The 7th San Francisco Sex Worker Film and Arts Fest

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May 19, 2011

As a sex worker in San Francisco, I feel pretty spoiled by all the resources and community we have here—not to mention that the stigma feels a little more manageable when half the city is already queer polyamorous pot-smoking Burners. Or middle-age foreign tech nerds, who happen to make great customers.

If you’re a fellow Bay Area sex worker, please take advantage of the fact that we’re lucky enough to have a film and arts festival of our very own.

Tomorrow night marks the first event of the nine-day festival, with a kick-off cabaret show at the St. James Infirmary. Producer Erica Fabulous says that the festival’s main priorities are showcasing the diversity of sex workers and building community, though she hopes it will also open the minds of people who aren’t in the industry.

Visit the website to learn more about the various programs, which will run through May 29.

The Week In Links: May 13

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suzyhooker

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May 13, 2011

Police are now suggesting more than one serial killer has been using Long Island’s Gilgo Beach for hiding (female, often sex worker) victims’ remains.

Pictures have been released of two men wanted for questioning about the assault and robbery of two different prostitutes working in midtown Manhattan. (Yes, the article is tone deaf and offensive—yet the Gothamist’s rewrite manages to be even more so—but look at these pictures if you work in New York!)

Audacia Ray is on the Ms. blog writing about amnesty for sex workers and the Long Island murders, while Melissa Gira Grant writes about the consequences of sex worker stigmatization for The Guardian.

Escorts are writing letters of support for their Miami agency owner, who’s been accused of coercing women into prostitution.

This story would be so much cooler if the Christian weatherman refused to work on a day when strip clubs were treated badly in the news.

Salt Lake City is passing new laws to try to stop sex workers from screening clients to weed out undercover cops.

Houston is hosting a strip club-set opera.

Patton Oswalt is pretty much doing Chris Rock’s old keep-your-daughter-off-the-pole routine.

Yes, strippers exaggerated their earnings to get no-doc mortgages. The kicker to this story is so true. Here’s an amazing look at the mortgage brokers’ memos about stripper earnings.

The Week In Links: May 6

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suzyhooker

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May 6, 2011

Stephen Soderbergh, director of The Girlfriend Experience, is coming out of early retirement to make a movie about a male stripper. Mr. Soderbergh, meet Ms. Fey: you two are both certifiably Obsessed With Sex Workers! Welcome to the club.

Kansas is (unsurprisingly) using trafficking rhetoric to push its (otherwise failed) attempts at restricting adult-oriented businesses.

Colorado is reconsidering its john schools bill.

Breaking news: pole dancers can be pretty amazing dancers.

India’s Supreme Court cites literature while affirming that prostitutes can be “women of very high character.”

Rwandan outreach workers explain “It was not an easy task to convince [sex workers] to abandon what they were doing and start this activity of collecting garbage from homes.”

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King of Diamonds Strippers Celebrate Bin Laden’s Capture; Call Bullshit on Rick Ross’ $1M Figure

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Bubbles

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May 2, 2011

Will the patriotic Americans of Miami make it rain at this somewhat tone-deaf celebration? Check it out at the Miami New Times: Celebrate Osama Bin Laden’s Death Tonight With King of Diamonds’ Big-Booty Strippers

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The Week In Links: April 29

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suzyhooker

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April 29, 2011

As bodies continue to be uncovered in Long Island, LI sex workers arm themselves for work. Meanwhile, local police keep “cracking down” on prostitutes, claiming that their press for arrests was in place before the serial killer gained national attention.

Audacia Ray offers a concise critique of the so called “superheroes” of New York who are pledging to protect prostitutes from the Long Island serial killer with their martial art skills. Everything about their approach and the media surrounding it is, frankly, a bunch of unhelpful paternalistic bullshit.

A photo has been released of the Seattle man charged with raping and torturing a sex worker. Police are asking other victims to come forward. .

Brooke Magnanti (Belle De Jour) addresses the obfuscation and hysteria that dominates discussions of trafficking, porn, and sex work.

Hawaii is considering two different bills to suppress prostitution, neither of which is well-considered.

A former stripper is suing a Detroit strip club for firing her after she refused to perform sex acts on customers. Check out the video; the plaintiff uses the term “modern day sex slaves” but doesn’t provide any evidence of coercion and instead talks rampant drug use by her fellow dancers and ends with a moral plea to protect women from stripping altogether. The strip club owner admits there’s drug use at his club, but points out that there’s drug (ab)use in many professions.

Dickish Luther Campbell of 2 Live Crew fame is running for mayor of Miami on the platform of requiring strippers to buy work permits. (“Fellas, relax,” he tells the customers. Because god knows dudes spending their expendable income shouldn’t be the ones paying more when you can tax the women trying to make a living.)

Police are looking into unsolved prostitute murders across the entire country in attempt to connect them with a recently charged serial killer suspect from Reno. Joseph Naso is charged with murdering four women. The media is speculating that some of those women were prostitutes but the police won’t confirm.