prostitution

Talking POINTS to OPPOSE SB 1388: Historic Change Proposed to California’s Prostitution LAW

Posted by April 25, 2014

This is a reprint from Erotic Service Providers Union site

California SB 1388 is two pronged failed approach:
It recriminalized customers of prostitutes with the purpose of creating a funding scheme from new high fines to pay for counseling services for minors involved in prostitution.

Where’s the evidence?

The author of this bill has yet to present any evidence that mandatory jail time and new high fines to be shared with non profits who provide counseling to minors and law enforcement has any positive effects on anybody. http://www.diplomaticourier.com/news/topics/politics/2105-devoid-of-research-an-evaluation-of-human-trafficking-interventions

Indifferent to the existing human rights violation of criminalization

By bringing mandatory penalties onto customers of prostitutes, SB 1388 places the burden on us newly defined ‘performers’ to protect our customers by forcing us to work in more secluded spaces. Carrying or insisting on using condoms to protect ourselves will put additional risks on an already vulnerable population, not to mention the public health risk.
UN General Assembly. The protection of human rights in the context of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS): Report of the Secretary-General. Human Rights Council, 16th session. UN doc. no. A/HRC/16/69, 20 Dec. 2010.

Why legislate failed policy?

The author of SB 1388 has yet to show that the cost of mandatory jail time, in combination with the bounty incentives it creates for law enforcement to make arrests and prosecutions will be covered by the proposed high fines let alone cover the cost of counseling.

The authors of SB 1388 have ignored the already failed policy of San Francisco’s First Offender Prostitution Program administered by the District Attorney’s office that clearly shows that this very same fine scheme DOES NOT cover the cost of said ‘counseling’ let alone the cost of criminalization.
http://rightswork.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/John-Schools.Lovell.Jordan.7.12.pdf
MOU Between San Francisco Police Department/DA/SAGE
Management Audit of the San Francisco First Offender Prostitution Program

The authors of SB 1388 have ignored widely published studies that show that long term housing is the priority for youth in prostitution, not counseling. http://ann.sagepub.com/content/653/1/225.full.pdf+html


Why Does SB 1388 Get To Violate State Professional Standards?

Given that the California State Legislature has allowed non credentialed ‘peer counselors’ to provide counseling to youth, SB 1388 has yet to show how these unaccountable non profits avoid the pitfalls of unethical and ‘self- dealing’ actors from being allowed to use and further risk the most vulnerable for more harm? http://oaklandnorth.net/2013/12/06/juvenile-hall-in-oakland-plans-to-create-a-girls-camp-for-sexually-exploited-youth/comment-page-1
Ms. R’s testimony
California Senate Public Safety Committees’ Analysis of SB 1388
2013 VAWA pp101 http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-113s47enr/pdf/BILLS-113s47enr.pdf

Why do they get to rename us?

SB 1388 renames us prostitutes as ‘performers’ and our customers as ‘purchaser’. This renaming of our identities, our relationships and our work as ‘commercial sex acts’ without our permission is a human rights violation of the most egregious kind and is completely unacceptable!

ESPU

4/25/14

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Lessons On Legalization From Copenhagen

Posted by February 18, 2013

 

Lessons On Legalization From Copenhagen

 

 

 Opinion | Inhumane and illogical treatment of us sex workers

Susanne Møller

February 17, 2013 – 07:00

http://cphpost.dk/commentary/opinion/opinion-inhumane-and-illogical-treatment-us-sex-workers

 

 

The above opinion piece written from a sex worker perspective which is to live under the oppressive and ineffective legalization of prostitution scheme imposed on them in 1999, offers specific directions of change from an actual worker prospective.

 

Its always best to hear from actual workers whose dignity is being impacted by laws that are sold to the public in the name of  ‘public decency’.

 

The author states: ‘….we’re not allowed to enter into binding contracts. This is a major hindrance that would help alleviate many of the practical problems that instead wind up turning into cases of human trafficking. Such is often the case with many foreign sex workers. They get help to come to Denmark, and then once they get here they wind up disagreeing with their handlers about what the deal was.’

 

This statement is instructive as to what prostitutes actually want.

The prostitutes who work in Denmark want to hire support staff and have the contracts between them be binding.  That means the contracts between workers/workers and/or support staff, or handlers as she calls them, has to be in writing and has to be enforced.

 

Every organized worker understands that having a contract, collectively bargained or not, is one thing but having it enforced is another.  Your contract is only as good as your ability to enforce it on your job and all erotic laborers ought to have both the backing of public and government support when enforcing the contracts on their job.  If we’re ripped off by a customer or support person, then we must have recourse the likes of which we see in Germany’s legalization of prostitution law passed in 2002 whereby prospective customers who make appointments and don’t show up can be made to hand over the money for the lost wages in court.

 

But going to court involves going public and in this case going public to get restitution risks being exposed publically as a prostitute and that would bring unintended consequences of being harassed, extorted, a target for violence, and discrimination.  Because our class of worker, across the globe, has suffered such negative stigma for so long, its important that access to legal protections be indentured in all legalization schemes.  Specific anti-discrimination laws for our class have to be enacted whereby workers and our larger community members who are in association with us can pursue contact enforcement, a form of equal protection laws, without the fear of loosing our housing, employment, education, nor threaten our child custody arrangements or other financial relationships.  Our privacy has to be respected.  Our personal and professional privacy has to be highly regarded as society value that comes with civil and criminal sanctions if violated.

 

And for those who are obsessed with exploitation in our industry, this is your opportunity to take note of how these demand from actual workers would empower all on a whole different level.  Having different kinds of incentives to leverage mutually beneficial contracts to help all parties fulfill their contract instead of focusing unduly on criminalizing one party so heavily as to completely disenfranchise the other disadvantaged party from engaging in a grievance process would open up new self- determined options and transparency, a public treasure.

 

To those of us who’ve worked in the sex industry for so many years with ‘gentle women’s agreements’ would do well to think about what it would be like to actually write down our agreements as to empower our class in a whole different way.

 

I know that if the public could see our verbal contracts in writing and how it is that we’ve been working together all these decades, they’d have to stop with their moral panic and instead have to start paying attention to their own exploitive work contracts and work conditions.

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Thanks James or John or whatever- But No Thanks

Posted by February 11, 2013

Thank James or John or whatever- But No Thanks

 

It pains me to no end  to read a rare op-ed supporting prostitutes’ right only hear the usual neo liberal dribble that passes for support of our right to negotiate for our own labor and work conditions.

 

http://www.mndaily.com/2013/02/11/prostitution-should-be-legal#.URkviGNWVz4.facebook

Prostitution should be legal

Laws criminalizing adult prostitution need to be re-examined.

By James Castle  February 11, 2013

 

Yes prostitution laws need to be examined and it would be good to ask those of us who’ve been on the front of lines working as prostitutes and the prostitutes rights movement what we think.

 

But since you didn’t ask, I’m going to tell you anyway because you need to have your archaic ideas that legalization equals enfranchisement abolished.

 

Its interesting that you look to Australia for justification for legalizing my profession as a means to expose better work conditions and end stigma for me and my kind.  If you’d bother to read any of the blogs or become informed by actual Australian prostitutes or sex workers as they call themselves, you’d understand that 20 years of decriminalization and legalization hasn’t ended the negative stigma against our class there so why do you think buying a licenses to work as a prostitute will end bad work conditions and end stigma here?

Being made to buy a license for the right to work won’t be a welcome news to many of us because we  don’t necessarily want to expose our work conditions because many of us work from our homes, we work in tandem with other workers, we hire reception help and security drivers and we don’t want have our situations disrupted by  exposing us to our neighbors and city fathers who’d rather see us zoned out of sight without regard  for our health and safety.  One has only to look to what legalization of abortion has done to American women’s reproductive options are now 40 years after Roe v Wade where that service is only legal and ‘safe’ in 17 states.

Too its contradictory  that buying a licenses for the right to work would be affordable for the likes of us who you’ve described as ‘…indigent’  and unable to ‘consent to being prostitutes;’  because we’re all ‘..coerced into prostitution in order to escape economic detriment…’.  Well if this is true then how are we expected to afford to buy  licenses of  any sorts to gain access to the right to work?

It seems you really haven’t thought this threw very well.  Why don’t you call me and we can talk.

 

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Feminist as Plantation Owner

Posted by February 7, 2013

In response to this ambivalence feminist’s quibbling about decriminalizing of my occupation.

Supporting Sex Workers’ Rights, Opposing the Buying of Sex

By Jill on 2.6.2013

Criminalizing prostitution is a form of sexual colonizations!
Too your thinking is flawed when you  correlate prostitute’s labor and with a wal mart worker’s labor.
Its not illegal to be a wal mart worker.  There are no wal mart worker sting operations to arrest wal mart workers for working as retail workers at wal mart.
We are not advocating to criminalize wal mart workers as a means to end exploitation on their job but feminist like you are in fact advocating directly to keep prostitution criminalized as a means to end exploitation on our job because YOU cannot figure it how to regulate my occupation without my permission in a way that doesn’t bother you.  I’d say-YOU are the plantation owner.

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Feminist Idea of Equality?

Posted by February 5, 2013

 

Equal protection comes in many forms.  One form is when we are victims of violence we, like anyone else have access to the Victims Compensation Fund as it’s called here in California.

How ever, California State regulation  649.56 states that victims can and are precluded from access the fund if those injuries occurred in the course of working as a prostitute.

http://www.vcgcb.ca.gov/law/regs.aspx

 

California State regulation  649.56. Involvement in the Qualifying Crime of Prostitution:

Involvement in the events leading to the qualifying crime of prostitution by the victim may be found if the victim was:

 

*  Engaged in activity related to prostitution.

*  The qualifying crime occurred as a direct result of the activity related to prostitution.

 

Activity related to prostitution includes, but is not limited to the following:

 

*  Soliciting or participating in the solicitation of an act of prostitution.

*  Purchasing or participating in the purchase of an act of prostitution.

*  Engaging in an act of prostitution.

*  Pimping as defined in California Penal Code, section 266h.<http://calvcpmanual.vcgcb.ca.gov/Codes/pc266h.txt>

*  Pandering as defined in California Penal Code, section 266i.<http://calvcpmanual.vcgcb.ca.gov/Codes/pc266i.txt>

 

Where are is the outrage from those women who claim to be against violence when prostitutes, who they consider only as victims, are denied access to the Victims Compensation Fund?

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Changing Course on the 40th Anniversary of Roe v Wade

Posted by January 24, 2013

In response to this article Oscar Buzz: How to Survive a Plague, and the History of Sex Workers with ACT UP  http://blogs.poz.com/melissaditmore/2013/01/oscar_buzz_how_to_su.html

 

I’ve had loads of a success in getting labor, political and LGBT political groups support for our agenda on the west coast.  I recently got our local LGBT political club to pass a resolution calling on our state legislators to enact anti discrimination legislation on our behalf  because one of my friend who was raped in her home was denied access to the state victim’s compensation fund because she and her assailant were association with a particular sw chat board.   Last year I got several political groups to pass a resolution calling for our congressional members to removal of the anti prostitution oath from the international AIDS funding when it comes for renewal in 2013.

 

We can move our issues much easier on a policy level and have wider effect than just hunkering down in the access to HIV because we’re dirty little whores who need protection.  This approach re-stigmatizes us same as it did/still does for members of the LGBT community despite gaining federal protections  in housing, employment and education for those who are HIV positive under the American Disabilities Act which was one of the demands that the HIV community.

 

 

The value in learning about the ACT UP history is about learning about its tactics and its militancy not its specific message. Coalition building about HIV has not born out much capital or currency because we, sw rights activists, are asking others to stand up for our right to provide protected services and be acknowledged as the leaders in providing safe services.  They don’t think we have any right to provide service and don’t want us in leadership because they’re afraid of us.  Too, its counter productive to have Network of Sex Worker Projects   http://www.nswp.org/news-story/nswp-response-pepfar-guidance-2012#.UQFMJHBHRNo.twitter

 

calling on the  US government to acknowledge us prostitutes as key stakeholders in crafting HIV delivery policy and then demand that LGBT coalition build with us because we’re all dirty little whores which isn’t even born out in the documentation.  There are particular populations within the prostitute nation like queer youth, transgender and people of color that are most likely to be termed by police as ‘no humans involved’ and face risk of violence including contracting HIV.

Too, long time established sex industry workers are increasingly facing the race to the bottom when long time customers who had been happy to receive protected services are now demanding unprotected services and pay lower rates for it on a daily basis. And yes we need to position everybody at the center of their own safety as being respected as priority #1 but nobody cares what color, our age or what gender we are as we’re ALL getting our asses kicked out here.

 

When the public hears that a bunch of craigslist hookers’ bodies are found in the next neighborhood over, they just shrug their shoulders with indifference, a form of violence.   When the anti prostituionist/traffickers hear that we’re forced to give blow jobs to the same cop that arrests us and then trafficked us into  their shame based sex negative diversion programs under the guise of delivering us service while they use our condoms as evidence of our crime of work,  they all jump up and down with glee.  They rejoices because they’re going to get to profit  again off our denigrated state because we are after all just dirty little whores.

 

So what I’m saying is that the HIV angle isn’t working as a viable means  in coalition building,  accessing funding for HIV prevention isn’t working as a means to moving our rights based movement forward, so stop using it.  I watched a youtube video recently about violence and made by the North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDyNGg8gXcM

They do a great job mapping out the problem and short term solution but fail to link to the larger fight for recognition of equal protection under the law or to the larger civil rights movement let alone our own prostitution rights movement.

 

So its on us, the prostitutes rights movement to come together to retool our rhetoric to become strategic in our actions to gain access to the halls of enfranchisement to finally get treated with the respect we deserve.  Demanding anti discrimination protections and inclusive policies as a means for gaining access to equal protection is some of the low hanging fruit that’s waiting for us to pick it.  We’d be better served by learning how the LGBT, Black Civil Rights movement and labor rights movement resists oppression instead of following in the  failed foot steps of the women’s  rights movement that bet it all and lost on the ‘safe and legal access to abortion’.  Just take stock of where that movement is now.

 

It’s the 40th anniversary of Roe V Wade and legalized abortion in our nation has never been less legal and less accessible and less safe.

 

I’m visiting New York City again this winter and would love a chance to discuss these and other observations with activists.

 

1.25.2013

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