Melissa Farley and her ilk and anyone who agrees with her needs to realize that ending prostititution is not the answer…helping the workers get off the street, decriminalized and PROTECTED is the answer.

Aphrodite Phoenix

Fact: in most states, prostitution is a misdemeanor. That rarely means any jail time.  Just a fine.  Fact: in most states, pimping or pandering is a felony. A pimp, agent or madam IS looking at jail time. So the pimp, agent or madam is very highly motivated to turn in clients’ names in order to avoid jail, but the individual sex worker is not.

That’s just one more reason for my opposition to third-party management.

ANYONE can go into the street and talk to the women out there. They’re so demoralized, they’ll talk to anyone…they hardly even care if they get arrested. And the Nevada brothel girls are easy to talk to because where they are it’s legal.

You call that INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING, Diane??? You call that DIGGING for the WHOLE TRUTH???

Shame on you.

     But for now, it’s just another drab morning, just another day of clamorous finger-pointing, just another klatch of blogs full of ire. Two days ago Eliot Spitzer, the governor of New York, got caught patronizing an “escort.” People are enraged, calling for his resignation, and feeling sorry for his wife and teen-aged daughters.

     Well, it seems to me that if “escort” sex work were legal, there wouldn’t be much of a scandal. No one would have snooped on the governor’s digression, and few people would have cared. And if Spitzer himself weren’t so duplicitous, posing as a moralist and talking down prostitution, then once again, who would have cared? It’s hypocrisy that’s burying Spitzer, far more than the act itself.

      What will it take to make America see that it’s not the “escort service” that’s wrong, but the big deal that’s made of it? Maybe Spitzer’s wife is “standing by her man” because she understands this.

      It’s true that this man’s phony stance is appalling. It’s mildly redolent of those priests who preach abstinence, and are raping little boys out back. But the outcry with regard to the service Spitzer needed is making me want to yawn.     

     Catch them all and there goes the government.  

                                                         ******************************

     The world-famous prostitutes rights activist and author of Cop to Callgirl, Norma Jean Almodovar, emailed with me

today about the Spitzer scandal. She gave me permission to copy her email here:

I’ve been doing interviews nonstop since the scandal broke. And amazingly, I said the
same thing about the politicians and catching them all… I phrased it:

If all the politicians who had ever frequented a prostitute were forced to resign,

there would be no one left to run the government!

We can only hope that this dude is prosecuted for HIS crimes against
prostitutes- that he prosecuted them with such zeal and enthusiasm. May
he get whatever he dished out to the victims of his morality crusade!

It will be interesting to see who are the other clients of this
“Prostitution ring” were- if they get exposed by the government…

Best,
Norma Jean

Download this as a file
 

December 17th 2007 marks the 5th Annual International Day to End Violence
Against Sex Workers. This event calls attention to hate crimes committed
against sex workers.  Originally conceived by the Sex Workers Outreach
Project as a memorial and vigil for the victims of the Green River murders
in Seattle Washington, International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers
empowers workers, clients, and our supporters to come together to organize
against criminalization, discrimination and to remember victims of violence.

*At 11:30 am on Monday, December 17th, 2007 *on the steps of San Francisco
City Hall, the Erotic Service Providers Union Sex Workers will join the Sex
Workers Outreach Project and Supervisor Jake McGoldrick’s press conference
to raise awareness about the violence committed against this unprotected
workforce.

Following this public speak out, ESPU will hold a public vigil at *3pm on
Monday, December 17th, 2007 *at Bancroft and Telegraph in Berkeley,
California to call attention to a recent incident of violence against a sex
worker while attending a UC Berkeley event hosted by the Ethics Department
that depicted sexually violent graphic images of sex workers as normal.

We will be asking the universities to host forums to ensure that students
and teachers have access to facts from actual sex industry workers and our
supporters about what forced labor actually looks like in the sex industry.
All Erotic Laborers must be supported in accessing our own agency to report
theft, assault, battery, rape, coercion and murder. Existing laws that
criminalize prostitution and immigration as well as other forms of
regulations of erotic labor prevent workers from reporting violence.   Please
join us by calling attention to hate crimes against sex workers, namely
prostitutes.

“By demanding the end to anti-prostitution laws and regulations, we will end
the stigma, discrimination and violence against us and the stigma against
our clients”, says Starchild.   The Erotic Service Providers Union demands
that all workers and clients, female and male alike, have the ability to
negotiate for our labor and work conditions irregardless of our legal
status, country of origin, or government documentation.

11/11/07
 An altercation involving Maxine Doogan of the Erotic Service 
Providers Union, followed a performance sponsored by U C Berkeley 
Ethic Department at UC Berkeley Worth Ryder Gallery on Nov. 9th 
2007 which resulted in the U C Berkeley Police issuing a 7 day stay 
away order to Ms Doogan, Lisa Roelillg one other companion.

“My Real Name” was a One New Earth Production performance by 
Students and Artist Fighting to End Human Slavery.  Sponsored by 
the UC Berkeley Ethics Studies and promoted by the SAGE Project 
violent scene after violent scene was played out against 
streetbased prostitutes. This play actually turned out to be a 
propaganda piece conflating incest, rape, domestic violence, 
economic disparity, homelessness, drug addiction with the 
occupation of prostitution by depicting graphic sexually violent 
images and reenactments.

The producer had stated that this performance was meant to be 
interactive and invited audience members to interact with the 
people depicting the violence during the performance.  It was 
unclear if the people relating the violence were actors or the 
actual people who had experienced the violence originally.   The 
producer also said a discussion about trafficking in the sex 
industry would follow the performance.
Many people walked out before the end as did Doogan, who returned 
at the conclusion expecting to find a discussion under way but 
instead found her comrade, Lisa Roellig, a former streetbased 
worker surrounded by anti prostitution activist, like researcher 
Melissa Farley, who recently called for the closing of the legal 
brothels in Nevada.

Roellig, an ex-streetbased worker and Doogan attempted to converse 
with the producer about her relationship to the issues raised in 
the performance.  The producer responded by yelled and waved her 
arms saying she didn’t believe in the comodification of women and 
that no discussion was going to take place.   However a loud 
discussion ensued between all parties with the producer stating 
that Doogan ‘sucked the dicks of corporate America’ and was ‘a 
white and privileged’.  Another anti prostitutionist, also a former 
streetbased worker, stated that all prostitutes are dogs, and used 
physical intimidation to push Doogan out the door while evoking the 
name of blood of Jesus Christ. Doogan responded by leaving the 
building and calling the anti prostitution group “poverty pimps”. 
Annie Fukushima, U C Berkeley Doctorial Candidate, threatened to 
call the cops and Doogan encouraged her to do so.

Doogan, Roellig and the third person made statements to the police 
that Doogan had been physically assaulted.  UC Berkeley Campus 
Officer Sanchez only wanted to know if the women who called the 
police were women of color.  All three women were issued 7 day stay 
away orders.

Said Roellig, “While they were privileged enough to call in the 
cops because two women show up to question their view of our lives, 
I was not ever privileged enough to call the cops when I was raped, 
assaulted  or robbed on the street because I was a criminalized 
worker.  These women are outspoken on their abolitionists views and 
are advocates of  the continuation of the States oppressive laws 
that control our bodies, our economies and most important make us 
easy targets for police abuse and corruption”

Please call, write or email the Berkeley Police Department and tell 
them to receive the report of battery on Maxine Doogan.  And the UC 
Berkeley Ethnic Studies Department because it failed in its 
commitment to be understanding of the deep multiple meanings of 
racial diversity in the Americas in the area of prostitution when 
they sponsored the performance and facilitated racial violence 
against sex industry workers.

BUT NOW Farley’s spewn out ANOTHER biased finding, this time specifically about our very own American-grown ranch-brothels in Nevada. She makes them sound like prisons or cattle ranches.

I’ll agree with any abolitionist that managed prostitution is NOT the way things should be. The ONLY WAY a working girl can guarantee her freedom from exploitation is to totally work for herself. But Farley, as usual, goes bonkers with bias. She’s determined to color prostitution in the grays and blacks of coercion and despair.

You need only take a look at the glowing countenances of the Nevada working girls on HBO’s “Cathouse” series to know that they don’t feel imprisoned or like cattle. Just watch them laughing and talking about how much they love their work!

And Farley’s never done their work! Just who does she think she is….I’m so sick of these people getting academic accolades, all at the sex workers’ expense.

Comments, please!