“I just want them to stop fucking with us.” VICE talks to Mexican sex workers participating in a May Day march for labor rights in a piece acknowledging the economic appeal of sex work: “Inflation has caused Mexico’s minimum wage to decrease over the years, and many of the country’s citizens have turned to the streetwalking sector to make ends meet.”
Remember how Prince George’s County was going to live-tweet a prostitution sting? That didn’t happen! Whew! Apparently, the police officers got concerned that their identities would be compromised. I know, right? What a bummer that would be. Additionally, no arrests were made. How much do you think the threat to match every live-tweet with a donation to sex workers’ rights organization HIPS had to do with this decision?
Opposition to the Swedish model got even more pointed this week: interviews with Nordic charities, women’s rights activists, and sex workers themselves all indicate that the effects of the law actually make sex workers’ lives more dangerous. Whomp whomp.
A former Portland State University student who also worked in bondage porn is suing PSU for more than a million dollars after some blatantly inappropriate and unethical behavior on the part of her former advisor, associate professor Marcia Klotz. Klotz displayed a boundary violating interest in the student’s sex work career and history of sexual trauma while overseeing her work in the McNair Scholars program. When the student began working with another advisor, Klotz accused her of plagiarism. It reminds us of a few different episodes of Elementary, but like, way more painful.
The ACLU is investigating Project ROSE. Thank goodness someone is! We can’t really tell what’s up with this article though: “Not only is there an apparent problem with organizing busts to send people to a church-backed charity program…” Is this snark or sincerity?
Italy’s scariest serial killer, the Monster of Florence, is probably not back (despite the sensational headline), which just means yet another serial killer is murdering sex workers. Local residents often hear screams coming from the area where the murdered women are found. Calls concerning the noise saved one woman’s life, but no one called about Andrea Cristina Zamir, who was murdered on Monday.
Festus Mogae, the former president of Botswana, came out in support of sex workers and of decriminalization.
Confronted with clients who will pay double for unprotected sex Kenyan sex workers are accessing post-exposure prophylactic treatment for HIV.
A sex worker was assaulted on May 2nd over payment, but luckily, as far as it goes, this happened in New Zealand, which means she had the option of reporting it to the police without further endangering herself. Because footage of her attack was released and appeals were made to the public, and an arrest was actually made. The New Zealand Prostitutes Collective points out, “Sex workers who work in a criminalised [sic] environment say they are unlikely to do this because of they are likely to be harassed by the police as a result of admitting they are a sex worker. Those in countries where clients are criminalised say they are unlikely to report such incidents to the police because they, too, will also be subjected to police harassment.”
More on how sex workers in Kolkata are threatening to boycott general elections, demanding recognition of their profession to help end their exploitation by cops and other law enforcement goons, and demanding the removal of the Immoral Traffic Prevention Act.
The BBC writes about trafficking as an immigration and labor issue, acknowledging sex work as only one kind of work that migrants engage in because they need money. Sounds basic, right?
Russia’s invasion of the Crimea is creating casualties among marginalized populations like injection drug users, sex workers, and queer people. Russia doesn’t support the dissemination of safer sex information, free condoms, methadone clinics, or needle exchange, preferring instead to ignore public health nightmares long past their crisis point.
Activists urge the Chinese government to put an end to the detention system which allows women arrested for prostitution to be jailed for up to two years without trial.
The Sex Worker’s Project received the $100,000 2014 Emil Gumpert Award!
You know how Vagenda just redid tabloid candids with rational headlines? From like, “Make up free Jennifer Garner looks dowdy” to “Woman gets coffee, doesn’t make being sexually appealing to men a priority” ? What if we redid sensational sex work headlines to reveal what the stories are really about? Like this one: “Students by Day, Sex Workers by Night” could change to “Students Need Money, May Be Doing Sex Work.”
The Huffington Post continues its trend of fair and inoffensive interviews with sex workers: this week David Henry Sterry interviews Antonia Crane, talking about her new memoir, Spent.
La Vernia, an independent movie about a queer sex worker returning home to Texas in which none of the conflict stems from her being queer OR a sex worker, got fully funded and will be made!
Cincinnati is going to curb trafficking by publishing the names of arrested clients. Sounds productive, friends.
Eighteen people were arrested and arraigned on suspicion of running a prostitution ring in the Bay Area.
Tits and Sass contributor Mariko Passion interviews writer and performer Ava Talley, in preparation for Talley’s performance in Passion’s Whorrific Cabaret at the Hollywood Fringe Festival in June.
Persist Health Project in NYC is putting out a guide for service providers who want to better serve sex workers.