Help out a sex worker-run research project, Adult Industry Truth, by taking this survey on trafficking. The survey is for current and former sex workers, clients of sexual services, staff management of industry establishments, and/or social service workers that work with sex workers, to record their observations of trafficking in the industry.
xojane disappointed us by posting an article entitled “Stripping Killed My Work Ethic–Kind Of.” A bunch of hard working strippers and other sex workers have already taken issue on tumblr.
Steve Constantinou, charged with murdering Melbourne stripper and sex worker Johanna Martin, pleaded not guilty, claiming they were watching porn when he “accidentally” choked her to death while she was wearing a dog collar. This despite the fact that he pawned her jewelry before wrapping her body in a sheet and dumping it outside. Thankfully, the jury didn’t buy it, either.
Malawi police officers are twisting the penal code to support the arrest of sex workers.
Yet more non-news on the fact that student sex workers exist in Policy Mic.
The Awl is running a series of interviews with porn performers. So far, there’s been one with Stoya, and one with cute bookworm gay porn actor Dale Cooper, who’s scored sixty one queer and Marxist texts off his Amazon wishlist by sending fans naked pics in return for buying them for him. We’ve got to adopt his system.
The Australian Broadcasting Company wants people to stop blaming the Australian media for their whorephobic depictions of the murder of street sex worker Tracy Connelly, and focus on finding her killer instead. Actually, we’re quite capable of doing both.
Conner Habib elaborates on why Linda Lovelace isn’t a porn star in Slate.
The BBC ran a story entitled “Edinburgh Sex Workers ‘Degraded’ By Police Sauna Raids.” Let’s try that again, shall we, without the condescending quotation marks, this time? That story, this one in the Edinburgh News, and this one in the Scotland Herald, report on planning meetings for safe alternatives for sauna sex workers now that their workplaces have been closed—meetings to which sex workers themselves are of course not invited. So far, the only ‘alternative’ named is leaving sex work, with no specific economic plan for how that is to be accomplished. Thanks, but no thanks.
A study of sex workers in four African countries found that sex workers face gross human rights violations and abuse due to the criminal nature of their work. Sadly, this is also not news.
Florida anti-sex trafficking advocates argue over whether safe houses should be locked down facilities to help victims break their bond with their pimps: “When advocates pushed legislation last year to open safe houses around the state, they warned girls would run away because they are often more comfortable on the streets and accustomed to moving around with few belongings and personal attachments. ‘It’s part of the process, similar to relapse in addiction treatment,’ said Mary Faraldo, community relations officer for Kristi House.” We’re accusing these advocates of false consciousness.
In India, an HIV/AIDS sex worker run NGO based in the Mysore region, the Ashodaya Academy, launched a project to help sex worker counterparts in Rajasthan form community based organizations to protect their rights.
An Alternet piece explores how carceral feminist hype over child sex trafficking takes the focus away from the children most at risk of sexual exploitation—those in foster care. Chrystal Deboise of The Sex Workers’ Project is quoted.
People want to give George Bush Jr. a Global Service award for his work fighting AIDS in Africa. Counterpunch covers that joke, and how NOT to conduct a foreign AIDS program, by following the history of PEPFAR in Africa.
Laura Agustin discusses how prostitution law and stigma combine to engender violence against sex workers in Jacobin.
Armed robbers posing as clients targeted eight Sydney brothels.
An escort paid $300 in dyed bills was Chicago’s civic hero last week for turning in the bank robber client who gave them to her. Now, if only they wouldn’t use the p-word in the headline.
A federal judge blocked a New Jersey trafficking hysteria law that enforced internet surveillance on the basis that it was unconstitutional.
An article in the Lancet documents migrant sex workers’ struggle to access health care in Thailand.
The Queensland Police Minister is considering allowing local brothels to send their employees on outcalls to compete with illegal escorts.
In more Big (Government) Ideas in Sex Work, Zurich is inaugurating a sex drive-in, a scheme which local authorities say will allow them to keep closer tabs on sex work. The sites will be open only to drivers, who will follow a marked route along which up to forty sex workers will be stationed. Once they have negotiated a rate, they will drive to one of the nine car-wash style boxes to have sex. The boxes will be equipped with alarms, allowing the sex workers to make rapid contact with police if they are in danger.
Justin Ling in the Coast tells the story of a Canada on the brink of decriminalization in The Coast.
The Sex Worker Education & Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT) and Sisonke introduced a sensitization training tool called In Her Heels, which uses story cards based on the lives of South African sex workers to teach participants about sex workers’ rights issues.
A proposal for a brothel was rejected by Port Stephens councilors in New South Wales. A local woman representing the more than four hundred people who signed a petition against the brothel said that approving it would make Port Stephens a destination for “sex tourists looking for an Australian Phuket.” Councilors who noted that this decision would drive the sex trade further underground and leave sex workers only the streets to work in were unfortunately in the minority.