PRESS RELEASE: “Erotic Services” Denied: Craigslist and Attorneys General Are Putting Sex Workers At Risk
Repost from Waking Vixen. Please repost/tweet/spread the word!
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This is a collaborative press release – please distribute and repost widely!
Contact:
Dylan Wolfe – Sex Workers Action New York (SWANK), swank@riseup.net
Will Rockwell – $pread Magazine, will@spreadmagazine.org
Audacia Ray – Sex Work Awareness (SWA), aray@sexworkawareness.org
Susan Blake – Prostitutes of New York (PONY), pony@panix.com
Michael Bottoms – Sex Workers Outreach Project – New York City (SWOP-NYC), info@swop-nyc.org
With Craigslist’s recent announcement that its Erotic Services category will be discontinued within the week, hundreds of thousands of erotic service providers will become more vulnerable to dangerous predators. Eliminating erotic listings as Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and others propose will only drive us further underground.
Policing the masseuses, phone workers, pro-dominants, and escorts using Craigslist fails to protect those of us who are coerced into the sex industry. Preventing the use of Craigslist advertisements also eliminates the advantage of screening clients online, which makes for a safer work experience by filtering out potentially dangerous individuals. Furthermore, keeping us offline hinders police investigations of violent crime. In the Boston murder of Julissa Brisman, it was online tracking that enabled the police to identify the suspect. One has to wonder: are the Attorneys General examining the evidence or simply enforcing their moral values?
“Removing the erotic services category from Craigslist does not help prevent violence against escorts and other sex workers. It only pushes me and people like me out of the places where advertising is available,” said Jessica Bloom, a sex worker from Sex Workers Action New York (SWANK). In the face of increasing criminalization, we insist upon respect. As mothers, daughters, brothers, and members of your community, we claim that sex work is real work, work that we are entitled to conduct in safety. As such, we must be accorded the human right of full protection under the law.
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**EDIT** an addendum. I just typed this up in response to a Facebook friend asking what he could do to help. Here are some suggestions:
You can totally help, mostly by speaking up and jumping into the fray!
Legislation about consensual adult sex work (not trafficking, coercion, or child prostitution) mostly happens on the state level – since you’re in NY, you can find your assembly person here: http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/ – write to him or her and tell them how you feel about the risks created and perpetuated by continued criminalizing of sex work and cracking down on advertising
Write letters to the editor of newspapers that publish misguided pieces about how the elimination of craigslist erotic services will “help” women
Comment on blog posts and online articles (if you’ve got the stomach for it!)
And check out the very excellent and thorough reports on research done by the Sex Workers Project to arm yourself with statistics
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Craigslist erotic services ads: AJC get it so, so, so very wrong
By now you might have heard that Craigslist is ending its erotic services section.
This is a little confusing to me, since they are replacing the category with a new category called “adult.” How this is not a simple renaming of an existing category still defeats me. Oh, right: because Craigslist employees are going to “review” the ads in the adult category. Well that makes me feel so much better. Because requiring sex workers to fork over their credit card information in order to post an ad wasn’t enough.
The ending of erotic services ads comes on the heels of the murder of a masseuse who advertised on Craigslist in Boston. Which is a bit like shutting down banks and opening new institutions where you store your money, but which are not called banks, because there are bank robbers out there.
Naturally, coverage from mainstream media has been what you would expect: sensationalistic, inaccurate, in many cases wildly irrelevant, and with a deafening lack of sex workers’ voices.
The AJC did a particularly stellar job with this article on the matter. Have a look at this lede, why don’t you:
Atlanta children will be a little safer now that Craigslist will no longer post prostitution and other “erotic services” ads, but additional precautions are needed, an Atlanta anti-child prostitution group said Wednesday.
WTF???????
Where to even begin?
When Rusty showed me this article in his Google Reader, I was all inspired and motivated to take Dacia’s message from this weekend about getting our voices heard in the media to heart and write a letter to the editor. I could do this! Short, to the point. On message. 150 words or less.
Then I read the full article and the WTF-ness of it was just so overwhelming that I felt paralyzed at the prospect of trying to condense a response to the necessary length for a letter to the editor.
I feel shitty about that because I do think it’s important to respond to the media in the media’s space. But all too often the media doesn’t offer space that’s meaingful, and so, I’m doing what I always do: using the space I’ve carved out for myself to spell out exactly what the hell is wrong with this, in way more than 150 words.
Looking just at the lede… I really don’t know what goes through people’s minds. Atlanta’s children will be safer? What?? Do these people truly believe that traffickers – yes, actual child traffickers, not adult sex workers posting ads for their own services – are going to go, “Oh, Craigslist shut down its erotic services section; shucks! Now there’s nothing we can do! Oh well, no more trafficking!” Because that’s what that line seems to be saying. And for anyone who believes that, I’ve got a bridge I’d like to sell you.
Here’s the deal. Actual traffickers? Scary, dangerous, powerful people. Tough to go after. Lots of risk involved. And you know what else? Usually not posting on fucking Craigslist!! But of course (as Ren has pointed out) it’s far easier to make a big show of “cracking down on child prostitution” by arresting a bunch of adult sex workers, a situation wherein the state essentially becomes a pimp (for another nice dose of irony there) and keeps that door revolving, than it is to go after actual traffickers. Because that doesn’t titillate readers or make enticing headlines.
Like many cities, Atlanta had been doing police stings to “crack down on child prostitution.” What ended up happening? Law enforcement dollars and resources were devoted to giving criminal records to adult women simply trying to make a living, while violent crime continues to rise. The AJC played a nice role in that, too, by posting the full names and photos of many of those workers arrested (not linking to an article because I do not want to contribute to further outing of those women).
I feel so much safer now, don’t you? Now that those dirty whores aren’t earning money (and subsequently paying taxes) somewhere off in a hotel room?
It’s for the children!
These stings have been equally successful in protecting the children elsewhere across the country. Chicago, for example:
Perhaps you’ve heard about Operation Cross Country, a three-day, nationwide FBI operation that was supposedly targeting child prostitution trafficking. I didn’t realize it had happened right here in Chicago. “Of those arrested in the Chicago area, 5 were charged with running prostitution operations, 34 were charged with prostitution, and 5 were customers, according to the release. No minors were found.” (Emphasis mine)
In that case, SWOP-Chicago put it well:
To target child prostitution and trafficking is one thing. To scapegoat sex workers and crackdown on prostitution in the name of preventing trafficking is a horse of a different color. It’s a waste of money and it’s a waste of tax-payer resources. And if you really care about “rescuing” sex workers, why the fuck are you giving them felony records?
Operation Cross Country is not about ending the exploitation of children and those who are trafficked against their will. It’s using this exploitation as a smokescreen for persecuting sex workers on the altar of sex panic.
But back to the AJC article. I have a serious problem with this line:
As recently as February, 176 girls were prostituted for sex on Craigslist, she said.
There is no sourcing for this. Where did they get that information? Police reports? If so, of what nature? Or maybe sources other than police reports? And if so, what were those? I have seen all too often how “facts” like this are crafted in order to fit an agenda. Without knowing where this information is being drawn from, I don’t trust it one damn bit. Those 176 prostituted girls might very well be escorts who are legal adults. We don’t know.
The above was attributed to Kaffie McCullough, director of the anti-child prostitution group A Future. Not A Past. This group takes an “end demand” approach to ending child prostitution, according to their web site. Yet all the red flags are there. The conflation of exploitation of minors with consensual adult sex work. The vague and brief language on their web site. The lack of support for decriminalization of prostitution (which would be a huge help in the fight against trafficking of both children and adults, because far too often when either children or adults are “rescued,” they are entered into the criminal justice system; some rescue). Oh and did you know, according to A Future. Not A Past.’s web site, this is one of the warning signs that a minor might be a victim of trafficking:
Inappropriate dress, including oversized clothing or overtly sexy clothing
?????
Yeah. If she dresses like a slut or a weirdo, she must be trafficked! It’s that easy to spot!
How out of touch with reality are these people?
Furthermore, when someone who claims to care about children says something like this (again quoting from the AJC article)…
“I’m glad because with all the press Craigslist had been getting it was just way too easy for someone to buy an underage girl on the Internet,” McCullough said.
…well I have a major problem with that, too. Another red flag. You’re talking about trafficking victims having a future and yet you use incredibly dehumanizing language. Buy a girl? Are you fucking KIDDING me?
I’m exhausted. I’ve written over 1200 words and there’s still so much more that could be said about the AJC article. It really depresses me sometimes when I realize, yet again, that this is how much of the public at large views sex work. They think these tactics are okay. They think, I guess, that Craigslist truly is overflowing with ads for underage girls. I don’t know what they think, exactly. But I know it’s fucked up, seriously wrong, and perpetuates harmful conditions for sex workers and victims of trafficking.
I don’t know what else to say. I’ll leave you with words of wisdom from Jill Brenneman:
When I did need help, when I was facing violence and coercion in the sex industry, none of the current anti trafficking measures would have applied or helped, I couldn’t go the cops or the justice system because in the US being a prostitute is illegal, the clients getting arrested,,, so what??? Great so the whole thing which was underground in the first place just moves farther underground. Not to mention I went into the sex industry for a reason. To make money to survive. I didn’t need the clients arrested because they were clients, I was there to make money to eat, to live, there was a need for the clients. I needed the ones arrested that beat the shit out of me, or raped me, or forced me to do things without my consent. I needed them arrested for rape, for assault, not on some minor misdemeanor that they could wash away with a visit to “John School” in some lame ass plea bargain. I needed labor and human rights so that an abusive, sadistic pimp, didn’t have criminalization to use against me to keep under control. As long as the whole thing is illegal the cops were more his allies than they ever could have been mine as I was more afraid of being arrested, or worse, being blown off because I was a prostitute and sent back to him to face a very angry pimp. I needed human rights.
Seriously, sometimes I wonder what it’s going to take to get through to some people.
Oh, and on that note: I might as well publicly state right now that I want to bring the Speak Up! media training seminar to Atlanta, and I am going to work to make it happen.
Death and joy never go together
On Twitter I saw a link to this post and then I saw some back-and-forth @ messaging between Sara and Griftdrift. I really don’t have time to be getting sucked into blog threads or writing one of my own right now; I’m at work and need to focus on work. But I do want to dash something off, because reading the thread at Griftdrift’s made me feel sick to my stomach.
I know the usual BS talking points: liberals are soft on crime. Whatever. This isn’t about being soft on crime. It’s about not taking such satisfaction, wipe your hands and be done w/ it, in the death of another human being.
Someone will probably say I’m trying to excuse what he did or say it’s okay. Um, hello, tell me where I said that. I get so frustrated when people put words like that in my mouth.
Far be it for me to tell anyone how to react in the face of a crime but it just seems to me like the guy in the car who shot and killed the guy over-reacted. That’s not really the right word because it sounds too much to me like people making excuses for rapists (even though this is a totally different situation, there are always assholes who will try to pretend that they’re not). But something just feels “off” about it. And it really, really bothers me.
Now, everyone has a right to defend themselves. Of course they do! And I don’t like how sometimes it seems like some people who identify as liberal or progressive are saying that people can’t defend themselves, don’t have a right to personal property, etc. To me that’s ridiculous and that’s not what I’m saying. Hello, I live in the city too and yes, we have a crime problem and no, I would not fault anyone for defending themselves against a crime, and no I do not think anything makes robbing “okay” nor do I care more about the robbers’ humanity/well-being than the victim’s!
However it’s not going to fix anything for everyone to be packing and go around shooting anyone who dares to ask for money. Until we address the underlying systemic issues that lead to so many people being in a position where they are begging for money and/or robbing others at gunpoint, we won’t actually make any progress. There has to be reform to the broken system rather than just reaction. And this is not to say some reaction is not necessary. (I feel like I can’t even get out what I want to say because I’m constantly anticipating strawman arguments in response. And I hate that word “strawman!”) But you can’t have just reaction; otherwise nothing changes. 1 in 100 adults in the U.S. are now incarcerated; tell me the system isn’t broken.
The other reason this disturbs me so much is because I’m afraid these same people (and in some cases I know it to be true) would take just as much glee in the antics of Steve Gower in midtown, persecuting and terrorizing street-based sex workers. It’s okay w/ them because it’s “crime” and who cares about those people anyway, who cares about their lives and circumstances, just get them out of my face where I don’t have to be made to feel uncomfortable. People have said “yay” and “good” to what Gower and others like him are doing and it makes me feel sick.
Situations like this really just make me worry about humanity. It makes my heart hurt and I’m not just being metaphorical when I say it makes me sick to my stomach. This is part of why I have such a problem trusting people. You never know when they’re going to turn around and rejoice because another human being is dead.
[Hitting post w/o proofreading - no time at the moment. Not that I bother most of the time anyway!]
Another update on Jacqui Smith and proposed changes to UK prostitution laws
I’m reposting this from Caroline’s blog. Please spread the word.
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(Jacqui Smith, yes? We all know, oui?)
From the IUSW
The second reading of the new bill is now on MONDAY THE 12TH.
We must get as many MPs as is possible to speak out against the governments proposals.
This is a draft letter from the IUSW.
Please will everyone concerned with this industry send this to your MP. If you need help finding out who your local MP is IM me and I will give you details. [or check out this site]
Clients can of course change the begining to something appropriate such as concerned member of the public.
This is urgent please do this asap.
I am writing to you as a resident of your constituency who is (a concerned member of the public)involved in the sex industry. The Policing and Crime Bill, that has its second reading on 12 January, contains proposals which will make people in the sex industry less safe and increase our social exclusion. The proposals make it more likely that street sex workers will be forced to work in greater isolation and as a consequence be hurt and killed, and less likely that victims of trafficking will come to the attention of the police. The proposals directly play into the hands of exploitative and violent criminals and traffickers by decreasing the ways to work safely and making sex workers less likely to call the police if they are the victims of crime and abuse.
The Home Office has failed to consult with sex workers’ organisations during the preparation of legislation (neither the International Union of Sex Workers or the English Collective of Prostitutes are considered to be stakeholders on this issue according to the Home Office report on Tackling the Demand for Prostitution of November 2008; neither is the uk Network of Sex Work Projects which provides frontline health and support services to people in the sex industry through 63 projects across the uk).
In addition, the proposals completely ignore an enormous range of academic research which shows that increased criminalisation has a negative effect: we need evidence based policy to create effective change and protect the vulnerable. The magnitude of the Home Office’s misinterpretation of evidence is shown in the Regulatory Impact Assessments associated with the Bill, which state that Pentameter 2 (a nationwide police operation) identified 800 brothels containing trafficked women. In fact, the police’s own figures for Pentameter 2 show raids on 822 premises located 250 victims of trafficking: the Home Office has confused the number of premises raided with the number of actual victims found.
I ask you to condemn these proposals during the second reading debate, and call for policy on the sex industry to treat our safety and human rights as the highest priority. This can only be achieved by meaningful consultation with those most effected: we are the experts in our own lives.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Like I said with the petition – if you’re in the UK and have an MP, please do get involved with this. If you’re not in the UK, please post this on your blog or website for your UK readers, or forward it in email – anything to spread the word.
(cross-posted at Sex In The Public Sqaure and Shiraz Socialist)
Life notes as of Jan. 1
Since it’s New Year’s Day, I’ll start this post by saying I have a new resolution. I got the idea from US News & World Report, of all places. They had a cover story called “50 Ways to Improve Your Life in 2009,” which I read in the bathroom at my mom’s house. One of the suggestions was this:
Distill your day’s experiences into a single sentence each day. Call it a “clothes hanger” journal: It provides a framework on which to hang the larger raiments of memory. A few well-chosen words can transport you back to where you were days or years ago. And—if you’re persistent—it can show you the shape of your life over time.
Luann Robins, a 79-year-old grandmother of five who lives in Rhinelander, Wis., has kept such records for most of her life, storing her five-year diaries in a cedar chest at the foot of her bed. “Sometimes they bring back great memories that I might have forgotten,” says Robins. Her journals are filled with comments on the weather, odd events, and her children’s and grandchildren’s news.
This is something different from blogging. I’m going to try to write a few sentences every day – just mundane stuff about what I did that day. This is not to say that mundane stuff won’t appear on the blog, too! But my point is, this is just more of a straight-up record. Like today, I wrote, “Took my car to Nalley Nissan for a routine service appt. Last night watched our friends’ wedding webcast online.” The particular book I’m writing in, I started in September 2003 but sometimes went years between entries. I used to be a prolific journal-keeper, and then I started a blog and moved some of that stuff online. I tried to keep up both, but it was never really the same. I think this is a good balance.
~*~
As much as I’m making my best effort not to be one of those people who, when looking for a house, is totally consumed by it and that’s all they talk about and everyone gets sick of hearing about it, as if they think they’re the only person who ever bought a house – well, I’m going to blog a little about our house hunt!
Monday and Tuesday morning, we went out with our Realtor and looked at houses. In total we’ve seen 15 houses – not including three we didn’t bother going in for various reasons. We’ve been, in our Realtor’s words, “copious note takers” and in typical nerd fashion made a Google document with all the notes and info for the houses we like. We originally had six houses on that list, but after much thought it’s been reduced to three. Here they are:
If these pictures look familiar, it’s because the houses were on the market when we were doing our “driving around and looking” routine in November, and I posted pictures then.
The first one is by far our favorite. When we walked in, we both had that “gut feeling” my mom talked about. But, there’s a problem: the next door neighbors have two big dogs which barked their fool heads off the entire time they were there. Yes, even when we were inside the house, and yes, you could hear them inside; and the master bedroom is on that side of the house. Long story short, we had basically scratched it off our list with much gnashing of teeth. The listing agent emailed our agent and said she and the seller had never heard the dogs bark like that; “yeah right,” we thought, taking it with the appropriate serving of salt. But since then, we’ve driven by the house three times at various times of day and haven’t heard the dogs. I got out and walked around the yard one of those times. Apparently, according to a second email from the listing agent, the neighbors are a nice gay couple who were “mortified” to hear that their dogs were making so much noise. So we’re wary, but haven’t abandoned all hope. We’re going to see the house again tomorrow and knock on the neighbors’ door; hopefully they’ll be home and be reasonable people we can talk to. Cross your fingers for us!
The other two houses are good, too; I could see myself living in all three of them. But the top one is definitely our fave, minus the possible dog situation. :P
Why do people have dogs if they aren’t going to take care of them properly and make sure they have proper obedience training? Who the hell thinks it’s okay for a dog to bark all the time? Like the guy who lives next door to my grandmother, he has a big dog that he leaves in the backyard all the time and it’s always barking – scares my grandmother half to death every time she walks outside. And yes, she’s called the police, and no, there’s nothing they can do. One police officer who came out just made it worse by antagonizing the dog and getting it even more riled up. Recently some teenagers broke into the house on the other side, and the owner was like, “Your dog was barking the whole time and you didn’t think to come see if anything was the matter??” The guy’s answer? “My dog barks all the time” – said with a shrug.
The phrase “defeating the purpose” comes to mind.
But back to house-hunting in general, this reminds me of at Sara’s (awesome, impressive, delicious) Christmas party, when Garrett and I were chatting and I said, “When did this happen? When did we become grown-ups? We’re sitting here talking about mortgages and babies!”
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It will show up in my del.icio.us auto-post tomorrow morning (which, btw, I’m glad to know at least someone reads!) but I just wanted to reiterate how much I love this post by Kim. With the Rick Warren stuff, I’m trying really damn hard not to say “I told you so” to some of the more obnoxiously zealous Obama supporters. Now, if anyone wants to construe this as support for McCain or overt Obama-hate, all I can say is stop being an idiot. I made no secret that I was an Obama supporter in the election, BUT I was really bothered by the groupthink/lock-step mentality I saw among some of his supporters, where you couldn’t question him at all or else you were CAST OFF THE ISLAND. Construing someone as so perfect and flawless unnerved me from the beginning, because it’s just not realistic, and should be especially red-flag-worthy for a candidate who’s trying to run on a platform of being accessible, transparent, and bringing change to the political process.
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Niki sent me this e-card right before I was planning to send it to a bunch of people. By now it’s been all over Twitter so I’m sure it’s old news, but I still find it amusing in the way only someone who takes anti-depressant meds can.
~*~
I have some partially written posts saved in draft mode about things like Peggy Denby of the Midtown Neighbors Association comparing prostitutes to cockroaches; the royally fucked-up situation with Dymond Milburn; and the gang-rape of a San Francisco woman who was attacked for being a lesbian. I will try to finish them when I have the energy. These are important issues and I am, as usual, struggling to find the balance between taking care of myself/not drowning in the mire of upsetting news, and giving these things the attention they need, especially to people who are blissfully ignorant. In the meantime – if you’re a British citizen, please be sure to sign this petition calling to defer any bill on prostitution until after the next general election; and if you’re not a Brit, spread the word!
I’m just going to quote this entire post…
…from Amanda:
Reading news about the presidential-pardon applications crossing Bush’s desk (he does not seem inclined to make many pardons right now), one caught my attention. It seems John Walker Lindh, who was picked up a few years ago fighting with the Taliban in Afghanistan, wants a pardon. He’s serving a 20yr prison sentence.
Deborah Jeane Palfrey (aka The DC Madam), was facing a possible maximum sentence of 55 years when she was killed/committed suicide (take your pick). She, of course, ran an escort agency/fantasy-sex service/prostitution ring (take your pick). Article-writers covering the story said she realistically faced anywhere between 4-15 years in prison.
All this over $2 million in income she paid taxes on, with a stable of consensual employees and a very consenting clientele.
And Lindh wants a pardon because his prison sentence is obviously a bit much for him. Perhaps he feels like the victim of a miscarriage of justice.
Justice. Suuuure.
PoleLaTeaz on CNN!
Check it out… PoleLaTeaz, the studio where I’ve been taking classes for the past two years, is featured on CNN today, complete with a video! Awesome!! These ladies rock!
A few posts on the Max Hardcore obscenity case
Meant to post this stuff sooner, but that is the eternal blogger’s refrain, isn’t it?
First, a must-read from Monica at the $pread blog:
Douglas had some pretty amazing things to say, starting with an explanation of the Max Hardcore charges that highlighted the wrongdoing of his distributors, Jaded Video. Basically, Jaded sold a “Euro” version of a Hardcore film to a US Federal Agent and sent the video through US mail, which was what allowed the obscenity charges to be brought against Hardcore. Of course, the real guilty party here is Jaded, not Max Hardcore, just as if a 7-11 sells beer to minors, 7-11 is guilty, not the good makers of Nattie Light. Jaded was granted immunity from prosecution.
As if all of those details weren’t scary enough, the jurors were exempt from watching the entire DVD, and instead the prosecution selected scenes for viewing. This is the most distressing aspect of the case, because it violates the “taken as a whole” stipulation of the Miller test. The jurors didn’t see behind the scenes footage demonstrating affection between performers, female performers smiling and able-bodied after the shoot, how scenes are edited, etc; they just saw excerpts selected for maximum shock value. Max Hardcore will appeal, but while he’s waiting for his follow up trial, by estimate of his lawyer, he’ll spend at least 30 months in federal prison. FEDERAL. PRISON. For, according to the DOJ: “anal penetration, urination, insertion of an entire hand into a vagina or anus, vomiting, and severe violence.” Ok, so severe violence sounds bad (although that’s a vague term which has no meaning without an actual description of what went on) but as far as pissplay, anal sex, and fisting go…? That merits federal prison? It sounds like an average weekend at my house. (I’m kidding. Maybe)
So this brings me to the point of why anyone besides those in the porn business should care about the Max Hardcore conviction. There are obvious reasons: the jaw-droppingly brazen trampling of the legal system, the tax payer money spent on these sort of trials, the possible disruption in supply of porn, if you’re an avid porn consumer. But sex workers of all walks should be especially alarmed, because when any type of sexual material or right is successfully attacked, it’s like another block laid in the wall separating us from the rest of the world. And the sad fact is, I feel like it’s pretty rare to see any sex worker solidarity in these situations.
Ren has an excellent (as usual) post on the matter as well. And at Pro-Porn Activism, Anthony wonders what the effect will be on the rest of the adult industry.
Oh, but you can’t *normalize* it…!
Ren has touched on this before; just look at the terrible things that happen when prostitution is decriminalized…
The number of sex workers in New Zealand does not appear to have increased since legislation decriminalising prostitution became law, according to a new report.
The Prostitution Law Review Committee was set up to report on the Prostitution Reform Act 2003 three to five years after the Act came into force.
…
The committee said a Christchurch School of Medicine survey of sex workers found that more than 90 per cent felt they had legal rights under the Act.
More than 60 per cent felt they were more able to refuse to provide commercial sexual services to a particular client since the enactment of the law.
Prior to the Act, the illicit status of the sex industry meant sex workers were open to coercion and exploitation by managers, pimps and clients.
Research indicated there had been “some improvement” in employment conditions “but this is by no means universal”.
…
Associate justice minister Lianne Dalziel said the report showed the Act had had a positive effect on the health and safety of sex workers and had not led to an increase in numbers of sex workers as predicted by critics of the law reform.
Normalize it? Legitimize it? Perish the thought! We care about women, after all!
-Oh wait. Yeah, for all you would-be “allies?” See, if you actually cared, you would be in favor of decrim. It’s really not that complicated.
(Via Cunning Minx.)
Round-up of posts about the UK’s new porn law
Be sure to stop by Caroline’s first:
- UK Criminal Justice Bill Clause 63 – but what is “extreme”? – A Beginners Guide – Seriously, if you read no other post, read this one.
- Kink
Ren also has several posts:
- It’s late, I can’t sleep, and I am obsessing over this new UK porn law…
- Head,desk…headdeskheaddeskheaddesk!!!!!
- Content Regulation and Porn Laws
A few from SnowdropExplodes:
- “Honk if you like kinky pictures!”
- The Day They Came To Arrest The Book
- If the government could read my mind, they’d ban it.
A hodgepodge of others:
- Polyamorphous Perversity: On the UK’s new pornography law
- Sex, Life & Frilly Bits: Return to 1959 & ‘Obscenity in the UK’, or How to Create a Blackmarket
- Pro-Porn Activism: “Extreme Porn” Banned in U.K.
- Aiken Area Progressive: Blatant display of censorship in the United Kingdom
- The Strangest Alchemy: On Graham Coutts , and why the UK anti-porn law was not the answer