative region because so many politicians spend half of their time there, away from their family and hometowns. People always feel more comfortable indulging when they’re away from home, plus the loneliness and high-stress job factors.

Very few women that I’ve ever met have had a lot of good things to say about their politician clients. They’re always high-maintenance and always want to pay as little as possible are common complaints that I’ve heard about them. Even so- you’d think that Palfrey would have been better off had she not insulted Ullman publicly on top of outing him as a client. Someone mused the other day about whether Palfrey was selectively choosing the most annoying clients to expose…

A day in the life

It’s a beautiful day. I wake up to the sun shining though my window and my husband standing by my side of the bed with a cup of tea. He brings me tea when he has time before rushing off to his job. “Good morning, beautiful!” he says, as he kisses me on the cheek. “I’ve brought you a cup of tea. I have to run, but I found your bag for this evening, and placed it by the door.” I kiss him goodbye, and wait the usual 10 minutes for his call. He always calls me once he’s left and is driving to work, just to tell me one more time how much he loves me.

This evening I will embark on a weekend with B. B is a regular client of mine, and I just adore him. He has prepaid for his date with me because he likes to be very organized, and I appreciate his fastidiousness. I will bring along the last pair of Jimmy Choos he sent me, because he likes to know that what he sends me fits, and will bring along the matching Coach bag he sent me two months ago. Luckily my husband found it- I had misplaced it after using it for a dinner date last week.

B is one of my favorite gentleman callers. He’s a high-powered lawyer and was formerly a college professor, so we have the most fascinating conversations. Our dates usually start at a fabulous restaurant at a local hotel, and continue at that hotel throughout the weekend. He plans massages and facials for both of us. He absolutely spoils me.

But B is only one of the many wonderful men I see in my work. And while none of my men are particularly famous, they are well-heeled enough to afford 10k weekends with me, along with gifts like Coach bags, Jimmy Choo shoes, and many, many other decadent gifts.

I am sure I would never out any of my wonderful men (I won’t see anyone who is not wonderful). But sadly I am also pretty sure none of them would come to my aid should the proverbial shit hit the fan. I don’t thnk I would expect them to.

So I continue to do what I can by participating in my local sex worker rights organizations, contributing both time and money. As it is, I do receive plenty of free legal advice, medical advice, and financial advice from my many delightful companions. So in their own way, they help as they can.

My husband is very supportive of me and what I love to do. We certainly don’t need the money, but professional companionship is such an important part of who I am that I couldn’t imagine giving it up. Not just yet.

I kiss my lovely B goodbye as my car arrives from valet, and he makes me promise to see him again when he is back in town next month. I assure him he will have priority over anyone else. He slips a little box in my hand as he walks away back into the hotel lobby. I don’t open it until I arrive home. It is a lovely silver bracelet from Tiffany’s. I will be sure to be wearing this the next time I see my B.

Posted by: fiammettab

Year of the Ho

A little comic relief

“Can I have the latest tally, Marion?”
It’s Hos: 3, Wingers: 0
“B*tches done set them up

This poor woman was arrested on a visa violation after being kidnapped!

April 28, 2007 From: Mainichi Daily News

 

Kidnapped Chinese sex worker freed after 6-day ordeal, arrested for visa violation

A Chinese sex shop worker kidnapped and held captive for six days was freed and released in Tokyo early Saturday, police said, adding that they had also arrested the woman for visa violations.

The 37-year-old woman, whose name has not been disclosed, sustained minor bruising to her face and wrists after her kidnappers beat and manhandled her.

She was taken by a group of four or five men, bound and blindfolded before being released early Saturday morning.

Police said the woman was returning to her home in Tokyo’s Adachi-ku at about 5 a.m. on April 22 when a group of men suddenly drove up and shoved her into a car. Over the coming days, a 55-year-old female friend of the woman’s received about 20 phone calls from a man speaking fluent Japanese and demanding a ransom payment of 15 million yen for the sex worker’s safe release.

On Friday night, the older woman told the captor that she had prepared 2 million yen in cash, but the man hurled abused at her, threatened to hurt the captive and hung up the phone.

Just hours later, the woman was released. She caught a cab to the home of a friend in Adachi-ku and the police were alerted.

Police responded to the kidnapping by arresting the victim for visa violations after learning she had been residing illegally in Japan for the past five years. (Mainichi)

Sex Work and Labor

Do Sex Workers Deserve Workers Compensation?

After all isn’t masturbatory carpal tunnel for a legal sex worker no different than typing carpal tunnel for a secretary? On the other hand, judges and juries might not be inclined to see it that way. After all, can you imagine a porn star attempting to get cash for a sex-related stress injury? Even in Australia, where prostitution is legal, “sex workers have entitlement to workers compensation for a work-related injury,” but “[i]n practice this rarely occurs.”

Robin Head on…

…why Palfrey is an authority to report Brandi’s death as a suicide simply because it’s in the media. It could just as easily have been a MURDER for all we actually know. It is unusual for a female to hang herself to death as it is laborious, it is easier to take pills, even shoot a gun. Check statistics. Hanging is too much damn effort and hassle. It is the business of Murder, Inc. to make MURDER look like suicides and people of the world know the American media is warped.

IF IF IF Brandi was MURDERED it is a horrific injustice to her and to our OWN selves to go along with the premeditated propaganda and it will propagate if unaccounted. Fact is WE DO NOT KNOW and that is a fact, that is a living true FACT!!!

If she was MURDERED then to say it was suicide is to abet as a witness, aid in a cover-up, share the guilt, condoning MURDER upon other Sex Workers.

CIA has already been complicit in this case, google Duke Cunningham, and wrap your mind around it.

Brandi had been calling our Sex group several times and just days before she was ‘found dead’ saying she was in great fear of corrupt cops KILLING her.

http://fbicorruption.250free.com

“predators”

I spent the entire weekend meditating on the words of Melissa Farley.

Why does everyone assume my clients are predators?? When I process with woman what it is that I do, particularly processing their feelings about how someone they love does sex work and how they feel about it, it almost always turns to a discussion where I defend my clients against assumption and hostility.

Of course I have my days where I bitch, days where everything is not rosy, but I hear more complaints from these same friends about their boss or co-workers at the office job. I have the power to cancel/refer/reschedule, they don’t.

When I started doing sex work, it was for a commercial dungeon here in Chicago. I did not identify myself as a sex worker, because I did not “lay on my back”. I had these ignorant assumptions that the power dynamic of doing sex work would change if I ever included actual sex… like penetration would take away my power. This is the fallacy of Melissa Farley, and every other feminist who claims that sex for money is inherently objectifying and victimizing.

After a few years of feeling victimized my MY EMPLOYER, I started to get active with labor organizing within the sex workers movement. All of my thoughts changed as I began to get friendly with escorts who traveled, had their own hours, didn’t require the huge overhead, clothes and equipment that domination did. Then I figured out that I was having “sex” all along. Maybe not the conventional type of sex we all think of, but sex by definition to both society and government. The distinction existed only in my mind, nowhere else. I started to dabble, then found myself working 6 days a week for an escort agency very much like Palfreys (but better hourly rates;)

I didn’t lose one ounce of power. I brought the same strong-head and stubbornness, my own sexuality, my own command of the situation into hotel rooms downtown for this work. At first I had no idea what these men wanted, I assumed it wouldn’t be spanking though. As my psyche loosen up,and I became more bold and excited about what I was doing, I figured out that spanking was a great ice-breaker for escort work, as long as I was into it. When one thinks of escort work, they have the idea of a prostitute and the “cock party” she participates in. An idea is created that has been conditioned into our minds from media and society. We think of a long-legged busty woman, and a seedy business suit man, participating in a scene not unlike tasteless porn. Wrong.

I have my marketable features to my body, but they do not fit the prototype of an escort. I didn’t say dumb and formulated phrases that you typically see in mainstream porn. I dressed how I wanted to, sometimes heels, sometimes combat boots. In fact, the less I looked the prototype of an escort, the better. Jeans and a creative shirt are the best working outfit to date (no pun intended).

And I didn’t give up my power. I was firm about boundaries, firm about my time, firm about my rates. Rarely did I ever encounter someone looking to walk all over those. I encounter a lot of respect and gratitude from clients. Do you hear me Melissa Farley??? RESPECT AND GRATITUDE.

My escort clients were typically travelling family men, in Chicago on business, nervous and easily intimidated. They are salesmen, teachers, lawyers, and they are your dads, neighbors, and yes… husbands. They are not “predators”. They are normal and professional (they have to be to afford my rates) and sexually frustrated. I had all the power in my confidence, and they were at my mercy.

If I said “this makes me hot”, they would do it in a heart beat, and these scenes always played out to be fun and experimental on their part. The real element that appealed to my clients was that I was having fun. As long as I stayed amused and involved with a relaxed and sincere spirit, they were thrilled. My true sexuality is very kinky, and they indulged that side to see me happy and hot. I never felt like I was compromising or lying about who I really am, and also rarely felt like I had to cater to them. I simply brought to the appointment a refreshing spirit about sex, and they bent and swayed to my agenda left and right.

This is one thing that I constantly am amazed at: how fluid and formidable men’s sexuality is. For a woman to be happy, the lengths they will go. This idea of losing power is nonsense. If you are a victim in life, you will be a victim in sex work. It is true and applicable to everything in this world. You are who you are. YES, there are woman victimized in sex work, and then further victimized by government and criminalization. There are woman victimized in 40 story office buildings, and in their marriages, and I have NEVER felt more victimized when I simply walk down the street in a tank top. It happens, and it’s root does not lie in our occupations, but in our society at large and in the dynamics of gender. I feel EMPOWERED when I am working in sex work, because the dynamic is drawn: You are my client, I have the services. You are paying me, therefore I make the choice. Sounds like an oxymoron, but it isn’t.

THIS IS WHY I LOVE SEX WORK! I am breaking down the walls of stigma! I am recreating the dynamic of power between genders! When you charge for your sexuality, you are drawing a line that doesn’t exist in normal gender relations. I am holding the power of my sex over the heads of whoever is willing to buy and stating the worthiness of being female saying: “THIS is how much I am worth for the hour!” No wasting time and energy asserting myself to the general public as a woman, my rates are right there at my website. You say I cannot commodify my sex and put a price on it?? Yes I can, and will, because I am sick of the standard of giving it away for free to one man at a time and only when I am in love with him, for marriage or relationships only. Their is a market for sex outside of these standards, and it is a way better deal.

There is a statement of the worthiness of women when you accept cash for sex, and it is that: I am female… I have everything.

I understand not every worker is female, but almost every client is male. If you don’t think that the power lies in the worker, think about who is getting paid, and who is not. Seriously, think about it. If this society was as chauvinistic and male-centered as we ought to believe, wouldn’t we be paying them? We are not. It leads me to believe that at the base of sex work is the TRUE dynamic of genders in this world. This is most definitely a man’s world, but you must subscribe to it and work within it to keep up that conception. Sex work does not do either of those things.

My clients are not predators… They understand the dues that are owed when they want to participate in sex outside of the standard. They understand the boundaries of charging for the hour, because they do it themselves in their own work. They understand that they are the recipients of services that I choose to give or not, based on the lines I have drawn, and they will respect that if they want said services.

I REFUSE to villainize them just because I am not their wife, it is only society’s sad expectation of men that they keep their cock in their pants for only women they love. I don’t want to live up to that expectation either.

Hypocrisy, Randall Tobias, Radical Feminists.

 

Anti Prostitution Czar Randall Tobias, architect of the USaid anti prostitution oath, which ostensibly is a war on human trafficking.  This call for abstinence from prostitution, from the sex industry, this war on human trafficking which is great for PR, for photo ops, great for President Bush to declare war on something else.  This time human trafficking, which anti prostitution radical feminist activists have conflated trafficking as any woman in the sex industry going as far as Hooters Girls being made into victims of sexual slavery by the vast forces of the radical feminist titled rhetorically named Pro Porn/Pro Prostitution movement.  Which in itself is a misnomer.  But let’s deal with Randall Tobias first.

 

Randall Tobias was Director of U.S. Foreign Assistance and Administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID).  Randall Tobias, a pro-abstinence zealot who couldn’t abstain from enjoying the services of D.C. Madam Jeane Palfry’s escort service.   A high level government administration member hiring an escort is probably not much of a shock in most cases.  Then again, in most cases it shouldn’t be a big deal.  Except Tobias was Director of US Foreign Assistance and Administrator for US Agency for International Development, USAID.  USaid, the same organization that required the anti prostitution oath from organizations seeking USaid.  By taking the anti prostitution oath an NGO and it’s members could access large amounts of funding from USAID.  Organizations that would or could not take the pledge and deliver needed services to sex workers in need of medical care, education, housing, and many other needs worldwide were shout out of the funding.  Many programs using harm reduction models simply were financially suffocated leaving the very sex workers without needed resources all in the name of fighting a supposed war on trafficking.  Only the war wasn’t on trafficking it wasn’t even inherently a war, just a creative alliance between the Bush Administration, many radical feminist activists and organizations and the religious right.  Spun into their war on trafficking was a creative way to grab all the funding for themselves and financially starve programs that were harm reduction or sex worker human rights based.  This war to end trafficking, which allegedly is a war to end sexual slavery, had little to do with ending human trafficking and forced labor.  It was a financial ploy for a certain sect of the government to show it’s war on prostitution, for radical feminists to shut out the sex worker rights movement and harm reduction movement from funding and the religious right to demonstrate their faux war on trafficking.  This was all a great chance for a Bush Administration/radical feminist/religious right campaign to position themselves as the moral beacons fighting a war on trafficking.  All of this this conveniently began at the height of Bush’ popularity.  When mission accomplished was being declared in Iraq. 

 

Had Randall Tobias not been the outspoken anti prostitution czar and leader of this alliance to end prostitution, his hiring of escorts probably would have gone unnoticed.  But while he publicly campaigned to end the sex industry, he was privately hiring escorts.  The very escorts he was seeking to force out of the industry if his alleged goal to end the sex industry were to succeed.  Which time and truth have shown, it was just a nice high paying government job high in the Bush Administration.  Should it be a problem for Tobias to hire an escort, an escort who is an adult and a consenting sex worker?  If it weren’t for who he is and what he espouses and his actions the answer should be no.  But he is who he is.  The hypocrite who sought to steal the occupation and rights of the sex workers he hired, was himself hiring them.  The hypocrisy is blatant. 

 

Now onto the radical feminists.  Melissa Farley, Donna Hughes, and so many others have joined this alliance, have profited from it, have become what their egos have always desired, to be considered leaders in the war on prostitution.  A war on a topic in which neither was a first person participant.  Neither Farley or Hughes were sex workers although Hughes often claimed she wished she had been so she could better understand.  But lack of knowledge is power in their case.  They have their studies and academic writings to allegedly make up for their deficient knowledge of sex work and the sex industry.  

 

These radical feminists made their alliance to cut sex worker rights orgs and harm reduction orgs worldwide out of the funding pie. For the radical feminists, it apparently was a great idea in 2003 in the post 9/11 national willingness to support Bush’ war on terror, on anything.  These same radical feminists who are so willing to criticize sex worker rights activists and organizations with real and imagined transgressions as being pro porn, as being unwilling to address the harm caused by some men to women, children, transgendered in the sex industry suddenly are silent about a client.  A client whom otherwise they would be stating bought rape through a Madam who they would say sold rape of “prostituted women”.  Only since the client was the poster boy of their war.  They are silent.  Apparently “purchased” rape in this case was ok since it was their man doing the buying.  While the radical constantly posture about their opposition to the men “prostituting” women as all encompassing evil in this case they are silent.  If they were a true movement with true motives, they would oppose Tobias as he is what they claim to be fighting.  Instead silence.  In other words it is ok if he is their man.  I guess they feel they can’t bite the hand that feeds.  

 

As Director of SWOP East, which was once an anti sex industry political organization, I choked in 2003 on the lies, the rhetoric, the hypocrisy that I saw inside the radical feminist movement, inside the beltway conferences, even from the invitations from President Bush to attend dinners, events to showcase us as one of their token organizations.  I choked on this and balked.  It began my personal realignment with the sex worker human rights movement and initiated the process that lead the complete change from being an anti sex industry activist leading an anti sex industry organization to a sex worker human rights activist taking what is now SWOP East, to a sex worker rights position.  

 

This transition has come with a price.  I am essentially the anti Christ to the radial feminist movement.  Our organization has been shut out of funding and is relying on all volunteer efforts for survival and growth.  But it is worth it.  The sex worker rights movement is fighting oppression, marginalization, exploitation and stigmatization of sex workers through human rights and labor initiatives.  We too take on issues of coercion and have zero tolerance for coercion, for forced labor, for human trafficking.  But we choose to believe there are many if not most in the sex industry who are their by choice and their exploitation is due to lack of labor and human rights.  Not some vast pro porn/prostitution machine as stated by the radical feminists and some vast network of human traffickers enslaving all women in the sex industry as the government plays it to be.  

 

I am very happy that I listened to my intuition in 2003 and walked away from the radical feminist movement and it’s alliances taking what is now SWOP East with me.  The price was high for me, facing threats of injury and death from alleged radical feminist activists, facing lies, distortions, censorship.  SWOP East has been a target of hatred for years because of the change in ideology.  But time is proving our point.  We were right to walk away.  Heretics to radical feminism?   Yes, and proudly so.  Am I the radical feminist anti Christ?  The Judas of the movement?  Probably.  I’m glad to be and see it as proof of doing the right thing.

Right now Randall Tobias’ hypocrisy is blatantly obvious.  The Bush Administration’s war on trafficking is a pathetic misappropriation of funding for those who align with him.  The radical feminists hypocrisy is perhaps the worst.  They refuse to take the very stand that they trumpet as their core value because it would mean criticizing their now disgraced leader and the hand that fed them so well.  Their intentions and self serving goals are now apparent. 

 

For the sex worker human and labor rights organizations, for those doing harm reduction for sex workers in need, the criticism we have faced, the financial suffocation we have endured to stand in the face of hatred, in the face of hypocrisy, in the face of those who would like to destroy our activism and abandon sex workers in need now for some alleged end of the sex industry, supposed end of sexual slavery in some mythical day in the future.  

 

Please, now is the time to reassert our voices.  Our movement is the mainstream, is seeking practical and pragmatic social change which can bring great advances in human and labor rights for sex workers.  We endured and the hypocrisy of the Bush Administration, the radical feminists and the religious right have been exposed.  Now is the time to speak, to be heard, to claim our space as sex workers and sex worker rights activists for a movement about ending oppression and exploitation of those in the sex industry.  There was take back the night.  Now lets take back our rights.  This can only be done by networking, by speaking out, by joining together which we have and are!  Great advances have happened in just the last year.  Stay strong, stay together and speak out about sex worker rights!

 

Solidarity

 

Jill Brenneman

SWOP East Coordinator

www.swopeast.org

www.myspace.com/jillbrenneman

www.myspace.com/swopeast

www.myspace.com/swopeastnc