Australian sex worker activist Nada (on the right) at the Scarlet Alliance National Forum. (Photo by Jackie Dent via SBS)

Sixty French celebrities, including Belle De Jour star Catherine Deneuve, signed a petition to protest a bill in France Parliament that would impose fines on the clients of sex workers. Thus, admirers of Deneuve can continue their fangirling without the bite of political guilt. Meanwhile, France 24 puzzles over the resounding silence around the issue in Parliament, and Al Jazeera interviews Manon, a representative of French sex workers’ rights organization STRASS, and Melissa Gira Grant on sex workers’ POV on the proposal. STRASS members were slated to hold an open meeting with legislators on Thursday, though, until now, French sex workers were not consulted by lawmakers on the topic. (Is anyone surprised?)

Apparently, times are tough for us all over Europe—in Germany,  the country’s most prominent “feminists” have launched a campaign against legalized sex work.

Here’s some coverage on the three day Scarlet Alliance National Forum in Sydney earlier this week.

Has Jenna Jameson returned to adult films? The fabulous Miss Jameson sets the record straight.

Singaporean trans sex workers speak out at the International Congress on AIDS Asia Pacific.

Karen Wirth presented the latest in trafficking hysteria in the NY Times yesterday, dashed with the pretense of scientific rigor. The Atlantic joined in with a piece entitled “It’s Not Just Justin Bieber: Travel Websites Are Fueling Sex Tourism.” Much dark side. Such gritty, hard hitting reporting. Wow.

Shilpa Samaratunge answers the question, “Is sex work work?” with a resounding yes in Sri Lanka’s Groundviews. The leftist journalist also interviews three wheeler drivers, who play an important role in the country’s sex trade by maintaining connections between sex workers, their clients and the locations in which sexual exchanges take place.

In light of all these recent stories about how us sex workers just lurrrv the Affordable Health Care Act, here’s an interesting piece on how an Argentinian stripper, Annabelle Battistella alias Fanne Foxe, inadvertently doomed Nixon’s Health Care Reform Act in 1974.

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