The Week in Links—November 7th

Viktoria, a new film about migrant sex workers in Switzerland, is out now in that country.  Switzerland attracts sex workers from Hungary, although prejudices against the Roma—a group many of the migrants belong to—color their reception.

Jordan Flaherty, interviewed on this site about his reporting on Project ROSE, has a new story out about how Alaska’s sex trafficking laws are used against those they ostensibly protect: “Some of them appear to be charged with trafficking themselves.” The accompanying television segment is here.

The Canadian take on the End Demand/Swedish model, C-36,  passed in the Senate on Tuesday despite testimony from Canadian sex workers that it would only endanger them further.  It is now one step away from becoming law.

In the UK, the amendment to the Modern Slavery Bill which would have implemented the End Demand model was defeated, bringing UK sex workers closer to decriminalization.

Kate McGrew, the sex worker contestant on Irish reality show Connected, says she is not a prostitute, she’s a sex worker, and pointed out the stigma attached to the word “prostitute” as well as the negative repercussions of the Turn Off the Red Light campaign, which seeks to implement the Swedish model in Northern Ireland.

After hearing horror stories from disabled clients, Trish St. John began Sensual Solutions, a Vancouver escort agency that works with disabled people.

Here’s yet another lawsuit over the employee rights’ of strippers has hit, this time involving the Queens, New York club Scandals.

Since the closure of Surabaya, Indonesia brothels sex workers are now an incredibly hard to reach population, raising concerns among HIV outreach workers and sex worker activists about their safety.

The Oakland City Attorney has backpedaled, saying now that the city won’t actually use the legislation to evict sex workers from their homes. She says:

Regarding prostitution offenses, we anticipate using NEO in the commercial context to require eviction of motel/hotel tenant-operators when they use the motel to cater to prostitution or drug dealing. Once the motel/hotel tenant operator is evicted, the property owner can rent the motel to an operator who will manage and operate the property in a lawful manner.

Despite this, the law has giant loopholes which do indeed allow sex workers to be evicted from their homes.

A federal judge in Tacoma, Washington temporarily blocked the public records request for the legal names of the Dream Girls dancers.  A final decision will be made on December 15th.

The HIV Research 4 Prevention Conference reiterates that criminalizing sex work puts sex workers at greater risk for HIV transmission.

Street workers in the suburbs of Durban, South Africa, are being harassed by NIMBY-types who are worried about their property values:

Kholeka Sibisi of Sisonke Sex Workers Advocacy Group said several sex workers have lodged complaints after being assaulted or “pushed around” by members of the neighbourhood watch. “These girls are not doing harm to anyone. They are there to make a living.

The Times of India did a short Q&A about the current laws around sex work in India.

Mumbai police may use the recent story of the woman who strangled and burned a police officer who had been abusing and exploiting her for years in their training to instill a basic sense of human decency and the consequences of violating it in their recruits.

The slow market for sex in New Zealand (supposedly caused by smartphone dating apps) is a hot topic right now, though whether it’s an actual phenomenon or just another attempt to get clickbait out of sex work headlines is unclear.

Sex workers in Tasmania, Australia, deny that smart phone hookup aps are hurting their business.

Karaoke bar hostesses in Australia may be sex workers.  Or they may not be.

A growing number of freelance sex workers in Southeast Asia are donning office wear and heading to upscale clubs to attract wealthy clients.  I am not really sure that this is news.

Sex workers in Hong Kong are worried after the discovery of two murdered sex workers, found in the rooms of British banker Rurik Jutting. Jutting has been arrested for their murders.

Marie Hald has been photodocumenting Bonnie, a legal sex worker in Denmark, for over a year.

Since the chief of the National Commission of Women in India advocated for legalizing full service sex work there has been an ongoing conversation in that country about legalization, decriminalization, and the benefits of each. Here’s more on that.

Colombian journalist Manuel Teodoro acknowledges something that few non-sex workers ever admit: most trafficked workers are aware they’ll be going into the sex industry and do so willingly, they just don’t know what conditions at the other end of their journey will be like.

Kendall Jenner got spanked by a stripper for her 19th birthday.