Harlots Parlour

News of yet another conviction for a rape of a prostitute in Liverpool. Confirming the high standard set by Liverpool police who view assaults upon sex workers as hate crime and confirming why sex worker organisations and sex workers themselves ask that the policies adopted by the police in Liverpool are implemented nation wide.

Click headline or follow link below to read article in Liverpool Echo.

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news//tm_headline=liverpool-grandfather-found-guilty-of-prostitute-rape%26method=full%26objectid=26706278%26siteid=100252-name_page.html

A GRANDFATHER made an outburst at jurors as he was found guilty of rape.

Liverpool crown court jurors took just over five hours to convict David Roach, 50, of raping a prostitute he had picked up in his car in October 2007.

As the verdict was delivered, Roach sank back in his chair, before shouting: “What are you f****** doing?”

Roach, of Sparling Street, Liverpool city centre, was removed from court by three security guards.

Less than an hour earlier, Roach, who has a lengthy criminal record, was cleared of another charge of rape and a further offence of kidnapping a different woman, also in October 2007.

Judge John Phipps remanded him in custody to await sentencing on July 9.

Read Full Post »

Sixtoedkitties is a New York sex worker now living in Colorado. Here’s what she says about a New York law passed last week and spearheaded by the Sex Workers Project. This new legislation amends New York State Criminal Procedure Law:

“Take a look at this article by the Feminist Majority Foundation. What’s missing? Oh right, WE ARE… Both major grassroots sex workers rights organizations in NYC, SWOP-NYC and SWANK, not only officially supported the legislation but worked to get it passed. I was a member of both organizations at the time. One thing we did was to write a memo of support to legislators that was not only deeply personal to some of us but also well-researched and broadly applicable. Some of us also contacted our legislators personally… Some people don’t realize, I think, that there are people involved in the sex workers rights movement in the US who have experienced force, fraud, or coercion in relation to the sex industry.”

Read her excellent post here. You can follow Sixtoedkitties at SWOP Colorado.

Read a summary of New York State Assembly Bill A7670/S4429 here. Survivors of trafficking can now remove past convictions of prostitution from their records.

Read Full Post »

Highlights from New York’s 2010 LGBT March on Sunday: “Hey, Hey, Ho, Ho, Criminalization has got to go.” “Sex is not the problem. Stigma and criminalization are.” Sex workers got loads of support from the public thanks to the combined efforts of Sex Workers Action New York, SWOP and our friends at the Urban Justice Center.

NYC is experiencing a heatwave with highs around 34C! A lot of people stay indoors for health reasons. Even so, as you can see, “The crowd really brings it for sex workers!” (quoth SWANK)

New York sex workers have been part of the annual march since the early days, when prostitutes in Gay Activists Alliance paved the way for PONY. We now have SWANK, $PREAD and SWOP keeping that flame alive. Here’s a gorgeous picture from 2009:

See the photos from 2009 here and 2010 here.

Read Full Post »

The Reason I Left School: Children of Indian Sex Workers Speak
by Audacia Ray on June 22, 2010

in Sex Work,Youth Health and Rights

Last fall, when I took a trip to India, visited with SANGRAM in Sangli district and shot a lot of video, I got to see the beginnings of a video project that was giving people in the community the skills to produce their own films. The Community Video Unit (CVU) is a project run by Video Volunteers over the course of eighteen months, and 10 people in Sangli were just starting to learn how to operate a camera, see a good shot, and edit their own footage.

SANGRAM is a nationally and internationally rights-based organization in India’s Maharashtra State working towards halting the HIV/AIDS epidemic in India through assisting sex workers, rural women and girls, and other marginalized groups to mobilize and secure their rights and access to health services. They do this not only through advocacy at the local, national and international levels, but by empowering local communities to make change for themselves. One of the ways they are making this change is by documenting the experiences of people in their communities.

The above video, “The Reason I Left School,” is the group’s first effort. The video focuses on the struggles of the children of sex workers in Sangli to get an education and stay in school when faced with ridicule and discrimination. It’s especially interesting to hear the perspectives of adult children of sex workers as they talk about their experiences and how their thoughts on school, and their mothers, have changed as they have become adults. The plight of the children of sex workers in India has gotten plenty of attention over the years, but there are frequently overtones of moral judgment in the pieces. It’s refreshing to hear directly from the children themselves, in a piece of media that is self-produced. Seeing the difficult challenges they have faced through their eyes is important in and of itself, and essential to gaining a better understanding of the economic and social circumstances their communities face.

Tagged as: children of sex workers, india, sangram, sex workers

Read Full Post »

Empowering Young People Through Comprehensive Sexuality Education
Models, Magic, and Meaning: Integrated Sexual and Reproductive Health and HIV Services

This speech was given by Ricky Swuanpyae from the Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers (APNSW) on June 22, 2010 as part of the plenary session.

http://iac.nswp.org/2010/06/24/integrating-care-of-sex-workers-into-sexual-and-reproductive-health-services/

My name is Ricky and I am a male sex worker from Myanmar. I started to work as a sex worker when I was 18 to help pay for my schooling costs. I was at the time working as a housekeeper in a hotel. In fact, one night as a sex worker, I earn the same as a month as a housekeeper.

However when I first started as a sex worker I had no knowledge about STI and HIV and did not know how to insist on condom use. So I developed STIs. I only got to understand HIV and STIs when I was introduced to a Clinic where HIV and STI related health services are available. From such centres I and my friends learned from our peer sex worker about the risks of getting STIs and HIV. It was also there that I made a decision to be also be a peer sex worker to ensure others like me have access to prevention information and services. So increasing accessibility to such centres where one can get information and awareness about HIV and STIs is much needed.

Ladies and Gentlemen.

The reports of the Commission on AIDS in Asia and Commission on AIDS in the Pacific [links download a PDF document] have been fundamental in recognising sex work as a central driver of the HIV epidemic in the region. The Asia report calculates that up to 10 million women in Asia sell sex to an estimated 75 million men, who in turn have intimate relations with a further 50 million people. HIV prevention coverage reaches only one third of all sex workers in the region and programmes to reduce the demand for unprotected paid sex are simply not adequate. Coverage for male sex workers is unknown as they are rarely dissagregated from MSM statistics.

As a result of discriminatory laws and social practices, sex workers experience debilitating stigma and discrimination that undermine their ability to protect their health and well-being. Hence a crucial component of Sexual and Reproductive Health services must be identifying mechanisms for encouraging respect and acceptance of sex workers.

Sexual and reproductive health information and services must recognise the sex worker as a whole man, woman or transgender person. We have to acknowledge that female sex workers have sexual reproductive issues like other women but also understand they have special needs as sex workers as well. For example the need for more frequent pap screening. Further, SRH services for all sex workers must cover sexual and reproductive health issues such as access to a full range of contraceptives, including emergency contraception, and abortion; and screening and treatment for STIs including hepatitis.

Male and transgender sex workers need STI services that are equipped to diagnose and treat anal, oral and genital STIs. While stopping work when an STI is present is ideal, many sex workers may not be able to afford to do this. Male sex workers can be encouraged and taught to provide services that do not transmit STIs, for example not offering receptive an anal sex while they are being treated for an anal STI. Transgender sex workers may need access to specialist services that can address their HIV and sexual health needs alongside the issues created by use of hormones and sexual reassignment surgery.

All sex workers need access to competent and caring health care workers that are free from judgement, stigma and discrimination.

The basic idea of the 100% Condom Use (CUP) program was to increase use of condoms to 100% of the time, in 100% of risky sexual relations, in 100% of sexual acts taking place within sex entertainment establishments. Sex workers who do not comply with the requirements of the programme, and are discovered to be infected with HIV or and STI, usually face severe consequences, such as being dismissed from brothels, thus depriving them of income and healthcare.

The 100% condom programming continues to be used as a justification for the State to police and arrest sex workers and to justify compulsory testing.

In Myanmar, the 100% CUP is being implemented in 51 townships supported by UNFPA and WHO and National AIDS Program providing STIs treatment, VCT servicesand free condom distribution . In 2009, National AIDS Program reached only about 5000 sex workers all over the nation and distributed 14 million condoms. Sex workers are afraid to use Government facilities as the police continue to harass sex workers and arrest based on claiming that condom as evidence of sex work. On the other hand, NGOs with by sex workers as peer educators are reaching much larger number of sex workers. In view of their impact the Government and UN have finally renamed the programme “Targeted Condom Program”.

Law that does not allow selling or buying of sexual services, operating sex businesses and many anti-trafficking measures prevent female, male and transgender sex workers* from accessing safe places to work, health and social services and benefiting from legal and civil protections..

I urge Member States to support calls for the removal of punitive laws, policies and practices that block effective responses to HIV and progress towards the Millennium Development Goal. We need protective law enforcement practices and UNAIDS can help facilitate regular dialogue between sex worker groups and Ministries of Health, Justice and Interior, Parliaments, Judiciaries and police, and AIDS Authorities. There will be a decision point related to this at the PCB meeting under Non Discrimination of AIDS Responses and I urge Member States to support it.

Approaches to condom programming needs to address the power differentials which often exists between sex workers and police, government officials, health authorities and brother owners. The power given to police and brothel owners in the 100% CUP design reinforces already exploitative power dynamics, leaving sex workers open to further abuse and corruption. Condom programming must pay attention to clients and sex worker’s intimate partners, as well as male and transgender sex workers.

Here in Asia Pacific region, there is a need for comprehensive condom programming. Access to good quality condoms and water-based lubricants is essential. While there has been 100% condom use programme in place, there remains the problem of supply, lack of access and a failure to include sex worker organisations and sex workers in the design, implementation and evaluation of these programmes.

Finally I would like to conclude that, we, the sex workers community would ask for those present here help us demand that UNAIDS and co sponsors include sex workers in the design, implementation and evaluation of all programmes with sex workers and that we shift from a 100% CONDOM USE programme to a 100% CONDOM ACCESS programme at country level.

*The word “transgender” here acts to third-gender trans women and men. Most transgender men and women identify in a binary way, though in public health discourse trans women are lumped in with MSM. – editors’ note

Read Full Post »

Eliot Spitzer – the New York politician who gives punters a bad name – is in the news again. He was recently hired as a television host by CNN.

In 2006 Spitzer was elected governor of New York State after a long career as a prosecutor enforcing prostitution laws. As governor, he supported new legislation that increases the penalty for buying sex. In 2008 he was forced to resign because he was caught buying sex through an escort agency. (Spitzer was never charged though.)

Walter Shapiro at Politics Daily says: “I probably feel more remorse and shame for voting for him than Spitzer feels about his staggering hypocrisy in prosecuting prostitution rings as New York attorney general and patronizing them as governor.”

Right on, Walter! We don’t agree with every sentiment expressed in your column, but we do think Spitzer should admit he was wrong.

Wrong to support the prosecution of our customers; wrong to prosecute people working in the sex industry.

Walter goes on to say that Spitzer’s downfall was “less about sex than about the betrayal of public trust.” Prostitutes and agency owners are voters and tax payers, part of that betrayed public, and we’re finding new ways to be part of the democratic process.

Kristin Davis, a former madam who spent four months in jail, argues that Spitzer doesn’t deserve to be rehabilitated so quickly. She says Spitzer was one of her agency’s clients, which may explain the timing of her arrest. It’s been suggested that the former governor brought attention to Kristin’s agency to reduce his own problems.

Kristin is now running for NY State governor. This morning, she appeared at a press event in Albany, the capital of New York. (In the US, each state has its own government and its own capital, similar to the Canadian system.)

Kristin is new to sex industry activism and has yet to build an alliance with sex worker rights groups. Her emphasis on legalization instead of decrim, as well as punishing johns (Swedish model), reflects that. While PONY disagrees with aspects of her strategy, we applaud her courage and hope she inspires more sex workers to get involved with electoral politics.

You can learn more about her campaign at Davis for Governor.

PONY (Prostitutes of New York) will be posting news and comments every week from our members and friends in the New York area. We’ll be reporting from the conferences and locales our members fly to, and we welcome your comments!

PONY@panix.com

Read Full Post »

Today, I noticed this article by sex workers’ rights advocate Thierry Schaffauser on Facebook; it brings up an important and rather disturbing issue which he calls “whorephobia”: the hostility prostitutes receive from other women who are not involved in the sex industry.  All too often, female sex workers are treated with far more disdain by other women than by men; I, too, know what it feels like to be called names such as “homewrecker” and “slut”, among other derogatory epithets, by other women.  This is discouraging as well as hurtful, as one would expect a sense of solidarity; unfortunately, this is not the case.  Here is Mr. Schaffauser’s article in its entirety as well as the link:

- Marie Brown (Silky)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jun/23/sex-workers-whorephobia


Whorephobia affects all women

Read Full Post »

It seems that any little piece of good news has to be tempered with bad. The good news that Western Australia is to legalise prostitution is spoilt by news that the legislation will also include mandatory health tests and registration and ID cards as well as plans to move brothels into industrialised areas, out of suburbia and out of sight.

This article from Jessie Abraham talks about these issues.

Mandatory Control that discriminates and breaches human rights.

Written by Jessie Abraham

When I hear a member of the ‘general public’ say, “Legalise prostitution”, “yeah, sex workers should be tested, to protect their clients,” and, “registering sex workers with the police protects them,” I shudder, I get frustrated, and then I try to breathe, three deep breaths… Then I speak. I explain that my name is Jessie Abraham, I’m a sex worker from Australia, I work in the Northern Territory, where together with the local SWOP, I’ve started a media campaign against police registration of sex workers. I’m a loud mouth and my aim is community education and encouraging everyone to talk more about sex.
Obviously the general public has no idea about the dangers that registration and mandatory testing bring to a sex workers life. Not to mention the trashing of their rights. Privacy rights, sexual rights and blatant discrimination, since the Australian anti-discrimination regulations still don’t cover occupation. It’s still legal to someone’s occupation to discriminate against them here.
Does a dentist need to have a certificate on the wall stating they are Hep C negative- no, because they use gloves and protective equipment. Do they hesitate to remove the teeth of HIV positive person? No, because they are educated in how to protect themselves through universal precautions. All health workers use universal precautions on the assumption that anyone might be infected with a blood-borne virus. Yet the Red Cross will still ask everyone they collect blood from: Have you been a sex worker? Have you had sex with a sex worker? Even though sex workers statistically (Basil Donovan: LASH study) have better sexual health than the general public, and the blood will still be screened. Sex workers have good sexual health because we use good practice: STI checks before bookings, correct sized condoms and lubrication.
So why does the public think it’s ok to treat sex workers like this? Think about it.
Meanwhile at the start of this year, I started a relationship and I admit it… After few months we didn’t use condoms each and every time. Forgive me for I have sinned. Sex workers are GREAT at using condoms at work- however, if we are going to “slip up”, statistically it’s going to be an “unpaid” partner, otherwise known as a lover. Many sex workers I’ve spoken to explain how a condom is a good emotional barrier, it’s automatic protection- at work. However, when we feel for a person, sometimes we don’t want it to feel like work. I’m not necessarily advocating for it, I’m just telling it how it is and while I’m being totally honest I’m even going to risk all kinds of controversy and confess that it had been 2 years since anyone actually spoofed in my vagina and well… I wanted a child. Imagine that, a hooker having unprotected sex with an unpaid partner, otherwise known as a boyfriend, because she wants to breed! Of course, non hookers do this every week and no one bats an eyelid.

So then I went into the STI clinic and the nurse looked at my file, disgruntled.
“Well missy, it’s been a while since you have been here! 9 whole months! You should be coming in a lot more than that! Every 1-3 months!” I did my breathing exercise and said, “I bet you $250 that my tests come back clear, and I will choose when I believe it’s the correct time to test, since it is my body thank you very much.” The tests did come back clear.
Why would I come in monthly, if I have used condoms with every client I’ve slept with, I’ve used condoms correctly, I didn’t have any breakages or condom slippages, no symptoms, no real reason to panic at all… Oh… it’s because we are getting PAID for sex. Oh that’s right, it changes EVERYTHING!
Do they tell the most at risk pollutions with STI’s to get tested monthly? 16 year olds giving unprotected head jobs? Married men who visit beats? Businessmen who travel over to Asia? Divorced women getting pissed and having one night stands? Shouldn’t more communities be encouraged to test… Oh that’s right.. No one wants to talk about sex, let alone outside of wedlock.
Here is my sarcastic suggestion: Since here in N.T most new HIV diagnoses are heterosexuals, as in people flying over to Bali and elsewhere in Asia for cheap holidays and coming back with HIV, while customs are going through your iPhones and laptops looking for kiddie porn, why don’t they use that time to set up a STI clinic in the airport? Mandatory testing for everyone who has been in high risk areas, flu symptoms or not, even if these people say they always used condoms and lube. Huge amounts of people are coming back with HIV and other STI’s and not getting tested so they don’t know they are HIV positive. Wouldn’t that be a better use of tax payers’ dollars? They would call that invasive, and breach of privacy rights, ( like going through all your luggage and personal images, if you ticked yes to pornography without explain what is and what isn’t porn)
No wonder so many sex workers don’t want to out themselves, let alone place it on life. Stigma is still huge. This is another issue of mandatory testing- going to the clinic, requiring to tell a stranger you’re a sex worker, spreading your legs and your treated like you’re the dirty one, even if you used condoms every time.
In W.A, Australia there is talk to “legalise prostitution” and compulsory registration together with mandatory testing will be enforced- only to the sex work provider- not the clients. If we said- why doesn’t the clients require to be tested before they come through the door, it actually doesn’t make sense- I treat each one of my clients as they do have something- that’s why sex workers use condoms and lube and are very good at troubleshooting.
If a client came in with a health check certificate with the all clear- begging not to use a condom I’d think.. wonder how many other people you said this to, also state how its been at least a week since you were tested, so what happens if you fucked someone bareback 3 days ago, or you had oral sex from your wife who is cheating on you? With 100 other scenarios. Health Certificates don’t mean shit, and there is always a dodgy doctor who will give out slips. What happens if you do have a STI like herpes, your educated about them and you only get a outbreak/infectious once every 6 months. What if you have Hep C ( blood born virus) and every time you go to a clinic you’re reminded about this.
With clients knowing that all the workers “are clean” it can make it harder for condom negotiation and increases chances of customers attempting to slip off the condom because they know they probably won’t get anything, the old lines of “I’m married, I’m clean, your clean- why don’t we both just fuck.. It feels better”
Let give back the choice to sex workers, promote condom use through peer education, and if people want to have unprotected sex- there are ramifications, everyone needs to take responsibility for their actions and education is the key.. not mandatory testing.
When I visit London, Amsterdam, Denmark and Vienna for the World AIDS conference, I plan to shoot my ongoing documentary Comparing Countries Compassion to sex workers: exploring brothel bans, mandatory testing, police registration and how these laws effect sex workers. If you would like to be involved, interviews- please check out http://www.sexworkisrealwork.com

Read Full Post »

Despite having been raised as a very strict (Tridentine) Roman Catholic I did I admit always find aspects of the Christian faith disturbing and sometimes simply cruel and based more on bigotry than on any ideal of compassion. It was not until my early thirties that I eventually understood that I was and probably always had been Pagan. My faith had always been more centred around Mary than on her son or the great sky God who just always seemed a little overly fond of death and destruction and general intolerance. From the teachings of the Church that animals did not have souls to the idea that sex was abhorrent to a God who had given us sexual urges and genitals and then wanted to punish us for using them. It all just seemed absurd.

This artist challenges the Pope to look closely at what he is saying and perhaps to think about the consequences of his words.

Article from Pink News

Irish artist paints Pope conducting a gay marriage
By Jessica Geen • June 17, 2010 – 16:43

‘You May Now Kiss The Groom’ by Kevin Sharkey

32 Comments on Irish artist paints Pope conducting a gay marriage

410
ShareAn Irish artist is expecting outrage after painting a picture of the Pope conducting a gay marriage.

‘You May Now Kiss The Groom’ by Kevin Sharkey is to go on display in Dublin at the end of this month.

Donegal-born Sharkey, 49, is bisexual and has attracted controversy before over his work, most notably for his 2009 image of Katie Price merged with Moors murderer Myra Hindley.

He said he got the idea for the painting after seeing a news report about the Pope calling gay marriage a “dangerous threat” to the common good.

The Catholic Church’s official stance on homosexuality is that it is “intrinsically disordered” and gay unions can never been considered equal to marriage.

The Pope has launched verbal attacks against gay marriage several times recently and has criticised gay rights provisions in the UK’s Equality Act.

Speaking to PinkNews.co.uk, Sharkey called the Pope’s remarks “an outrage and a disgrace”.

He said: “What a load of old bollocks.

“Preaching intolerance is a dangerous thing to do. That comes down onto the streets – drunk thugs kicking the f**k out of ‘queer f**kers’.”

He worked on the painting with acclaimed Italian artist Alessandro Tesi.

“We were passionate about doing this work,” he said. “I’m a firm believer in that if you visualise something for long enough, it’ll come to be true.

“It’s about drawing people’s attention. People will look at that and remember that they saw an image of the Pope marrying two men.”

Sharkey also said he had received dozens of requests from people eager to wear the image as a t-shirt for Pride celebrations.

He said he had mostly had a “really positive response” to the work, although some “crazies” had complained.

“I expect the usual old windbags to crank themselves up and complain,” he said.

“But I don’t mind if I’m the whipping boy. I’m a big boy and can look after myself.

“Intolerance is a horrible thing but gay marriage is something that will happen. The church has no moral authority any more. They may as well pack up, turn the churches into hotels and retire.”

Read Full Post »

As expected, given that it was backed by Unison leadership, the motion to campaign for legislation that overrules sex workers’ consent to sex was passed. There was some independent thinking amongst Unison delegates: UnisonYSJ tweeted “I suspect the motion will be carried on emotive response” and HEworker commented, “dodgy motion 117 on sex workers was passed. Bad for women &bad for trade union unity”.

The motion (full text below) describes as “essential” the complete decriminalisation of sex workers … and contradicts itself just 141 words later by welcoming Scottish proposals for increased criminalisation.

The Demand Change briefing which accompanied the motion encourages Unison members to engage in telephone vigilantism and harassment of sex workers who advertise in local newspapers, trying to prevent such advertisements being published and drawing them to police attention.

This is social exclusion in action – a dynamic campaign by a major trades union targeting vulnerable and marginalised women, sending the message that sex workers are not wanted in the community and that the community should work to erode sex workers’ rights and choices: goddess forbid we should be treated with respect and humanity.

Advertising in local papers is a low cost, low tech, flexible way to advertise. Some publications accepted payments in cash, allowing sex workers to protect their anonymity and allowing those too poor to have access to credit or debit cards a way to advertise. It is legal to sell sex in the UK; it is illegal if you are not in isolation; so often adverts are for an entirely legal working situation.

One response to the pressure to refuse such adverts by imposing higher charges on sex workers compared to other businesses – many UK publications have taken this route, and it has been widespread in France and in Ireland, where the law interferes with freedom to advertise. Others simply refuse advertising of legal services, whether or not delivered in an illegal environment.

One effect of this is to push people into the hands of third parties – either agencies or brothels who find clients and charge for doing so or paying someone else to design, and often maintain, a website. Many people use third parties to find clients – the IUSW would prefer that all who do so choose freely rather than being induced by circumstances into such arrangements. Many people advertise on the web and wish to do so; again, we would prefer they do so by preference rather than because other ways of advertising are made more difficult. Either way, the result erodes the options of those selling sex, with a decrease in autonomy and the proportion of monies earned going directly to those who provide sexual services.

There is no evidence that trafficking for sexual exploitation is demand-led: trafficking occurs in the sex industry for the same reasons it occurs in other industries.

There is no evidence that if demand for sexual services diminished, there would be a corresponding fall in trafficking for sexual exploitation.

There is no evidence that most purchasers of sexual services wish to buy services from the unwilling.

In one study, less than 5% of clients said they would be deterred by legal sanctions, though 20% said they’d stop buying sex if they had a girlfriend. [1]

Not only is targeting clients useless in reducing trafficking, dissuading clients from using the services of migrant workers is directly against migrants’ interests, whether entrapped or independent. If they are independent, this will directly affect their income and therefore the resources available to them. If they are entrapped, clients are one of the few groups of people likely to see victims of trafficking who could report anxieties: as already described, all brothel and agencies owners and support staff run the risk of prosecution if they contact the police. “For women to have confidence in the CJS [criminal justice system], reporting violence must increase their access to safety, support and justice and not expose them to further victimisation.” [2] We need to stop prioritising irregular, or potentially irregular, visa status over crimes of violence against women.

There are numerous cases of clients assisting victims of trafficking – for example, in the Oriental Gems case, one of the largest trafficking investigations in London in recent years, part of the reason the prosecution was viable was due to evidence from a victim of trafficking freed from slavery as a result of a client paying £20,000 of her debt. Harriet Harman quoted this very case to the Home Affairs Committee in her evidence regarding criminalising clients – possibly a nadir of misinformation.

But I’ll leave the final word to one of the few authors to examine the connections between trafficking in the sex industry and the demand for sexual services, and perhaps the only one whose work meets basic academic standards in methodology and ethics (there are a number of propagandising studies, aimed at shoring up the ideology of anti sex workers’ rights campaigners; some of these are quoted in the Demand Change briefing).

Julia O’Connell Davidson has published extensively on the issue of trafficking and demand, and concludes
“…we could almost say that supply generates demand rather than the other way about… attempts to suppress the prostitution market, whether focused on sex workers or their clients, necessarily implies subjecting those who sell sex to what Radin describes as “the degradation and danger of the black market … it is … hard to see why anyone genuinely concerned with protecting and promoting human rights would place measures to tackle consumer demand for commercial sex at the top of their policy agenda“. [3]

[1] It’s just like going to the supermarket (Coy, Horvath, Kelly 2007).

[2] The way forward: A call for action to end violence against women (GLA, April 2009)

[3] Men, middlemen and migrants: the demand side of sex trafficking’, (O’Connell Davidson, 2006) http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-07-27-davidson-en.html

The following text is taken from the “Demand Change” briefing so factual accuracy cannot be guaranteed.
Motion 117
Conference is concerned by the fact that enshrined within the UK’s current legislation is men’s right to buy women. This is directly contradictory to a society based on gender equality.
Prostitution is not a job like any other. It is characterised by violence and abuse that has profound physical and psychological consequences for those selling sex acts – the vast majority of whom are women and girls. Studies indicate that the majority of women become involved in prostitution under the age of 18 and that childhood abuse, poverty, drug dependency and homelessness are key triggers for entry into prostitution. Once in prostitution, further studies reveal that sexual and physical assault is common, and 9 out of 10 women involved in prostitution say they would exit the sex industry if they could.
Conference believes that it is essential that those selling sex acts are completely decriminalised, and provided with support services to help exit prostitution safely and effectively. Furthermore, in order to see an end to the exploitative industry of prostitution, conference recognises that legislation is needed to tackle the demand for prostitution which expands the industry and fuels trafficking for sexual exploitation.
Conference welcomes proposals to criminalise the buying of sex-acts from a person subjected to force as an important step towards tackling demand for prostitution by shifting criminal liability away from those who are exploited through prostitution and towards those who purchase girls, boys, women and men for sexual use. Conference therefore supports current proposed legislation in the Policing and Crime Bill. However, it is recognised that these proposals do not go far enough in terms of putting a halt to the exploitative industry of prostitution and preventing future generations from being coerced into prostitution.
Conference welcomes the work being done by politicians in Scotland to amend the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Bill which is currently being debated within the Scottish parliament to outlaw “indoor prostitution”. Women who sell sex in saunas and flats are abused just as much as street prostitutes yet the purchase of sex in a public place is illegal in Scotland but “indoor prostitution” is not.
To work towards an end to exploitation through prostitution, Conference supports the Demand Change! Campaign in calling for the government to apply the ‘Nordic model’ to tackling prostitution by decriminalising those who sell sex acts and supporting them to exit prostitution, whilst at the same time criminalising those who purchase sex acts. Conference believes that it is only through tackling the demand for prostitution and challenging attitudes which say that it is acceptable to buy and sell women for sexual use that it will be possible to end the sexual exploitation, violence and abuse inherent to prostitution. This approach has been successfully adopted by Sweden, Norway and Iceland – countries that top the global charts in terms of gender equality – as part of their end violence against women policies.
Conference therefore instructs the NEC to proactively support the Demand Change! Campaign by:
1) Liaising with the national women’s committee and other UNISON bodies and using Demand Change! materials to raise awareness about the reality of prostitution as violence against women, and to highlight the need for an approach that tackles the demand for prostitution.
2) Liaising with UNISON Labour Link and lobbying the UNISON Parliamentary group of MPs to actively support all proposals which decriminalise the selling of sex acts whilst criminalising the purchase of sex acts; and to proactively urge the UK government to adopt the ‘Nordic’ model to tackling prostitution
3) Liaise with UNISON Labour Link and the GPF to lobby the various trade union groups in the Scottish Parliament to actively support all proposals which will criminalise the purchase of sex acts in private saunas and flats in Scotland;
4) Encouraging all UNISON members to lobby their MPs to support the Demand Change! Campaign
5) Encouraging all members to sign the petition to Number 10 which urges the government to adopt the ‘Nordic’ model to tackling prostitution
6) Encouraging branches and regions to donate to help support the campaign (this can include donating ‘in kind’).

Read Full Post »