Harlots Parlour

The Ease of Righteous Causes: What to Feel About Undocumented Migration
London Progressive Journal, Issue 98
27 November 2009

It was easier when one could talk about asylum as a benevolent offering to virtuous people downtrodden in their own countries. It was easier when the category of refugee seemed transparent, when we knew about fewer armed conflicts and less, perhaps, about who was Right and who was Wrong. It was easier to be a country that could openly say Come here. We care. We are a civilised people and will help you.

Now that there are too many people asking for asylum and calling themselves refugees – ‘too many’ being an unquantifiable number – it is not so easy. One can still try to limit the talk to the most egregious armed conflicts, the biggest ones, or the ones where the good guys can more easily be distinguished from the bad. But one has the sense of the ground slipping away beneath the conversation.

The other day I saw Welcome, Philippe Lioret’s film about the miserable situation in and near Calais, where French police tear down wretched shelters whilst young men cry. It’s a good film but takes the easy path as far as the protagonist’s reason for wanting to reach Britain: he is in love with a girl in London. This romance allows anyone who watches the film to identify with his quest and root for him as he swims the Channel. But what if the romantic motive were missing?

Anti-immigration voices use the term ‘economic migrants’ as a pejorative, an accusation against people who don’t qualify as refugees from officially (and arbitrarily) designated conflicts. In the current climate, a migrant is actually more likely to be sympathised with if he or she presents as a victim than as an able-bodied person willing to take almost any sort of paid job available. Or, in the case of Welcome, if he is in love.

Many looking at the images of smashed camps around Calais would like to know why those sad young men insist, against every obstacle, on remaining there and continuing to try to get into Britain. One said, in response to a reporter’s question, that there is respect for human rights in the UK. He may really believe that, but the same sort of ‘respect’, for what it’s worth, exists in other European countries. Given the extreme difficulty now of getting through the Channel Tunnel and into non-Schengen Britain, it’s logical to wonder why they don’t turn left to Spain or right to Belgium or almost anywhere else in Europe.

Rather than believe that the UK is a human-rights paradise, we should understand that such migrants are trying to get here simply because that’s where their networks led them. When these men were thinking about leaving home they talked to everyone they could about the possibilities. If family, friends or paid smugglers had led them to another European capital, that’s where they would be. And that’s where they’d now be facing different problems, less interesting to media cameras than those in Calais. But their networks brought them to the north of France, and the same networks cannot now provide an alternate plan – particularly not from far away, back in Afghanistan or Iran.

At this point – the point experienced by Welcome’s hero – to find that it’s near impossible to get across the Channel is staggering. One got this far on information that was paid for. Now the last few stages turn out to be much harder than promised. Those unable to swim for ten hours in cold water face options of paying an unknown local smuggler, hanging on in place, despite French police actions, or changing life-plans drastically without good advice. Even an environment as hostile as Calais can seem better than a complete unknown.

The story is similar for many women migrants described as trafficked in the mainstream media. When thinking about leaving home, they, too, talked to everyone they could about the possible options. They also followed routes known to family, friends and smugglers. If they passed the Schengen barrier and the water surrounding the UK, it helped that their methods were different – they didn’t try to hitch a ride through the tunnel. Now, of course, they can also be described as economic migrants, and, as such, be deported if caught – unless they can prove egregious enough treatment to qualify as victims of trafficking. But the prospects for being allowed to stay with a normal residence permit are slim.

Migration is now a phenomenon that governments want to manage. A 2002 White Paper describes five techniques used to combat illegal immigration: ‘strategic enforcement measures, identity management, increasing employer compliance, greater policy co-ordination both within and between governments and regularisation.’ Other proposals refer to ‘earned regularisation’, by which illegals able to prove their social worthiness would be granted amnesty, and ‘open borders’, which would focus on getting people jobs and integrating them socially.

All are more complicated and less easy to understand than No Borders, the dream of many that has no chance of success in a Europe combining more united and centralised policies with intensified nationalisms. In this climate, things are unlikely to improve for migrants who only want to come, work and be left alone. But many on the left resist taking a pragmatic stance that would accept the current political climate. There is also a tendency to hold onto the victim-categories – the ones that show the men’s tears in Calais and talk about sexual slavery for women.

It’s harder to face up to the fact that many migrants are complicit with the dodgy enterprises that help them get new lives. Why? Because they know that there are opportunities for getting paid jobs, even if they are in the ill-named informal economy, which means they cannot be used to get work permits and visas. The jobs are there, in construction and agriculture, or as a nanny, sex worker or restaurant employee. The fact that one’s status will be illegal once one arrives recedes in importance; the fact that one will be unable to convert from illegality to legality without leaving the country can’t be expected to sink in beforehand. The object is to arrive.

In the harder context we see today, whether in London or Calais or Copenhagen or Amsterdam, the question is whether the availability of paid jobs couldn’t mean, in and of itself, that migrants can be employed legally. Forget governmental concepts like formal-informal economies for a moment. If a legal employer offers paid employment to a migrant, should that employment not allow him legal status? Why not? If he or she is paid a normal amount and taxes are paid by all, what’s the problem?

Laura Agustín is the author of Sex at the Margins: Migration, Labour Markets (Zed Books, 2007).

Border Thinking on Migration and Trafficking

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Via Facebook (link here):

Trans inclusion in the Equality Bill – ACT NOW

This group is designed to raise awareness of two amendments that are being tabled to extend trans protections in the Equality Bill.

You can make a difference by lobbying your MP to support these amendments. Model letters can be found in the discussion section, and here: http://justfillingintheblanks.blogspot.com/

Act NOW to ensure *all* trans and gender variant people are covered by the Equality Bill, and protected in schools.

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This is a guest post by Recursive Paradox.
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Chasers. Admirers. Fetishists.

Words that often create a very emotional response from trans folk and many other groups for whom such things apply to. If you’re not in the know (and you probably aren’t, considering my audience) there’s a bit of explaining to do here. Let’s start with attraction.

Attraction (physical or conceptual) is, quite simply, a tendency towards sexual arousal or interest towards a given set of physical traits or a given set of conceptual traits. This tendency is almost always inherent to the individual, sometimes functions in a fluid fashion (but not always) and often results in physical and psychological effects when triggered by being in the presence of, in contact with, or in the position to notice an individual with these traits. This may not occur if traits that would constitute a “turn off” are present on the other person (something that either causes revulsion or simply reduces any sexual interest without causing revulsion). And only if the individual in question has turn offs. Not all people do.

Yes, I know, it sounds a little bit cold and science-y. But that really is the best way to describe it. All it is happens to be what sparks sexual interest. It can be parts of a body or it can be concepts orientated around a person. Your attraction triggers could include someone’s conceptual existence as a goth, or round perky breasts. You could be interested in folk who sing beautifully or in feet. There are certain accepted zones of attraction. These are called orientations and tend to be erasing to other attractions (fetishphobia/kinkphobia) and largely cissexist and binarist in their organization conceptually (as I’ve pointed out in this post). Then there are mostly ignored conceptual attractions (like being attracted to goths) that are pushed into personal taste, despite being as personal, as inherent and as major a part of one’s attraction as orientation. And then there are the attractions that are not accepted (but in varying degrees) and those are fetishes (and in the worst cases, paraphilias). Now, attractions are not wrong. In fact they are never wrong. They are simply a naturalistic part of many human minds, present in all but those who are asexual (no attraction type, not asexuals with no sex drive, they may still have attractions). There are some attractions that are a serious problem for the individual, for instance, pedophiles have an attraction that will invariably lead to rape if they act on it (due to children not being able to consent) but even in those cases, the attraction isn’t the bad thing, the actions are. And there are some attractions wherein the concepts are dangerous for the attracted party, like certain fetishes wherein one is eaten by another. Cannibalism basically. Engaging in sex based on that attraction could get one killed. Rape/surrender of control fantasies are risky because if you’re with someone who doesn’t care if you need to stop, you will likely actually get raped. Most dangerous attractions can be circumvented with simulation, which doesn’t actually invoke the dangerous or problematic aspect, just fools one’s arousal with simulations and faking of the triggers. So even in those cases, the attractions aren’t a problem, provide an adequate simulation and outlet can be found.

So attraction itself is simple and not really subject to ethical quandary.

This includes attractions to marginalized folks. Yes, there are attractions to marginalized folks. Every body type, likely even every concept can be an attraction trigger. In my case, there are folk out there that find the mixture of certain bodily traits on me very attractive. I have a penis, breasts, a curvy body, a minimum of body hair and no vagina. Some individuals find me attractive. Some of those individuals who do, refer to themselves as chasers/admirers/fetishists.

And here’s where things get sticky (that was not a sex joke, fuck off). You see, the attraction itself is not the issue. It never is. What is the issue are the things that surround the attraction, the attracted person and the person who is attractive to them. These things are referred to here as a Sexual Culture. Sexual Cultures are a combination of cultural elements, social trainings and ideologies that orientate themselves around sex, usually in a given context. A puritanical sexual culture is one wherein all forms of sex are evil except for one and only done in certain situations. BDSM sexual culture is one wherein the policies of the ethical system of RACK (risk aware consensual kink) rule every interaction and any that are not ruled by RACK are labeled abuse and struck down. Sexual Cultures are where stereotypes about sex, dating rules, sex rules, sexual conduct guidelines, sexual philosophies and the way that people are treated comes from when it comes to sex.

This exists everywhere. Rape culture theory in feminism? It’s a description of the Sexual Culture of straight cis men. This sexual culture is one that takes the wholly harmless attraction to women (usually cis in that context, cuz feminism fails at accounting trans stuff, even though rape culture affects trans women worse usually) and piles on objectification, bodily ownership, bodies constructed as worth less, sexual violence and a host of other awfulness. The attraction to women is not the problem, the problem is the Sexual Culture around it.

So too does this apply to chasers and attraction to trans women (and the lesbian community’s fetish for trans men and possibly even FAAB nonbinaries). I can’t speak too much on fetishes for nonbinaries in general as I’m not familiar with most of what they deal with. Same with trans guys (luckily others have gone in depth on the topic like on this link). So I will be discussing the Sexual Culture of Chasers/Admirers and folks who are attracted to us but don’t id as chasers/admirers. I may also make some references to the Sexual Culture of Devotees (or individuals who are attracted to people with disabilities that do not id as devos) due to my own disabilities. If you want more in depth material on this topic in relation to disability you should read the FWD post by meloukhia on it. Another source on devotees and the PWD community can be found here However, the concepts are more or less the same for these two groups (and presumably, this may even be able to be extended to fetishes for POC and fat individuals, but as I possess white privilege and thin privilege I am not in a position to say much on those two topics.) so you can safely extend what I’m discussing here to the Devotee Sexual Culture as well.

One of the things you’ll notice in the posts above is a laundry list of awful, objectifying shit done to PWD by some of these folks (picture stealing, pushing for sexual stuff before trying to get to know the person, etc). A similar laundry list exists for many Chasers. The oppositional assumption on our parts goes a bit off the wall however as most will assume that simply possessing the attraction in question is enough to make someone a creepy objectifying asshole (something the second post linked goes into). This is a flawed assumption, due to the fact that attractions aren’t what causes objectification, Sexual Culture is. Much like how some radical feminists will assume that any cis man attracted to cis women (once again erasing trans folk, yay unradical feminism) will invariably objectify her by the mere fact that she is marginalized and he is privileged. The power dynamic is certainly a problem and not being mindful of it can create serious problems for partnerships wherein one or more individuals are privileged and one or more of the other individuals are marginalized on the same axis. But this doesn’t necessarily mean one will objectify the other(s). Much like with straight cis men vs. women (cis or trans, of any attraction type), devotees and chasers only can become objectifiers if the Sexual Culture they are steeped in is an objectifying culture and they allow themselves to be influenced by it.

And this is not assured.

Now that we have the reflexive assumptions handled let’s talk about how objectification finds it’s way into these groups (and yes it is out there) The Sexual Culture of a group that is attracted to a marginalized group is often subject to the same dehumanizing elements of the primary culture it exists in that causes the marginalization of the group in question. Cis men have cis male privilege and participate in the culture that marginalizes all women (and does so even worse to trans women). Their sexual culture has been influenced by this primary culture, adopting the dehumanization, worth loss, public ownership, removal of agency and exploitation that all women face (trans or cis, although trans gets nailed harder due to the intersection of womanhood and transness). So too does this apply to the sexual cultures of Devotees and Chasers/Admirers alike. PWD and trans folk are subjected to dehumanization, worth loss, public ownership, exploitation, removal of agency, construction as having wrong bodies and construction as being irrelevant just through the standard function of the primary society that these groups all operate in. These forces exert an influence (sometimes a very strong one) on the Sexual Culture. In turn, the influenced Sexual Culture can take on these aspects, which are made intensely worse by the fact that the Sexual Culture is orientated around sex (wherein loss of agency, dehumanization and etc creates a Rape Culture because these things translate to ridiculously harmful sexual involvements when sex is thrown in). So bam, just like with het cis guys and women, these cultures spill over folks attracted to PWD and folks attracted to trans women. Which means that these folk (just like het cis guys) have an uphill battle to fight against a culture that tries to drown them in the idea that we’re all just sexual objects.

This is not helped by the number of devotees and chasers (I don’t have exact numbers, so I can’t say if it is a minority or a majority. Most likely, somewhere in the middle) that give into this social training (or absorb it unawares) and become creepy stalker fuckjobs or exploitative assholes. These folks not only marginalize the hell out of us, engaging in exploitative, boundary ignoring behavior that at best is stalkeresque and creepy and at worst involves rape and violence, they also create a very strong fear of anyone having the attraction in our group (as per the assumptions made above). Because let’s face it, many of the creepy asshole types in these fetish groups will try to abuse sex positive views and twist the situation into a question of attraction, while trying to push the eyes off of their just utterly awful behavior. This fucks things up fairly badly for the folks who aren’t creepy at all and still id as the group in question. And this is an issue in and of itself. Individuals attracted to PWD and individuals attracted to trans women are often regarded as sick, fucked up or wrong somehow. Which isn’t good for them and it’s pretty damn bad for us too. It constructs our bodies and us as undesirable (both PWD and trans folk face this) and anyone that does is broken somehow. The creepy fuckjobs who infest these groups and thrive due to the problematic Sexual Culture of the group further enforce this idea of an attraction to my body as being broken (which further stigmatizes my body, just a giant clusterfuck everywhere) because they act so awful that we start practicing oppositionalism just to protect ourselves.

You really do get into a habit of flipping out when you hear the word chaser or admirer. That protective shell builds when someone gets the “omg that’s hot” look in their eyes when they find out you’re trans. That protective shell is even thicker if you’ve been stalked, had pictures stolen, or even was exploited, abused or raped by a possible chaser type (as I was). And this has an effect, just like in the linked comment, the solution Goldfish offered to the friend in question was to not identify as a devotee. Because the name itself, the identity associated with the attraction is in and of itself stigmatized now because of this oppositionalism and because of the creepy fucks who claim the title. Same with chasers. I mean, let’s face facts. If someone came up to me and said, “hey, I know you’re trans and I find that really attractive, I’m an Admirer” my alarms would go off and my walls would go up really quick, unless I knew the person well and knew they weren’t one to objectify me. But the solution really isn’t for them to find a new name. Identity is a tough thing to drop and really the identity isn’t the problem. The problem is that they are steeped in this very bad culture that creates some very bad apples and those apples subsequently go out and make our lives a living hell. Oppositionalism doesn’t really solve this, it also doesn’t really protect us. The really creepy fucks will just pretend not to be chasers at all if they really want to manipulate us. Putting guards everywhere to keep out folks with a given id will not fix that.

So what do we, as marginalized people, do? What should they, as those who are attracted to us, do?

Well for one, it isn’t our responsibility to fix the people who hurt us and subsequently clear the names of the people who don’t hurt us but are associated with those people who do. In fact, our only responsibility is to be mindful of the actual risks and dangers and to avoid stigmatizing ourselves to ourselves. So we need to learn to carefully separate attraction from objectification so that we’re no longer asserting that finding our bodies attractive is some awful horrible thing. That’s the only thing left to do. We aren’t obligated to trust folk as, after all, none of you wear signs. So handling the conceptual end of it and preventing our bodies being further construed as wrong, broken or bad is where our work ends.

The majority of the work falls to those who are in these communities, who id this way, to clean up their own houses. What does this mean? Ethical Devotees and Ethical Admirers, the folks who just have an attraction and are decent folk, who don’t objectify and love the person not just the body or concept, have the job of cleaning up their respective communities. This entails many of the same things that cis heterosexual men have to do to avoid objectifying and hurting women (cis or trans) in general. I’ll give it to you all in a list:

So to ethically minded Devotees, Admirers, Chasers and other fetishists, this is what you need to do to clean house and clear the names of your communities, while clearing the harmful objectifiers from your ranks and avoiding becoming one yourself:

1: Be Mindful of Privilege: There is a very unequal power dynamic in any relationship you have with the folk you’re attracted to. Work to compensate for it. Work to comprehend what advantages you have and avoid invoking them. Make sure that this mindfulness is an expected trait in your community. Understand that as a cissexual and/or cisgendered and/or currently abled person you may be regarded as a danger to us because we can’t determine who’s who among folk. So be cautious and be respectful.

2: Fight The Culture: Boycott the websites that steal pictures of folks with disabilities or take unwanted pictures of trans folk and display them. Speak out against objectifying behavior and stress the importance of safety, consensual involvement, love, empathy, safe words and the dangers of privilege. Call out problematic statements and actions by your devotee or chaser peers. If you know a friend in your community who goes into support group chats or goes to activist and support conventions to troll for a quick fuck, call him, her or hir out. Make sure the community knows of that person’s bad actions and make sure that such a thing is not condoned.

3: Don’t Expect Cookies: Face it, it’ll be years before many of us will feel safe with fetishists. Many of us never will. In fact, some of us will likely always just be creeped out by your attractions (cuz of personal taste). And that’s even if you make huge strides in changing your Sexual Culture overnight. Chances are, there will still be static from folk on you for your attractions and ID, because this fear and disgust at the objectifiers has been building for a very long time. Not everyone is gonna wanna be your friend. Don’t push it. We do have a right to protect ourselves and since we can’t know who is trustworthy, if someone is creeped out by you or wants space, give them space. The more you push your way in with folks who already have reason to worry about your peers, the more you’ll end up coming across as one of the creepy ones and hurting your cause.

4: Be Mindful of Context: Having the hots for someone can sometimes make folks act stupid. I fall over myself when a cute girl is nearby, usually blushing and making words not function quite so well in my mouth. Folks who are used to being pursuers can sometimes come on too strongly and not think when they meet someone who really sparks them. Be mindful of where you are, who you’re talking to and other factors. You might be at a kink rally, lots of fetish minded people together, but that doesn’t mean everyone is going to have the same fetish as you. Assuming that a PWD or a trans woman at a table is going to be cool with you trying to go into scene with them or even swooping right in to ask them out is a bad call. It really comes down to the same sort of thing as regular dating. Get to know the person before you go for the sex. Unless you’re in a context where it’s basically an orgy party or something, and even then, considering the assholes who are your peers, you might still want to ask permission first.

5: Stop Bad Shit From Going Down: If you see someone creeping us out, acting fucked up or exploiting one of us, don’t let it continue. Step in and say, “hey, look, she doesn’t want to talk to you, back off” or “stop trying to touch him”. Or if you’re less confrontational take the offending individual aside and speak to them in private about their lack of tact and their creepy bullshit. Oftentimes apologizing on behalf of your peers goes a long way to reminding us that hey, there are ethical devotees and chasers out there, that aren’t giant douchebags. They’re also helpful to us cuz well, life is stressful for marginalized folk.

6: Be Mindful Of Our Feelings: Don’t say things like, “I love your people”, or “your kind is so hot to me”. That’s creepy, othering, privileged and just fucked up. We aren’t sex dolls. We aren’t walking porn. Treat us like people. And if you already do, make sure your peers do too. If we look uncomfortable, back off (or get your friend to back off). Don’t expect sex and don’t let your peers expect it either. A big portion of rape culture is entitlement and a lack of empathy. If you care about our feelings more than how much you want us in bed (or even just want to date us) you will be golden in avoiding going down the bad path. If we find your attractions creepy, don’t make a damn argument about it. It’s no different that being a little freaked out by bloodplay or scat (ew scat), different folk have different tastes and certain things just squick certain people. If you stick around and try to push us, you’re just adding to the problem. If one of us says, “get the fuck away from me”, go, “I’m sorry you feel that way. Bye.” and walk. Any other option will likely just add to the problem, stress us the fuck out (which we do not need as marginalized people) and make you look like a creepy doucheface.

7: Don’t Blame The Victims For Not Trusting Your Kind: Always remember too, it’s your peers who ruined this for you, not us. Cis het guys don’t have call to yell at girls who don’t trust them for being untrusting. The massive number of rapes done by guys, the abuse, the exploitation and the unwanted objectification done by het cis guys is why this is going on. Same for us. We’ve gotten stalked, our privacy has been invaded, some of us have been abused and even raped by people who have your same attractions and claim your same title. It doesn’t matter if you aren’t like them because there’s no way for us to know what you’re like at first or even second impressions (like mentioned on this post). So instead of pissing and moaning at us because we’re rightfully very scared, worried and apprehensive, handle your people, fix your group, clean house. Don’t expect us to endanger ourselves cuz you’re nice. That means you aren’t so nice after all.

8: Avoid And Stop Entitlement: In the end we’re people. We have agency, will and we make our own choices. We have our own wants, needs or desires. Those needs and desires may not include you. Get over this. And for those that are already good there, make sure your friends get over it too. Us being rare or unusual does not entitle anyone to sex with us, pictures of us or anything else. It does not entitle folks to stalk us or try to learn our address, real name, etc. It does not entitle folks to catcall or to walk up to us and say sexual things without even knowing our names. Don’t walk around as if you own us and if you don’t, make sure none of your peers do this too.

And that’s just the main ones. The fact is, folk being attracted to my body is a good thing overall. The disgust I see on the faces of lesbians and the hate from straight cis guys isn’t ever pleasant and I rarely feel sexually appealing or even nice looking. Someone finding my body type attractive is good and it’s a huge fucking shame that a whole mess of objectifying, creepy douchenozzles have to ruin that. Now, if you find it creepy that someone finds your body attractive, that’s fine too. I know for a lot of folks, they don’t want to have a mixture of traits or they’re working to treat whatever is causing their disability. That’s fine, but that doesn’t change the fact that many of us are not changing anything (non-ops, PWD who are happy as is, etc) and would like to be loved. I’m not ever gonna look at you and say, “oh god, you’re attracted to trans folk/PWD? You’re fucking disgusting.” There are certain fetishes that I find a little offputting (if you find my IBS sexy, that would be offputting because it involves poop and ew poop) but your attraction is not bad. What is bad is your peers (or you, if you’re not so ethical) acting creepy, not respecting us as people and doing exploitative, abusive or objectifying things without our agency, will and choice being honored. That is the problem. And it’s up to you to fight it.

Clean house. Clear your name by stopping the awfulness. And then maybe we can all enjoy the benefits of living in a world where everyone’s body has someone that can get that spark from it.

Cross-posted at Gender Bitch: An Angry Trans Girl’s Blog

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For many trans people, life is not easy. Nobody said it would be. But being trans is not something we choose and as a consequence transitioning may not be an option either. For some of us it’s something which we must do if we are to stand any chance of managing our gender dissonance, of reducing it to a level where we can function in the same way as any other member of mainstream cis society.

To quote Andrea Dworkin in Woman Hating:

Every transsexual, white, black, man, woman, rich, poor, is in a state of primary emergency as a transsexual.

For many of us, our focus is finding ways to overcome that state of emergency: we transition to survive. We are not here to provide entertainment for cis people, nor to be the subject of cis centred academic theories. We cannot be socialised into being cis; neither can being trans be beaten out of us. We may not choose to be trans, but we are here, and we are trying to make our way in a world where we face prejudice and discrimination, bigotry, hatred and violence from cis people on a daily basis.

Yes, our journey is hard, but there are good things, too. We find others like ourselves and learn that we are not alone. We make new friends, trans and cis. We learn to face and overcome challenges and obstacles we never knew we’d face, and find strengths we never knew we had. We change, we develop and we become the people we always knew we were.

Or at least, some of us do.

Some – like the more than 160 trans people mentioned in the recent report of the TGEU’s Trans Murder Monitoring Project – don’t make it through. They are the ones we remember today: those members of my community who weren’t allowed to grow and blossom or find their true selves and who were murdered at the rate of three a week, every week.

Today, 20th November 2009, is the 11th International Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR). It is a day when we remember that every day, all over the world, thousands of trans people are excluded, persecuted, hated, mistreated, subject to aggression and routinely murdered or driven to suicide because of our so-called differences from other members of mainstream cis society. A system which tolerates and accommodates such hatred, prejudice and bigotry is unacceptable, and must be fought without concession, in the name of its past and present victims, and also in the name of its victims to come.

There are numerous events and vigils being held worldwide to mark this year’s Transgender Day of Remembrance – many are listed on the TDOR website (link here) and I would urge anyone – trans or cis – who is able to attend any of these events to do so. Perhaps I may see some of you at the London event tomorrow (Saturday 21st November).

But regardless of anything else, today of all days, please spare a thought for those of my community whose lives have been sacrificed to transphobic bigotry and violence – and maybe ask yourself how anyone who believes in the basic principles of feminism can help us work towards ending transphobic hate crimes like this and this.

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(Cross-posted at Bird of Paradox)

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The Transgender Day of Remembrance serves several purposes. It raises public awareness of hate crimes against transgender people, an action that current media doesn’t perform. Day of Remembrance publicly mourns and honors the lives of our brothers and sisters who might otherwise be forgotten. Through the vigil, we express love and respect for our people in the face of national indifference and hatred. Day of Remembrance reminds non-transgender people that we are their sons, daughters, parents, friends and lovers. Day of Remembrance gives our allies a chance to step forward with us and stand in vigil, memorializing those of us who’ve died by anti-transgender violence.

In the gay panic defense [as with the trans panic defense], the defendant claims that he or she has been the object of romantic or sexual advances by the victim. The defendant finds the advances so offensive and frightening that it brings on a psychotic state characterized by unusual violence.

Cross-posted at Dirty Silver.

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On November 10th, international women’s social change fund Mama Cash packed the house at the culture and politics center De Balie in Amsterdam for Rights, Not Rescue. The evening-long event about sex workers rights had an interesting selection of international guests. Although I follow the work of Mama Cash closely, it was a pleasant surprise for me to learn that they so actively take a stand in the current debates surrounding sex workers and their position in society.
The second pleasant surprise was to see how many people and experts showed up from the Netherlands and beyond to take part in the discussion. My guess is that about 100 people were there, filling all the chairs and stairs.
While entering the hall a short film played on the screen. It was ‘I am a sex worker’ a short piece which came out of the first Speak Up media training, a unique training for sex workers on how to deal with the media, organized by Sex Work Awareness in New York.
After a powerful introduction by Nikki McIntyre, the executive director of Mama Cash, Mama Cash founder Marjan Sax introduced the guests of the evening: Ruth Morgan Thomas (Scotland), Pye Jakobsson (Sweden), Marianne Jonker (The Netherlands) and Macklean Kyomya (Uganda). Each woman is an expert on sex worker issues in her own country, and each is dealing with both similar and different problems when speaking up about sex worker rights.
Something that became very clear during the discussion was the ways in which the Swedish model, which criminalizes the client, and treats the sex worker as a victim, dominated European political discourse in the past decade. While protests in Sweden against the law are getting louder and louder, it seems like its ghost finally entered the Netherlands this past year with the new law proposed by Minister of Justice Ernst Hirsch Ballin: a law that criminalizes clients and forces sex workers to register with the government to do their work legally.
While this proposal is designed to fight trafficking, panellists agreed that this wasn’t the best approach. Traffickers will be the first to register their women; if they can force them to work, it isn’t difficult to force them to register as well. And by criminalizing clients and asking them to check the registration of the sex worker they are visiting, you might take away the only lifeline these women have to the outside world, as Ruth Morgan Thomas stated. If you take that away, you are hurting the most vulnerable group of sex workers there is.
To make a difference and speak out, sex workers need to organize. Macklean Kyomya talked about the problems she dealt with and is still dealing with as she set up the Women’s Organization Network for Human Rights Advocacy (WONETHA) in Uganda. She needed to gain confidence with the sex workers in her country and learn how to run a good organisation without proper funding. Although the United States is a major source of funding for HIV prevention work, it restricts funding to rights-based sex worker support organizations in two different ways, via the President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Although PEPFAR supposedly promotes a balanced approach, until recently it required that one third of funding to an organizationbe spent promoting abstinence. Now, with the reauthorization of PEPFAR, if funding for abtinence-only education is less than 50% of prevention of sexual transmission funds, then a report justifying why is needed. PEPFAR also contains an Anti-Prostitution Loyalty Oath (APLO), which requires organizations receiving US HIV/AIDS assistance to formally pledge their opposition to prostitution and sex trafficking. The APLO also prohibits organizational activities that promote or support the legalization or practice of prostitution (“promote” and “support” are broadly defined), with no distinction between privately and publicly funded programs.
In Europe people are very active. Forming trade unions is a possibility; there are eight countries in Europe that accept sex workers trade unions branches in pre-existing unions. But it’s difficult to establish human rights also because the stigmatization that sex workers deal with, even when being organized in a trade union. When in a trade union, sex workers still face different (and mostly unequal) treatment due to the nature of their work.
I was shocked to hear that Dutch government provided 50 million euros for a program to get women out of sex work, but took away funding for almost all the organizations that are providing guidance, help and information for sex workers in the field. Despite the financial challenges faced by organizations represented on the panel (and many of the experts in the audience), the energy in the room was inspiring. There was no bitterness, but the will to move forward and connect was palpable. steer cultures and governments away from the idea that sex workers are always victims of traffickers, of their conditions, of society. As Ruth Morgan Thomas stated in her concluding words: ‘Give us the right to say yes. This automatically gives us the right to say no as well’.
Marije Janssen is a feminist with a key interest in sexual rights and diversity. This interest is reflected in all of her work, if it’s writing for feminist magazine Lover or organizing an event about countermovements in sexuality. Learn more about Marije on her website (mostly in Dutch)

See more photos of the event on Mama Cash’s Facebook Fan page.

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Via the Transgender Day of Remembrance website:

• 19-21 November – TDOR photo exhibition, Entrance Foyer, Jubilee Library, Jubilee Square, Brighton:

  A public exhibition of photos of some of the people who have been killed in the last year. Some tributes will be on display with an explanation of what the Transgender Day of Remembrance is for, and its history.

  There will also be a book of condolence for Andrea Waddell, who was recently murdered in Brighton.

• 20 November – The Piazza, Warwick University, Coventry – 6.00pm

  Candlelit vigil.

  Full details on Facebook

• 20 November – Old Refectory, Wadham College, Oxford – 7.30pm

  Trans Q&A for those wanting to expand their knowledge and awareness of trans issues. A safe space, open to all and no prior knowledge required.

  Followed by…

• 20 November – Old Refectory, Wadham College, Oxford – 9.00pm

  A screening of Boys Don’t Cry.

• 21 November – 52 Club, 52 Gower Street, London WC1E 6EB – Beginning at 2:15pm
• 21 November – 1st Floor, Dorset Gardens Methodist Church, Kemptown, Brighton – from 3.00pm
• 22 November – Beacon of Hope, Sackville Park, off Canal Street, Manchester – Beginning at 3.45pm

  Service for the Transgender Day of Remembrance

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Cross-posted at Bird of Paradox

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