Prostitutes call for ban on GTA

 

  

I’ve decided that I will try everyday to post a new article related to sex work that I find.. let me know what you think of this one..  

  Prostitutes call for ban on GTA

Sex workers cry foul, say game “accrues points to players for the depiction of rape and murder of prostitutes.”

By Tim Surette, GameSpot

Posted Feb 14, 2006 3:48 pm PT

“The Grand Theft Auto franchise is getting attacked from all angles. Joining the ranks of politicians, policemen, and attorneys in their crusade to see the game lifted from shelves are the nation’s sex workers. On its Web site, the Sex Workers Outreach Project USA is asking parents to assist them in calling for a ban of Take-Two Interactive’s controversial game.

Citing a 2001 document from the National Institute on Media and the Family’s David Walsh, SWOP is calling “on all parents and all gamers to boycott Grand Theft Auto.”

The organization quotes various points from Walsh’s paper, including, “Children are more likely to imitate a character with whom they identify with. In violent video games the player is often required to take the point of view of the shooter or perpetrator.”

Though the organization admits to being “adamantly opposed to any and all forms of censorship,” as concerned parents themselves, they “wish to inform other parents of the potential danger extremely violent video games pose to children.” Likewise, in the interest of promoting the rights of sex workers, the organization is opposed to the depiction of the rape and murder of prostitutes.

In the games, players can solicit “services” from prostitutes by driving their cars slowly near them. No sexual acts are in clear visible view, but during the “transaction,” the player regains health and loses money. Though the player cannot actively rape prostitutes in the game, a possible rape is alluded to once during the storyline of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The prostitutes, like every other character, are also subject to homicide at the hands of the protagonist.

According to its Web site, SWOP USA is an organization dedicated to improving the lives of sex-industry workers and to the promotion of a safe working environment for the industry.”

I was searching through the internet for interesting articles about sex workers to post up here, and I came across this article… I come from Chicago, I haven’t heard about the Sex Worker plee to ban Grand Theft Auto…

This happens to be one of my favorite video games, just because I can take my aggressions out on pedestrians on the street by running them over or using a bazooka to blow up cars… or even better… helicopters! I was fully aware that I could get a prostitute and raise my health, in fact I could run from the cops faster … but in this game they don’t specifically target prostitutes, they target all people as victims of crimes… The main purpose of this game is to be an outlaw, to defy everything we know as being legal. The greatest part of the game was knowing that cops and city officials also used the service of sex workers. There are always little missions that tell you to go and pick up sex workers for parties of City officials and Cops… It wasn’t entrapment, they weren’t being forced, they enjoyed their work, even though they had a pimp, the girls were treated nicely. You got the idea that they were not coerced into being prostitutes in the game.

As you can tell, I have finished this game several times..

I mean sure you could have sex with a prostitute in the back seat of a car, sure u accidentally run her over while driving away satisfied… but the funny thing is, is that you can run over, beat or shoot ANYONE and get money from them in the game.

 I personally thought it was a honor including sex workers in the game because, the character obviously paid for her time and not just for the sexual act. In order to get the provider to service you in the game, you must find a location where no one will see you during the session. As you drive around looking for a quiet location, the indicator at the top of the screen shows you that every minute that the provider sits in your car you pay for, so in theory he wasn’t paying for sex, he was paying for the providers time in his car, what they did was consentual amoungst adults… lol

 There was a mature warning on the game, so if the parents buy this game for their children, which is currently still on the market, then the parents already know that adult material may be present when playing the game!

Besides, not many people who play the game know that you can get a prostitute, or even how to get them to service the main character, it was a cheat code! That’s how special sex workers are….

 ~Mistress Seraphina

Article about Sex workers in AlterNet.com

http://www.alternet.org/story/16406/

Let me know what you think.

Search Palfrey’s Phone Records

You can search Palfrey’s phone records online. There are a lot of disclaimers on the site, but for those who would like to double-check some numbers, here you go: DCPhoneList.com.

SWOP Historical Video

Sex Workers Outreach Project

This is a historical video about Sex Workers Outreach Project and Measure Q, a ballot initiative in Berkely to decriminalize prostitution.

If you happened to read my posting from last Friday over at www.blog.myspace.com/swopeast, then you were privy to my cries of loneliness while attempting to educate a coworker, in my “straight” job, about the critical need for full recognition of sex workers’ human rights. I got into that sticky situation shortly after reading about the recent discovery of a serial killer who preyed on female prostitutes.
So, now, I couldn’t be more happy to be surrounded by persons who “get it”, who don’t look at me as if I need to be committed. A day discussing, and mostly agreeing, on SWOP national policies, procedures, and goals—what is typically routinely boring business—was just the kind of thing I needed to fill the void that had entered my heart.

And, really, I could say so more but I’m really hungry. . . . and I have to pee.

Equal Rights for Prostitutes

Mariko Passion works it for justice for all sex workers in front of the Federal Building in San Francisco, July 17, 2007.

Up close and personal with Mayor Newsom…

While my peers were storming through City Hall and shortly after I had insulted a large piece of sfpd grade d bacon (by asking him to support local sex workers) Mayor Newsom’s car appeared before my eyes. My mouth dropped open wide and I almost to my knees, at the opportunity that is. As he emereged from the heavily guarded vehicle, my heart was pounding. There he was, in the flesh, the man who has the power to give San Francisco’s sex worker’s not only social justice, but human and labor rights. I mustered evey gut in my body to purge, in the sweetest voice I could conjure, the words “Mayor Newsom will you please support local sex worker’s?” I looked up at him with wide eyes as I handed him a hot orange “Decriminalize Prostitution in the United States!” sticker. “Thank You” I said as he took it on his rushed journey through and past people and up into the shelter of his heavily guarded office.
I only hoped that he, and not the old, hagered man that I had spoken with earlier, would have been the one to admit to me “Man, I need a good fuck!”
Maybe next time. Maybe I’ll post this one in on CL in the missed connections section where it belongs. Maybe Gavin will find it tonight before he heads off to dream land and maybe, just maybe he will truely support his local sex workers.
If not, if you see him, tell him to give me a ring whe he feels up to the pleasure, because I’ll be ready to go to work, even if it has to be an outcall to City Hall.

KICK ASS TIME

I am here in San Fran. for the  first time enjoying myself and taking part in a powerful movement with SWOP as an affiliate of SWOP.

Live and love life and all that you do.  We stood as one and it worked, today we won a small battle in a big fight!!!!!

Love always-SKY

My day..

I’m sitting around some of the best women I’ve ever had the privilege of meeting. This afternoon we were at city hall to fight the First Offender Prostitution Program Fee(PDF). Mistress Seraphina did a great job of explaining how that went right here on our blog. I however was manning the signs, because they were not allowed inside the building. While doing that we start handing out our stickers that say things like ‘My Body My Business’. We had a group of younger people that were headed into City Hall, and they loved us! They took a bunch of our stickers. But then the Mayor shows up! Tori got him (and happened to know who he was). He took a sticker, and he was totally cute. Tho he’s against us, which means he needs to come back to the real world, and stop playing with his cushy black car with driver.

Downstairs their are a bunch of scientists talking about bee sex, and how honey bees are dying left right and center (some 30-70%) apparently. We are talking about Human sex, and how sex workers are dying, being thrown in jail and generally fucked over by society. So do honey bees fuck over each other, like our mayor?

Sex workers protest at Federal Building

Liz Barrett, The Examiner
2007-07-17 19:06:00.0
Current rank: # 17 of 5,239

SAN FRANCISCO -A group of sex workers will rally in front of the San Francisco Federal Building at noon today to protest the Bush Administration’s controversial “anti-prostitution loyalty oath,” which they say requires non-governmental aid organizations to explicitly oppose prostitution as a condition of receiving U.S. funds to provide HIV services.

Around 25 people were expected to participate, according to Carol Leigh, a member of the Sex Workers Outreach Project and one of the event’s organizers.

“We want the general public to be aware of the anti-prostitution loyalty oath and we want it rescinded,” Leigh said. But the event also was spurred by “Operation Strikeout,” a police operation that resulted in the arrests of more than 100 Bay Area prostitutes and their customers during San Francisco’s All-Star festivities.

“We want to give services to sex workers before they are arrested, not to use arrest as a form of rescue,” Leigh said.

“We stand behind the list of recommendations of the San Francisco Task Force on Prostitution,” she said. “We need to empower people who are working in the industry and who are also responsible members of the community to have a say in the policies that affect them.”

Today’s rally was organized in conjunction with the San Francisco Sex Worker Art and Film Festival taking place this week.

Examiner

It’s my Birthday…

It’s my birthday, and I’m fighting for Sex Workers Rights!  I turned 31 today and I decided to spend this week, working with  SWOP at the 5th Annual San Francisco Film Festival. It’s been great and amazing.  If you ever want to see passion, come hang out at a SWOP event. SWOP is the most passionate organization I’ve ever seen.  We had a great day today, but more on that later!

San Fransisco; The dance of the whores!

 Getting that SWOP Chicago scholarship and comming to California is already changing my life. I feel like I can jump tall  buildings , swim the seas, and walk right into the federal building with out being worried about getting arrested, perfect… I’ve accomplished one thing I’ve dreamed of doing. Watching Robyn Few dillengently ripping through the asses of California state officials…

  My hero! She ripped through office to office to address the issues that affect sex workers in the state of California… you know it all starts in the base where something  completely unconstitutional happens. Passion… from the people who know what the fuck the gov. does to oppress a group of people. Watching Robyn ripping new assholes of state officials gave me a new stance on SWOP.

Although I’ve come from a Chicago, non profit, super liberal background, I wouldn’t dare think of walking on our state building to tell Mayor Dailey that Sex workers deserve rights just like any other human being. Things in Chicago are different, our state officials are different, and the voices of sex workers in Chicago are not being heard… Perhaps that is the true fight in IL, being able to walk through city hall with a bunch of Radical whores, ripping the assholes of state officials, before we can have a sex workers right movement, we need an equal rights movement that would allow our workers to be heard and visible when our state officials run and hide….

Then again, in chicago, we aren’t really bothered as sex workers, we are bothered as activists. Strike us down because they don’t agree… I would love to fight for that mission, but my passion seems to be leading elsewhere.

I almost want to stay here in San Fran to help the SWOP movement as a whole, get it organized and get it together. I almost feel more confident in staying here, vs going back to Chi-town where I have nothing at all to loose. This is more of a fight and concern that I am willing to dedicate my life to. I want to be part of the movement and I want to make us a powerful force that pulls us into whore heaven… besides like I said I have absolutely nothing to loose… besides my playstation games…lol

And so, I’ll dance with the whores here in San Fransisco, I’ll fight for our SWOP chapters, I’ll force myself to learn to talk to people and I’ll be the best best fucking whore San Fran has ever seen….

~Mistress Seraphina Krow 

Dirty Doctors, double entendres, and the moral left

I feel such urgency when reading this blog. Things that must be said, in order to sleep. But I have a few quick additions to this already fiery volley…I was reading Kitten’s post about how people just assume that clients are predators, and many things rang true. I often find myself defensive, and fiercely protective of my clients when I am talking to a non-worker about sex work. It is only because in my heart I equate the judgment of THEM with a judgment of ME. Which only makes sense. I cannot berate my clients, but simultaneously want support. Tricks and Hos have to be mutually supportive, but like women, we are all too often pitted against each other. We are thrown to the wolves, with nothing to feed them but each other.

I dig many of my clients. I dislike just as many more. But ultimately, that shouldn’t matter. It’s a job. Is it the business of the ringmaster whether or not the lion tamer likes all the lions? No. It is the business of the ringmaster to make sure that no lions or trainers get hurt, and the audience is happy, and the money keeps flowing, and people keep throwing those peanut shells on the ground.

The Fundichristianright is on the offensive here, and as with many issues, they do a very good job at getting us to aim at each other. There are several overlapping arguments. Classic Polysci 101 stuff. Moral, Ethical, Secular, Legislative, and Economic debates. This is the same issue that has been coming up for ages, and when related to fundamentalism, hotly debated in the post 9-11 world. We are confused as to the parameters of government, corporation, and religion. What rights does the government have to dictate our behaviour? What are the grounds for determining what is acceptable behaviour within the social contract, and what is not? What happens when someone breaks this social contract? Are we a punishment based society? Or equal consequences? Who controls the code of ethics? How far does freedom of speech really go? Do we believe in heresy anymore? And where does the free-market come into all of this? Is the all mighty dollar the most holy of all?

I think it is. If this weren’t a bazillion dollar industry, nobody would give a fuck. Or not a bazillion dollars worth of a fuck.

I have no guilt about what I do. I am not a recovering catholic. I am not shaking off the shackles of original sin. I am not compelled to self-flagellation, other than for purely transcendent reasons. Wink. I am however, a deeply religious person. And my religion does not prevent my participation in something that I believe is well and fine with my gods. I have examined thoroughly the personal and compounded effects of my participation in sex work, and while I have my criticisms, I do believe that what I do is ultimately good.

Clients lie all the time. To us, to their partners, to their jobs, children, etc. But people lie all the time, and I do not believe in the sanctity of monogamy. I do believe in the sanctity of honesty, but all I can do is encourage my clients to gradually move toward a more honest approach to their own sexual needs. To gradually shed their repression, and help their partners to do the same. I often see couples, and it makes me happy that this trend is increasing.

The economic argument is interesting, and less addressed than other bits. I do not believe that capitalism is the best form of economic distribution. So I build and maintain the shadow economy. I am grateful for the immense privilege that the money I have made from sex work has afforded me. z

The secular/legislative piece of the argument is simple in my mind. I do not believe that you can legislate human perfection. But I do believe that you can teach social responsibility and autonomy. Therefore, sex in exchange for compensation should be the choice of the individuals involved. THE INDIVIDUALS. Not their pimps or partners or partriarchs. Child-labor, trafficking, etc = BAD. This choice should be an informed choice. Sex work is labor. And like any other labor, the same rights should apply. Right to organize, right to protection under the law, right to practice.

thinking of you,

Surgeon

Sex Work and the Spectrum of Empowerment

(This is an excerpt from a longer article. See link at bottom for full article)

An empowered sex worker is a sexual educator, a cultural advocate, and a healer. An empowered sex worker educates their clients on safer sex practices, thereby preventing disease transmission. They also facilitates safe sexual play, be it in the realm of BDSM or beyond, educating their clients in safe, consensual enactments of their fantasies. An empowered sex worker heals by providing safe physical, emotional and spiritual exploration. By making the space for education and healing, an empowered sex worker advocates for societal change for the better. An empowered sex worker brings great gifts not just to their own communities, but to the greater society.

We must support this.

Sex work has been around since the beginning of human history. It has existed regardless of what governmental system has been in place, and it has existed in many forms. Historically, regardless of whether, sex workers were honored and given a place in the spiritual temples, or if they were banished to the streets or outskirts of town, they have existed. When they were honored and respected, their work happened safely – and safety was therefore secured for the the worker and for the client, and for the client and for the community. When they were banished, and stigmatized, everyone was endangered. Without safe physical and emotional space, they operated at higher risks of all sorts.

An oppressed and disempowered sex worker, though strong, and fighting, is put at great risk. This risk extends to the clients, and to the entire community. When a sex worker has to hide, or live in fear, risky behavior happens. When a sex worker is not respected, violence against them is permitted. This harms the sex worker, the client, and the community at large.

We must prevent this.

This is a very black and white way of examining the circumstances around sex work, and we do not live in black and white world. The sex work experience is not easily lumped into one place along this spectrum of empowerment. Many forces fail to recognize this, many forces refuse to recognize this. Some sex work is tolerated when convenient, and most sex work is not tolerated as is convenient. This means that sex work happens on some sort of complicated spectrum between the empowered sex worker and the disempowered sex worker.

This is definitely the case in the United States.

Check out the full article here:

http://wendyvinaigrette.wordpress.com/2007/05/29/the-empowered-sex-worker/

I left my heart…

It is hard to concentrate. The constant speakeasy that tours around in a rented mini-van, occasionally spilling onto the steps of city hall and federal buildings, keeps the discussions simultaneously focused and insane. How this group manages to throw issues around the weight of my luggage without flinching is an art we refine over time. Each year, to be specific.

These women are amazing. Amazing and lovely and tough and articulate and thoughtful and driven and sexy. Late and loud and sometimes even cruel, but damn are they sexy. I am honored to be a sister. I am proud to be a sex worker.

Prostitutes say “Don’t take the pledge!”

On Tuesday, July 17th at noon sex workers from around the United States will converge on the San Francisco federal building at 450 Golden Gate. Prostitutes, escorts, massage parlour workers, BDSM workers and phone sex operators will be among the participants asking federal authorities to rescind the anti prostitution oath that has been inflicted upon non-governmental aids organizations around the world. Current U.S. law requires organizations receiving U.S. global HIV/AIDS and anti-trafficking funds to adopt specific organization-wide positions opposing prostitution. Health and human rights organizations are deeply concerned that this restriction will preclude recipients of U.S. funds from using the best practices at their disposal to prevent HIV/AIDS among these populations and to promote the fundamental human rights of all persons. In fact, evidence exists that these restrictions are already undermining promising interventions.

A video was created by the Network of Sex Work Projects on the effects of the pledge and will be shown throughout the rally. http://www.nswp.org/

Who- Sex Workers Outreach Project
What- Rally and showing of “Taking the Pledge” video
When- July 17th 12 NOON
Where- 450 Golden Gate Federal Building

San Francisco Sex Workers’ Convergence, Insomnia, and the fog

Everytime I travel I hate leaving home.  I ask myself why I make these decisions, why I commit myself to things that I won’t even quite understand until I get there, and then I get there.  And it’s amazing.  As is San Francisco.  Is it possible to so deeply miss a place I’ve never called home?  Cities.  Sf. New Orleans.  NY.  San Cristobal.  Places that I crave.  Would it be different if I lived here?  Certainly.  But now, the chance encounters, the processes, the people all surprise me.  Only in San Francisco can these things happen.  Only in SF can I post an ad on craigslist, and have forty valuable replies in 10 minutes.  Only in SF can I do a gallery show, and get the audience naked.  Only in SF is being a queer sex worker POC tattooed single mama not only accepted, but common.

Got into Oakland on Saturday, went straight to the gallery for the opening show “Asian Prostitute Sensitivity Training”  with Mariko Passion.  Amazing.  Parked in front of the gallery and realized, right across the street are a leather shop, a thrift store, and Indian restaurant, and a photo printer.  What else does a ho on the go need?  Not much.

Last nights show was so good.  Mariko and I, we pulled it all off.  In spite of chaos, she’s the same kind of artist I am.  You got tricks up your sleeve, and you’ll use them when neccessary.  It was good.  I did reverse lap dances and stripped the audience.  I caned a willing slaveboy, just for kicks.  I read a piece, and had the best time in ages.  Thank you, San Francisco.  The “We, Asian Sex Workers” show is stunning.  It’s one of those conversations I didn’t even know I needed to have, but has become so essential to my experience here.

I want to be closer to the bay.  California…vessel of my need and imagination.

Today, lead an Anti-Racism/Anti-Oppression training for SWOP sex workers and allies.  So much work needs to be done in this community.  We have so many complicated identitites, and so many things that need to be laid out on the table.  It was such a different experience than trainings I’ve been a part of in the past.  It is a markedly different perspective that we have, a markedly different rhetoric that we espouse.

Here’s a question:  What is choice when it comes to sex workers protecting themselves?  When you have survived certain encounters, had certain experiences, and developed prejudices against certain demographics based on those encounters…how can we address the experience of race on such a visceral level, how can we confront oppression in intimate relations?  How can we change the dynamic of sex workers forced to make decisions about who they see, and who they do not based on a quick phone conversation, leaning your head in the car window, an email, in which your gut instinct is all you have, in which it can be a matter of life or death?  Decisions where every detail matters?  How do we dismantle racism when it comes to sex, intimacy, eroticism, and arousal?  What is different about this discussion, versus community, organizing, institutions?  Where do we begin?

Thinking of you,
Surgeon

Palfrey’s Role at Roll Call; or, Prostitutes Have Never Been Absent From the Halls of Government

Via Fox News:

A woman accused of running a Washington prostitution ring placed five phone calls to David Vitter while he was a House member, including two while roll call votes were under way, according to telephone and congressional records.

Vitter, a Louisiana Republican now in the Senate, acknowledged Monday that his number was on the woman’s call list and apologized for a “very serious sin.” The married father of four has remained in seclusion since, missing Senate votes and other activities Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Telephone records released by Deborah Jeane Palfrey indicate she placed calls that were answered by Vitter’s Washington phone on five occasions while Vitter was in the House, from 1999 through 2001. On four of those five days, the House was in session and Vitter participated in every roll call vote.

One day was particularly busy in the House, with Vitter’s phone receiving Palfrey’s call in the middle of the eighth recorded vote of the day, at 5:06 p.m., according to the records.

GOP Senator Admits to Using Palfrey’s Escort Service

(Via Politco.com):

Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) acknowledged Monday night that his number appears on telephone records of the alleged D.C. Madam, Deborah Jeane Palfrey, and issued an apology.

“This was a very serious sin in my past for which I am, of course, completely responsible,” Vitter said in a statement released by his office.

“Several years ago, I asked for and received forgiveness from God and my wife in confession and marriage counseling,” he added. “Out of respect for my family, I will keep my discussion of the matter there — with God and them. But I certainly offer my deep and sincere apologies to all I have disappointed and let down in any way.”

Vitter did not disclose exactly when the incidents took place, but said it was before he ran for the Senate in 2004.