Crowdfunding website GoFundMe.com mysteriously changed its terms of service and then canceled ESPLERP’s fundraising campaign to challenge the constitutionality of the state of California’s prostitution laws. Very peculiar:
Although GiveForward and GoFundMe both prohibit crowdfunding campaigns for sexually explicit materials, that hasn’t stopped both platforms from hosting ethically ambiguous fundraising campaigns. Last fall, GoFundMe hosted a fundraising campaign for Darren Wilson’s legal bills after he was accused of shooting unarmed black teenager Michael Brown. GiveForward also caught flak for hosting a crowdfunding campaign for the MMA fighter War Machine, who is alleged to have brutally beat and raped his ex-girlfriend, adult performer Christy Mack. (The site later removed the campaign page.)
ESPLERP is one of the candidates for the $10,000 People’s Momentum Award. Vote for them here.
Elizabeth Nolan Brown gives a comprehensive breakdown of the new and massive Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act which neatly solves the problem of what to do with returning veterans by:
Establish[ing] the “Human Exploitation Rescue Operative (HERO) Child Rescue Corps.” In the HERO Corps, “the returning military heroes of the United States are trained and hired to investigate crimes of child exploitation in order to target predators and rescue children from sexual abuse and slavery.”
Oh yeah, sounds safe and well thought out. It would also create an incentive for police and prosecutors by funneling the fines for those found guilty of trafficking or other illicit sexual conduct back into the fund from which police and prosecutors are paid.
Law makers in Montana are having trouble deciphering between when a sex worker is a victim and when she is not. (Here’s a hint: she might not always be a victim, but she is definitely never a criminal.)
Get your tickets, pack your bags! Milan’s 2015 Expo World Fair is set to begin in May. It will supposedly attract so many sex workers, 15,000 of them to be precise, that the locals have started the calling the event the “Sexpo.”
“Empowerment” is a straw man in the context of sex work.
U.S. strippers aren’t the only ones winning workers rights! A judge in Barcelona, Spain ruled that Xcenter, a massage parlor, must provide its workers with contracts and must cover their social security payments.
The Director General of Canada’s Vanier College raised hackles when he cancelled a workshop on sex workers’ rights for International Women’s Week, by Stella outreach worker Robyn Maynard. Educators and students both say the cancellation was a loss (and it certainly was to Clara Leveque, who appears from her quotes to have no very clear understanding of what Stella is or does). Memorial University, on the other hand, has taken the stance that sex workers are a part of the community, not apart from it, and with that in mind has scheduled three days of sex work-related events, discussions, and panels.
Sex workers in Uganda say that they will have jobs as long as they have people willing to pay, in response to the Minister for Ethics beginning to implement an End Demand-style targeting of clients.
In Nairobi, “twilight women” say they have faith in God and need money. No surprise there.
Autostraddle covered the $PREAD anthology release party in an appropriately mournful tone.
A little late on this one, but last friday SWOP-Chicago held an art show to showcase sex worker art.
Newsflash! Women and teenagers are taking to sex work to survive. At least the writer of this piece knows the word “women,” unlike some police we could name.
File this under truly appalling: Bay Area playwright notices street workers, is disappointed that outreach agencies won’t put her in touch with workers, writes a play to bring awareness to this never before noticed issue. Whew, thanks Tracie Collins! Where would sex workers be without you and your ilk?
Another piece of trafficking hysteria for the Hall of Shame, this time in Louisiana.