"At times, working in news is like playing a giant game of telephone. Someone reports something, and everyone else follows suit. The truth gets lost along the way.

'What about the kidnapped children?' a producer in New York asks.

'What kidnapped children?' I say.

'They claim lots of storm orphans are being kidnapped and sold into sexual slavery.'

'Who’s "they"?' I ask.

'Everyone,' the producer responds. 'It’s being reported all over the place.'

'We’ll look into it' I respond, which is usually the only way to end such a conversation.

Child trafficking is a major problem, especially in Southeast Asia, but when we start checking the kidnapping story being reported on other networks and papers, it seems slim on facts.  It’s mostly just aid workers worrying that children separated from their parents by the disaster may get kidnapped.  Part of the aid workers’ job is to get relief, and one way for them to do that is to raise red flags, warn of impending problems. Warnings, however, aren’t facts.

We’ve hired a Sri Lankan newspaper reporter named Chris to help us get around, and when I ask him about kidnappings, his eyes light up. 'Oh, yes, it appears a very big problem,' he says, his British-accented English accompanied always with a peculiarly Sri Lankan shake of the head.

Chris shows us a headline on the front page of one of Sri Lanka’s daily papers: TWO KIDS, RESCUED FROM WAVES, KIDNAPPED BY MAN ON MOTORCYCLE.

'There have been a lot of stories like that,' he says. 'It’s all very dramatic stuff.’

'Is it true?' I ask. 

'I have no idea,' he says, 'but it makes for a great headline.'"

-- Anderson Cooper in Dispatches from the Edge.

Cooper goes on to follow this story, learning that the only two children reported to have been kidnaped were actually taken to a hospital by a good citizen on a motorcycle.

This book was a holiday present from a relative, and while I never would have picked it up it on my own, this memoir was better than I was expecting for a TV personality's bestseller.

Los Angeles, CA, November 1, 2011 -- After being rejected by every billboard company in Los Angeles, the sex workers' rights project SWAAY (Sex Work Activists, Allies, and You) has launched their public awareness campaign with a mobile billboard, which will be running for eight days from November 1 to November 8, 2011.

SWAAY's text-only billboard reads, "Sex worker: a person who consensually exchanges their own sexual labor or sexual performance for compensation. Sex work is not the same as forced sex trafficking or sex slavery. Learn about the people and facts behind sex work at SWAAY.org." Any variation of the group's message was banned by Clear Channel, CBS, Lamar, Regency, Van Wagner, Avant Outdoor, LA Transit Authority, and Outdoor Solutions, but was finally picked up by a mobile billboard company.

The sex workers' rights billboard was paid for by 115 supporters on EpicStep.com, a Kickstarter-like website that allows grassroots activist groups to crowdsource the funding of a media campaign. Previous billboards successfully launched through Epic Step include messages in support of WikiLeaks and accused war crimes whistle-blower Bradley Manning.

SWAAY was founded in June of this year to address the public's misconceptions due to the lack of factual and accessible information about sex work, and to fight against the outright lies and "junk science" statistics pushed by moral and religious crusaders who advocate for further criminalization and stigmatization of sex workers.

A sex worker is a person who exchanges their own sexual labor or sexual performance for compensation, such as an escort/prostitute, porn star, stripper, dominatrix, phone sex operator, sensual masseuse, or web cam performer. Sex workers are part of the larger sex industry - which includes adult movie directors, club owners, webmasters, retail stores, and more - but are distinct because their job involves making money off of their own sexual labor, not writing about, photographing, managing, or selling the sexual labor or performances of others.

The St. James Infirmary, a San Francisco clinic that provides free healthcare to sex workers, has faced similar struggles this month with their own media campaign. Originally planning to use billboards to spread their "Someone You Know is a Sex Worker" message, the nonprofit's ads were rejected by Clear Channel and CBS Outdoor, but eventually found a home on Muni buses.

"Bad laws and hurtful social stigmas work together in a vicious cycle that makes life more dangerous and difficult for the people who engage in sex work," says Sabrina Melmoth, a volunteer with the group. "SWAAY seeks to chip away at both problems by sharing non-sensationalized, first-person information about life as a sex worker, and advocating for the full decriminalization of sex work."

A press conference will be held later this week.

###

Because really, what's sexier than an avocado?

Ho revolution programming to resume tomorrow.

Throughout my life, I've often felt like I'm in the middle.  (Which is a positive way of phrasing that I don't fit in well anywhere.)  I have too many fiscally-conservative views to be a proper leftist, but I'm not cheering for the uninsured to be left to die like some libertarians.  While I have an unshaved crotch and don't have a mainstream LA porn appearance, I lack the tattoos and rainbow hair to demonstrate that I'm "smarter than your average porn star," as one popular alternaporn site marketed its collection.  I also don't mesh perfectly with the American subculture of "empowered" sex workers, whatever that's supposed to mean.

There's this profile tacitly promoted by current sex workers' rights activism of how exactly one should look and behave if they are truly empowered: it's a movement for punks and anarchists, for feminists, for people devoted to deconstructing gender, for people with liberal arts degrees, for sex radicals and kinksters, for Pagans, for artists, and most importantly, for people who don't fit mainstream beauty standards.  In short, the typical person drawn to ho activism is the typical person drawn to any sort of activism: one who constructs their identity around to how they are not like the rest of society.  As a person who straddles the weird/normal border, I don't always feel like I fit in with American sex workers' rights activists, so I can only imagine what it's like for someone whose only "non-normal" trait is their occupation.  I have no solution to the problem of the over-representation of "lifestyle outsiders" other than to do my best to encourage more typical sex workers to step up and claim their stake in their own movement.

Inspired by Annie Sprinkle's Anatomy of a Pin-Up, I thought I'd make an Anatomy of an Empowered Sex Worker.

Do you have what it takes to be empowered?

I realize my blog hasn't seen much action in the last few weeks, but I've been keeping myself quite busy with work and other things lately.  So, for now, I wanted to spotlight a new meme-ish Tumblr called Sex Worker Problems.  It's concise, it's relatable, and speaks to a variety of sex work experiences and sex workers.

I just sent this submission myself:

At fucking last!

Despite having completed the billboard fundraiser almost two months ago - thanks to 115 awesome supporters - the SWAAY billboard campaign has been on hold.  I haven't been trying to keep anyone in the dark, but every time it seemed like headway was being made, the billboard would get shut down by someone else, which is frustrating.  Even now, after signing a contract, agreeing upon a start date, and the billboard itself having been printed, I'm still nervous to publicize that date, because it feels like jinxing things.

Every major (and many minor) outdoor advertising companies in LA rejected the pro-sex worker billboard, leaving our ad guys guys at Epic Step pretty shocked that a polite text-only billboard would encounter such a massive wall of resistance.  (San Francisco's St James Infirmary has also faced an uphill struggle lately to find a company willing to accept their money.  Their ad campaign ended up finding a home with Muni bus ads.)  I really have to hand to to Epic Step, as the small company went above and beyond to find a way to get our message out.

The billboard was rejected by Clear Channel, CBS, Lamar, Regency, Van Wagner, Avant Outdoor, LA Transit Authority, and Outdoor Solutions.  However, the big three companies are no strangers to taking money from controversial causes and campaigns.  Clear Channel, Lamar, and CBS have hosted billboards featuring racist, anti-gay, anti-church/state separation, and anti-sex worker/anti-client billboards.  On the other hand, CBS and Lamar have hosted pro-marijuana ones, and CBS had a WikiLeaks billboard, so these companies are no strangers to "weird" causes that I support, either.

You can click see a large version.

This is not to say that I think people should not be allowed to express views that differ from my own, simply to point out that the big three advertising companies have no problem with other controversial campaigns.  They are clearly making decisions with who they're willing to do business - which is their right - but they've decided that the ad dollars of religious nutjobs, the police, racists, bigots, and even those who are (potentially) breaking laws are more acceptable than the ad dollars of sex workers.  (I'm pretty flattered that sex work is even more controversial to ad companies than WikiLeaks, honestly.)

In the end, the guys at Epic Step found RoadSign Adverts for us, which is a mobile billboard company.  Mobile billboards seem to be a bit of a "last resort" option for those rejected from the mainstream, and have been favored by folk like strip clubs and anti-abortion activists.  SWAAY's billboard will (assuming nothing else goes wrong) be starting later this month, and will be driving around in LA for 7 days.  I'm hoping that maybe this will be a blessing in disguise, and that the mobile billboard, because of their rarity, will garner even more attention than a standard stationary billboard.  The mobile billboards are more expensive, so what we fundraised to pay for 4 weeks of a standard billboard only buys us 7 days of a mobile one.

Since the billboard size was a bit different than a stationary billboard - taller, but less wide - I did change the text very slightly to make it fit better. I imagine supporters wouldn't mind.  Here's what LA is going to be seeing soon:

So, three cheers for Epic Step and RoadSign Adverts!  I'll write a proper press release for distribution when the truck starts running, but for now, I wanted to bitch about the backstory and rejections.  Also, looking ahead, I've asked Epic Step to start feeling out billboard companies in New York City and Washington DC, since I would like to make this a national campaign.  I don't know if I'll start the next fundraiser in November or in the new year, since holidays have everyone vying for donations and money, but we'll see.  I'm excited to see what kind of attention this project is going to generate.

Last month, Dan Savage's podcast (episode 255) featured local dominatrix Mistress Matisse, who had been his go-to guest for all things kink and sex work related.

In the podcast, one caller wanted to tell her parents that she is planning to become a dominatrix, and was curious how to have that conversation.  Matisse was happy to declare she's never told her parents about her own work, and had a huge dismissive laugh at the caller's silly interest in honesty, and sadly, Dan joined in.  It bummed me out that those two, of all people, think the idea of being open about being a sex worker is ludicrous.

I called in to leave comments in favor of being out as a sex worker - citing both personal and political reasons to do so - which I am happy to say were included at the end of episode 258.  (Direct link to download here, I start ranting in my squeaky little voice at 46:53.)  Unlike Matisse's answer, which was simply to mock the caller and dodge the question, I also suggested that the caller look for a local sex workers' rights group to get involved with a community and network with others in the business, and plugged the SWAAY directory.

I'm glad that Dan decided to include my call in podcast 258, and I hope the original caller heard my advice.  And Dan, if you ever want a sex worker guest for your podcast who can field questions without laughing at callers or making fun of sex workers who can't afford their own incall, you know where to find me.  I might lack Matisse's decades of experience, but I also lack her none-too-subtle contempt for both sex workers' rights issues and non-upperclass sex workers.

Yesterday, I went to check my mail drop, and was happy to see an awesome new postcard from the St James Infirmary, one of my favorite nonprofits.  They provide free healthcare and other services to sex workers and their families in San Francisco, and they need donations from people like you to keep their doors open.

Just like with the SWAAY billboard campaign, the St James Infirmary was rejected by a number of outdoor media companies, like Clear Channel.  (Don't worry, the SWAAY billboard isn't dead, it's just taken ages to find someone willing to accept out money, but we've finally signed a contract and our billboard was sent to the printers this week.  I've been waiting to post about that ordeal until I have a definite launch date to celebrate.)  I'm happy to see American sex workers' rights groups getting on board with the idea that we need to engage the general public, so it's exciting to see this new campaign.

If you're in the Bay Area, the St James Infirmary is having a launch party on October 16th, so go celebrate with some of the most awesome sex workers' rights advocates in the country.

For the link-phobic, here are the lovely ads that will soon be appearing on the San Francisco Muni:

The last one, featuring Cyd, is my personal favorite.

(My only nitpick is that two of the posters mention being a mother as a means of showing the public that we're good people.  I realize that this is probably a smart political tactic, but it will always bother me when parenthood is eagerly thrust forward by "weird" groups - atheists, queers, sex workers - to prove that they deserve to be seen as real human beings.  So, if one is childfree by choice, or remorsefully barren, you deserve equality and human rights less than people who have kids?  But I digress.)

 

My sex workers' rights information project, SWAAY.org, has been up and running for nearly 4 months now.  The majority of traffic to the site has been direct type-ins, which means people are coming to the site not from clicking links on other web sites, but from hearing the URL and typing it in on their own.  I like the idea of publicity for the site being mostly word-of-mouth.

But what about people who aren't finding SWAAY.org because they heard about it or saw a sticker somewhere?  The big common theme to the search queries used to find the site is that they are questions.  Over and over, people are coming to the site because they have questions about sex work, and I'm really happy to be able to provide them with answers written by sex workers with experience in their fields.  The most common search query
used to find the site has been some variation of, "what is it like to be a prostitute/escort?"  People are curious, and curiosity is the first vital step towards learning something.

Here are a bunch of search queries that have been used lately to find SWAAY.org - many of them used more than once - I thought people might find them interesting:

Also, in looking over the search queries, the other important thing to note is that most of them seem to be coming from members of the general public (and possibly aspiring sex workers).  While most sex workers' rights projects focus on sex work issues for sex workers, my focus is on reaching regular people.  It's hard to measure, but based on looking at my web stats, I think I'm succeeding.

 

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