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"...take some time to peruse the Bound, Not Gagged blog at length. It focuses on sex workers rights, and does a damn fine job covering said topic. Smart and effective." -Brittney Gilbert
So, with all the news happening in the Sex Worker activism camps around the UPR process, I thought it would be wise to try and make sense of it all, which I will be trying to do with this post.
UPR is the Universal Periodic Review, and each of the 192 countries in United Nations Human Rights Council are reviewed every 4 years. This year (well 2010-2011) is the review period for the United States, and is the first time the US has been reviewed. Basically the US writes a report about their status in regards to human rights and each of the 192 countries gets a chance to tell the US how they feel about the report, and anything else in regards to human rights. Next, the United States gets to respond. In their response for each item the countries told the US about, they can support or not support the item. But of course since we are talking about whole countries this process takes a long time (about a year total). Since we as sex workers are part of the Human Rights world, we are interested in what happens, and below is what happens as it concerns us as sex workers:
So in August of 2010, the US gave their report (PDF).
In November of 2010, the countries told the US what they thought of their report. This is where it finally gets interesting to us as sex workers, for Uruguay had this to say (report in PDF):
92.86. Undertake awareness-raising campaigns for combating stereotypes and violence against gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transsexuals, and ensure access to public services paying attention to the special vulnerability of sexual workers to violence and human rights abuses (Uruguay);
We of course were VERY pleased with what Uruguay said, and promptly started organizing, to see how we can get the US to accept this recommendation and show their support. So we started organizing, and we built a special group for this process with lots of broad support (See our group’s webpage for more information). With all of this organizing we managed some success, and this is what the United States said in response:
86. We agree that no one should face violence or discrimination in access to public services based on sexual orientation or their status as a person in prostitution, as this recommendation suggests.
This is of course awesome, but our work is not yet done, for that we’ve started a new campaign that takes place this Wed March 18th called 86 the violence, don’t let us be a target. A brief video about it is here:
Hopefully this helps make this whole process easier to understand!
All of the keynote speaker presentations for this year’s Desiree Alliance Conference are now live and available for viewing on the Desiree website. Included are Dr. Joycelyn Elders, Women with a Vision’s Deon Haywood, ISWFACE’s Norma Jean Almodovar, Kirk Read, SWOP-USA’s Robyn Few, Tim Barnett, and Nina Hartley.
Posted on March 7, 2010 by thegoddess Mariko Passion
2 months ago, I was robbed in my home/incall by a man who demanded his money back BEFORE the sexual activity, and also got away with $250 more of mine AFTER I pepper sprayed him in the face three times. This was the SECOND time that I had been robbed as an escort, alone, naked and defenseless (except for the pepper spray this time). The first time, the attacker said he had a gun and he did have sex with me first, making that THEFT OF SERVICES attack a RAPE in my eyes. (theft of services = theft of consent based on payment= RAPE)
The recent time, according to the police report that I did manage to do this time, was classified as “petty theft.” Going to the police for petty theft is just as empowering as filling out a police report after someone breaks your car window and steals your stereo. You know that you have lost and that no one, not the police or you will be able to do anything about your loss. All you can do is clean up the broken glass and tape up your window. This is the feeling that sex workers too often have once they have been robbed and/or sexually assaulted.
When I was a stripper in a club, I was fortunate enough to not have experienced this type of violence. I used to say on panels that I spoke at “I had never been sexually assaulted WHILE a sex worker (only before).” but now that I have lived and learned the life of an outlaw escort, things are different. This is not to say that strippers and brothel workers are by any means safe because they operate in a house or a club. Violence against sex workers happens everywhere.
There are many who operate under the premise that women are weaker than men and that a sex worker is someone that will be an easy target for violence or robbery because of her outlaw status. This post mainly speaks to female sex workers, not to discount the violence that male sex workers might face (but it’s just different).
I had never taken a self defense course, and I had never gotten in a fight. I was strong in my mind and my body was athletic. I knew, however that I had not the power or experience to fight a grown man and win. Fortunately, all of the times that I have been sexually assaulted in my life, none have included physical altercations. The guy who said he had a gun never showed me a gun, but I decided to not challenge it and sit there while he took back the money I rightfully earned by being with him.
This recent attacker was clearly mad that I had sprayed him in the face, so he came back to my house and slashed my tire. I bought a stun gun the very next day and went to the Krav Maga training center to inquire about self defense. For 3 days I entered my apartment through the back door and I turned on lights in my house preparing for his return. The training was expensive. There was a membership fee and a first and last payment, and they wanted $160 a month! I charged the whole thing on the one remaining credit card I had. I felt like I could not afford to not defend myself.
Being in a fight is a cardiovascular workout! Adrenalyn is pumping and your breath pattern is altered even though you’re muscles are charged. For the $160/mo you can work out and take classes as many times as you want but the average person works out 3 times a week. You can take mixed martial arts, yoga, ground fighting and the main curriculum of Krav Maga defense. I can’t tell you how much this program has helped my mind, my body and my power expand exponentially! I have NEVER felt so strong and powerful than when I get to practice kicking a guy in the balls repeatedly at full force or when I learn how to pluck his hands strangling my neck against a wall! Krav Maga trains women side by side with men. You partner up with someone in class that is supposed to be your size and weight, but sometimes that isn’t possible and you get to experience sparring with a man. Taking hits even while holding a pad HURTS. But, I feel like I am in THE FIGHT CLUB now because anyone who has done this knows the adrenalyn rush you get from taking the impact of hits is almost as great as hitting. You form a bond with your partner that is unlike any other sport I have participated in. All of us have come to this training for an unspoken reason and it is from that fulfillment of each of our individual goals that we are bonded. It is NOTHING like the LACK of comraderie that you feel jogging alongside someone on a treadmill or taking a dance class at the gym.
I am writing here to encourage ANY SEX WORKER THAT MAKES AT LEAST $200/HR per date to INVEST at least that amount in your self defense. If all you can afford is a short 3 day weekend course, great, but really my feeling is that you need to train constantly to stay prepared. One 3 day course 3 years ago is not, like J Lo would say “Enough.” I feel that the battle is constant and that another attack can happen as long as I continue to do this work. You are not safer because you work indoors. Craigslist is just the “internet streets”, where the same predators and hustlers are meeting you with the same intentions except they look like straight people who go to medical school and have Blackberrys.
I consider myself in the same risk and danger zones as a street worker. I am an upper working class anonymous client worker. Screening is minimal. I am a graveyard shift agency girl. I work independently too but my main scheduled work is agency work til 6am. Agency work operates on a bait and switch and upsell hustle which automatically throws wrenches in a clients potential respect of you as a sex worker. I deal with de-escalating angry customers as a regular part of my shift and have to also get tips out of those angry deceived customers to make a living. Interestingly enough, the robberies did not occur on agency time, nor did the time I was arrested from Craigslist; so I am not convinced that the violence is due to being an agency girl although the set up of the hustle I do sets me up for antagonism and sexist violence in an already unequal playing field. The second time I was robbed I failed to screen properly because i was feeling GOOD not bad. I had just gotten my hair done, had just had a guitar lesson…this would be the 3rd person that was to come in and out of my house and I just did not expect that the outcome would be so bad AT ALL. Things can get sloppy when you are feeling bad, but ALSO when you are feeling good!
Everyday that I train, I am preparing for my next attack. I refuse to just stand there and let them take from me again. I go to class and practice boxing and fighting and then I shower and get ready for my agency shift. I am more ready for an attack than ever before. THIS IS THE ONLY INSURANCE POLICY I HAVE. It is expensive but worth it. I feel that I cannot afford to not train like this.
It’s very expensive for me and the training is totally inaccessible for most people. The crazy thing is that Krav Maga is the SAME training that is taught to police officers and military forces, because it is the martial art of the Israeli army (FREE PALESTINE). I have political views that I must put aside while I train, and aside from the origin of the martial art, there is nothing that indoctrinates the state of Israel anywhere in the training center. ALSO, interestingly enough the Deputy District attorney of Los Angeles (head honcho cop/lawyer) OWNS and is the Lead Instructor for Krav maga in LA. I am thinking of approaching him about giving victims of violence who have filled out a police report 2 months of training for free. It seems like it would be something that a cop/lawyer could go for since it advocates going to the police in some way and doesn’t mention the word sex worker even though many many sex workers would qualify. I wonder how many of those training beside me ARE cops? are sex workers? or are training to defend against a partner in a domestic violence situation? I am simmering on trying to pitch the idea to the owner, or just stay silent and anonymous..please check out www.kravamaga.com to find a training center near you!
I’m always intrigued when I hear a sex worker positive (or mostly positive) song that becomes widely famous. These artists are like sex worker rights activists, but aren’t part of the larger sex worker movement, which makes me sad. I’d love to get people like Wyclef Jean to get even more down for our cause, and change minor little issues with their music. Take this one for example:
For mainstream music, this is unbelievable right? Except the part where Hope says:
Take me away from here, so far
Where they ride horses, no cars
No more stripping in bars
Me and you ‘Clef, against the odds
Right there, it’s the pretty woman stereotype. Sex worker rights activists clearly have an issue with this stereotype being pushed down our collective throats. Certainly some of us want out of the business (whatever form of sex work), but we don’t need you in a white horse to come save us. We are empowered human beings, capable of making our own destinies, even if we had our knight on a white horse fantasies as a little girl!
Do others have sex worker positive music? Please share! It would be great on March 3rd to have sex worker positive music at an event!
Senator David Vitter, a man who endured a public scandal after being outed for visiting prostitutes, has devoted himself to taking on ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) after the group advised an under-cover couple posing as a prostitute and pimp to lie about her profession and launder her earnings in order to receive housing aid.
Andy Cobb is not amused. The satirist made a video asking Americans to call Vitter’s office to discuss his prostitution scandal and lack of punishment. Cobb wrote this on his YouTube page:
“If Senator Vitter is so outraged by the ACORN prostitution scandal, surely he doesn’t mind talking about his own. The group that Vitter and others so easily condemn provides vital services to some of the poorest people in America. ACORN is clearly imperfect, but it takes a bold man to attack their sex worker interactions when his own have gone unpunished. So as long as the self-proclaimed ‘most outspoken critic of ACORN’ is sitting in judgment of prostitute consultations, let’s benefit from his real world experience. Call up Senator Vitter’s office [(202) 224-4623], ask him all your questions vis-a-vis hooker management services. If the topic is important enough to deny services to the most under-served communities in America, it’s important enough for him to address directly.”
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.
A bunch of us went to the screening of the new Xaviera Hollander documentary here in Chicago a few days ago and were impressed with the film. It’s very positive portrayal and deserves to be seen by a wider audience, but the film lacks distribution at this point. It’s been shown at festivals around the world and the filmmakers are in talks with HBO, but nothing has been finalized.
If you’re intested in seeing it aired, we’re trying to get people to write in to HBO and mention the film in hopes they will pick it up. We had a long talk with the producer after the screening and he seemed geniunely excited that we approved of the film. He even graciously took some naughty photos with Sinful Sinthia in front of the theater. Let’s help these guys out.
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – JUNE 18th, 2009 – 8PM. Stories of romance in spite of social stigma, as told from both sides of the bed. Turns out it’s not actually true that sex workers are incapable of feeling love; or too generous, greedy, humiliated or gold-hearted to pursue it. Likewise, the city hosts hordes of humans who love whores. In fact, many of those who have turned a trick or courted a courtesan are luminaries of queer arts and performance.
<p>Whore Lover is a multimedia showcase of the art of balancing between erotic work and play; and establishing long-term intimacy with those of us who charge by the hour. Tales of love, lust and lucre, straight (but not narrow!) from the talented mouths of porn stars, hookers, rent boys, strippers, Dominatrices, and the lovely folks who love them. Featuring art, films, and performances by: Sadie Lune, Kirk Read, Mariko Passion, Ed Wolf, Lorelei Lee, Ginger Virago, Seeley Quest, and Madsen Minax. Curated by Sadie Lune, and presented by the National Queer Arts Festival with support from the Creating Queer Community program.
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Whore Lover: Sex Workers Queering Love The Garage Theater 975 Howard St. @ 6th June 18, 2009 @ 8:00 Tickets: $12-$20
Buy Tickets on-line: https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/66151 415-885-4006
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.
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. Continue reading →
Along with some former $pread Magazine staff members, I’m the co-founder of Sex Work Awareness, an organization that works toward the destigmatization of sex workers. Our work is partly focused on creating better information and resources about sex workers for the public and for journalists. Our online project Sex Work 101 is the tip of that iceberg. Sex Work 101 has been dormant for a while, but I’ve got some content for it now and will be updating it once a week. Last week I posted an answer to the question Does the average sex worker practice safe sex?
Public education is just one part of the work of Sex Work Awareness. We also aim to train sex workers to safely respond to media requests, craft a message, and make their own media products. To that end, we’ve created a workshop: Speak Up! Media Training for the Empowered Sex Worker (click to read more about it and download a PDF of the application form).
I’ve taught several versions of this workshop over the past few years, but I’ve never gotten the chance to teach a day-long version of it. On Saturday, April 18th, my co-facilitator Eliyanna Kaiser and I will be doing just that here in New York. The workshop will cover topics like when to say no to media, outness, crafting your message, interview techniques, and basic skills for creating text, video, and audio.
This is a day-long seminar in which meals will be provided. The workshop is limited to ten participants on the basis of a submitted application; each participant will receive a Flip camera and a $50 stipend. Only self-identified current and former sex workers are invited to apply, to ensure that all feel comfortable during the seminar. The workshop is lead by two English speakers, so participants must be fluent in English.
I know lots of people will be bummed that the workshop isn’t in (fill in place). We can’t offer to cover travel for anyone coming from outside NYC, but we have a limited amount of space to put people up if theydecide to shoulder travel costs. We are planning on traveling to other cities eventually, so if you are not in the New York City area but are interested in participating in a future workshop, please get in touch. We have limited time and resources, so if you truly want us to come to your city to do this workshop, your community needs to be invested in helping make it happen.
This workshop is financially made possible by the fundraising efforts of the Sex Blogger Calendar and the generous support of all our sponsors, especially Njoy. I know $20 for a calendar doesn’t seem like much (and now they’re actually on sale for $10 each), but it has made a huge difference for the ten sex workers and former sex workers who will be able to attend this workshop and get the training and support they need to seriously kick ass.
Deadline for applications is March 10th, and we’ll inform people of acceptance on March 17th. Please circulate this widely!
These are the raw, archived videos from the livestream of the event. More polished, edited video to come:
Vodpod videos no longer available.
Sadie Lune performs “I Want You” & Kirk Read welcomes us to 850 Bryant
Vodpod videos no longer available.
Shelly on her experiences with the law enforcement, Acire from SWOP-Sacramento, Melissa Gira reads sex workers’ demands, & Naomi Akers from St. James Infirmary
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – JUNE 18th, 2009 – 8PM. 
Bound, Not Gagged 