Video screening: NYC, July 23, Sex worker advocates in Macedonia

From our friends at Witness:

WITNESS and partner organization, HOPS, will be screening their new documentary on sex workers’ rights in Macedonia, on July 23 at Bluestockings Bookstore. Following the screening, WITNESS partner representative, Marija Tosheva will take part in a discussion on the role of the film in advocating for more just treatment for sex workers in Macedonia and Eastern Europe, and internationally as well.

Marija Tosheva is Program Director of Healthy Options Project Skopje (HOPS), a Macedonian NGO which since 1996 has run outreach and advocacy programs with sex workers and drug users, promoting safer behavior and enabling access to legal, health and social services, as well as resocialization and reintegration of sex workers, drug users, and their families. She is in New York for the summer editing the video with WITNESS.

DATE: July 23, 2009

TIME: 7:00 PM

PRICE: FREE

LOCATION: Bluestockings Bookstore, 172 Allen Street between Stanton and Rivington on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

Sex Workers at Pride in San Francisco, today!

A message on San Francisco’s sex worker contingent at Pride:

Please forward to all sex workers. Sex Workers Dyke March contingent will meet at 6:45pm on Sat the 27th on the corner of 18th and Dolores, directly to the side of the Dolores Park Cafe. Bring any signs, fabulousness, lovers and allies.

Love, Sadie Lune

Breaking: Craigslist to end Erotic Services

This just came across the news; posting for the sake of us having a place to hash out how to respond, what comes next, and field the inevitable questions from the press.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal will be holding a press conference at 11am Eastern today. We’ll post more news as it develops.

AP wire story:

Ill. AG: Craigslist dropping ‘erotic services’ ads

CHICAGO (AP) — Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan says that Craigslist is getting rid of its “erotic services” ads and will create a new adult category that Web site employees will review.

Madigan’s office said Wednesday that such existing ads on Craigslist will expire in seven days.

Madigan and the attorneys general for Connecticut and Missouri met with Craigslist officials last week seeking an end to ads they contend are advertisements for illegal sexual activities.

An e-mail sent to Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster was not immediately returned Wednesday morning.

Craigslist came under renewed pressure to remove the ads after a medical student in Boston was charged with the April killing of a masseuse he met on the site.

More in the Hartford Courant, Chicago local news.

May 8th: Video Advocacy Training for Sex Worker Organizing & Advocacy

Via The Sex Workers Empowerment Project — a video advocacy training in partnership with WITNESS,  for sex worker rights’ advocates will be held on May 8th in New York City.

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(video from WITNESS training with sex worker advocates in Macedonia)

The Sex Workers Empowerment Project (SWEP) and $pread Magazine are working with WITNESS to put together a full-day training on video advocacy, specifically for sex worker organizing and advocacy. This training will provide participants with a range of effective strategies for using video in their human rights documentation and advocacy, including a basic overview of filming and video editing. The training focuses on three types of projects:

(1) Setting up a “cop watch” program: Includes effectively utilizing video to present to UN treaty bodies in order to pressure responsible parties to take action to stop abuse by police.

(2) Incorporating video in legislative advocacy: Includes streaming video on the internet as part of advocacy campaigns and presenting focused, action-oriented video to key decision makers.

(3) Story-telling documentary: using video as a grassroots educational tool or as a fundraising tool.

The Modern Hooker Has A Dream

I’ve been loving The Modern Hooker and her comics (and her randy Twitter presence) — this is today’s strip, and so apt:

One thing Obama can ignore in his first week in office

(In light of the continuing debates about how US sex workers understand trafficking, I’m crossposting this from my personal blog.)

Nicholas Kristof has been issuing ad-hoc Presidential guidance on the sex trade for years now. The archive of his editorial column in the New York Times serves as a record of his proposals. In 2004, he “bought the freedom” of two women working in brothels in Poipet, Cambodia with the intention of returning them to their villages. Kristof wasn’t prosecuted under US law for the purchase of sex slaves – he wrote of this sale as an “emancipation,” and in 2005, he was back in Poipet to check up on the women. One had returned to prostitution, prompting Kristof to offer another round of recommendations to President Bush, pleading with him to commit the United States to a New Abolitionism.

Now he’s back with his 2009 agenda, delivered like the others, as a kicker to his column. In it, he asks that the Obama administration pressure the Cambodian government to bust more brothels, on the premise that the risk of going to jail for selling sex will hurt brothel owners’ profits and will protect more women from abuse and violence. Yet such stings and raids are already the centerpiece of a disastrous crackdown on Cambodian prostitution. The Bush administration has supported the raids of Cambodian brothels for at least as long as Kristof has been demanding they step up a fight they are already in – and losing.

It was under threat of sanctions from the United States that prostitution was outlawed in Cambodia. The resulting government-sponsored raids on brothels did not lead to a great improvement in the lives of women and girls. Instead, the same police tasked with “liberating” women from Cambodia’s brothels have been accused by human rights groups of abusing these same women.

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In a video made by members of the Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers (APNSW), one survivor of what was called a “rehabilitation center” relates the story of being gang raped by six members of the police force: “They raped me from one after the other… the last one didn’t use condom because I got only five condoms. I told him that I have HIV but he was not believe me. He said if I had HIV, would have scar on body, not so smooth.” Another woman survivor describes her time in the Koh Kor rehabilitation center. It sits on the same island that was once home to a Khmer Rouge prison and execution camp. She explains that when she asked questions about why she had been taken in against her will, and what was wrong with what she was doing, she was repeatedly beaten by her captors – the police. These are the people – the police, and the government officials who have operated brothels in a network of corruption – that Kristof would like us to trust to combat violence.

Setting a human rights agenda for the United States will be an enormous challenge for Barack Obama and his incoming administration, with a host of failed Bush campaigns to contend with. His handling of so-called “sex slavery” will be but one. When considering how he ought to proceed, to undo damage done, and to improve human rights around the globe, Obama should look not to Kristof and his urgent cries, but to those women who are currently imprisoned and violated by the people who were supposed to “save” them. To endorse brutal, violent raids and “rehabilitation” as a solution to the brutality and violence of coerced prostitution ignores the evidence that raids do nothing to discourage abusive conditions — they perpetuate them.

A “Prostitution Free Zone” for the Inauguration

It was just one month ago that sex workers from around the United States converged on Washington, DC for the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers. Now, with the excuse of preparing for the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama, “portions of downtown [DC] have been declared a ‘Prostitution Free Zone’ for the Inaugural celebration period,” according to DCist.

Different Avenues and a coalition of DC-based advocates, including the Best Practices Policy Project and Alliance for a Safe & Diverse DC, released a report this summer on the discriminatory practice of the “Prostitution Free Zones,” detailing how anyone — usually transgender women and women of color — walking in these “zones” can be targeted for harassment and detention by law enforcement.

I don’t think any sex workers expected to feel welcomed by the incoming Obama administration — and though we don’t know exactly where the pressure came from, this aggressive move by DC law enforcement only reinforces that. (Besides, honestly, aren’t most of the pols & media types in town hiring sex workers by word-of-mouth these days? Unless after Spitzer they’ve all decided it’s safer to trick on the streets. Too bad for them.)

(Photo by Jason Cragg, via DCist)

Stop Shaming Us to Death: First National Sex Workers’ Rally, USA

More video from the DC March, by PJ Starr:

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San Francisco Day to End Violence Live Videos

These are the raw, archived videos from the livestream of the event. More polished, edited video to come:

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Sadie Lune performs “I Want You” & Kirk Read welcomes us to 850 Bryant

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Shelly on her experiences with the law enforcement, Acire from SWOP-Sacramento, Melissa Gira reads sex workers’ demands, & Naomi Akers from St. James Infirmary

Int’l Day to End Violence, San Francisco: Hall of Justice, 5pm vigil, procession + memorial

Sex Workers Urge SF DA Kamala Harris to Help Stop Violence

On Wednesday December 17, 2008, sex workers will gather at the Hall of Justice in San Francisco to demand an end to violence and exploitation. This vigil marks the 6th Annual International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers, honoring sex workers who’ve been murdered or assaulted. Sex workers urge San Francisco’s public officials, including District Attorney Kamala Harris, to enact policy changes that would prevent violence.

Harris has identified herself as concerned with the health, safety, and rights of those working in the sex industry. However, her support for the ongoing criminalization of sex workers based on their employment status does nothing to end the violence that she says she stands against. Sex workers demand she also end the exploitation and violence they face at the hands of those she claims will protect them — San Francisco law enforcement.

“Our research shows that arresting sex workers makes them more likely to experience violence and test positive for HIV & STIs,” said Naomi Akers, MPH, Executive Director of St. James Infirmary, a community health clinic for sex workers. “When sex work is criminalized, many are afraid to report crimes committed against them. When they do report violence, they seldom receive justice.”

Sex workers systematically face violence and sexual assault from law enforcement. According to a recent UCSF study, 1 out of 7 sex workers in San Francisco have been threatened with arrest by police officers unless they have sex with them, and 1 out of 5 sex workers in San Francisco report that police officers have paid them for sex. In addition, the Police Department and the district attorney use condoms that sex workers carry in order to stay safe as evidence against them.

“For most sex workers, their criminal status keeps them from working in safer conditions and seeking out assistance from law enforcement if assaulted or robbed,” said Tara Sawyer, Board Chair of the Sex Workers Outreach Project (SWOP-USA), a national peer-led network of sex workers who initiated this day in 2003 when Gary Leon Ridgway aka the Green River Killer was convicted for murdering 48 prostitutes over a 21-year period near Seattle, WA. Said Sawyer, “Sex workers are the experts at identifying harm in the sex industry and developing solutions.”

Interviews are available with sex workers attending the vigil in San Francisco as well as nationwide by using the contact info above. Media and the public are welcome at the SF vigil:

Int’l Day to End Violence, New York City: 7-8pm, Vigil

Sex Workers Outreach Project, Sex Work Awareness, $pread Magazine, and Sex Workers Action New York are co-sponsoring a vigil tonight in New York City from 7 to 8 pm in Washington Square Park:

World AIDS Day: A PEPFAR for the United States, without The Pledge?

I was chosen as the first caller today on NPR’s Talk of the Nation to discuss the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and the Pledge —

“On World AIDS Day, researcher Robert Gallo salutes President Bush’s successful efforts to fight the disease overseas. But with infections on the rise in America’s inner cities, Gallo argues that similar strategies must be employed in the U.S.”

Gallo had an editorial in the Washington Post calling for PEPFAR to be reproduced in the US, with a focus on “inner cities.” Gallo was part of the research team that claims to have discovered the HIV virus created the HIV blood test. I called in to raise the concern that ideological funding restrictions, like the Anti-Prostitution Loyalty Oath, could remain if we were to expand PEPFAR into the US. I stated the need for evidence-based programs that do not discriminate, and got to respond back to Gallo when he questioned how grassroots our efforts are around the world. There’s nothing like saying, “200 of us gathered at the International AIDS Conference to call for an end to the Pledge. We’re working in Cambodia, in India, in Mexico. We’re working together.”

The show archive should be posted online later today. (I was actually totally nervous — blame my having learned any sense of how to speak in public from having listened to a lot of NPR as a kid, pressure! — so bear with my shaky voice.)

US sex workers will be rallying in DC on Dec 17th, and calling for an end to The Pledge and discrimination against sex workers. Join us.

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.

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.)

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:

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.