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.

 

In the last week, I've seen lots of tweets about the Occupy Wall Street protest currently happening in Manhattan.  It's a protest camp first proposed by the glossy I'm-a-Whole-Foods-dwelling-yuppie-but-I-like-to-pretend-I'm-an-anti-capitalist-revolutionary magazine Adbusters.  The "occupation" of "Wall Street" has thus far seen a few dozen to few hundred people hanging out in a park down the street from the New York Stock Exchange.  (What you don't hear often is that this "occupation" is taking place in a private park where the protesters were given permission to stay.  The whole thing makes me think of an angsty teenager "occupying" their parent's living room in an act of defiance.)  The Occupy Wall Street protest doesn't have aims beyond some kind of vague "stop bad things," "end capitalism," and "no more corruption."  Earlier this month, the protest organizers were using an online poll (open only to people with a Facebook account) to vote on what the protest was trying to achieve.  Something like 80 people were arrested on Saturday, but the group has insisted it will continue.  A friend of mine reported this morning that the "occupation" is currently a few dozen anarchist kids sleeping outside.

Whereas supporters see Occupy Wall Street as a leaderless revolution on par with the Arab Spring that overthrew oppressive dictators, I see a small, confused group of white people who have no idea what they're protesting, what they want, and how to go about getting that end result.  I'm not at all against leaderless protest movements, but you can be leaderless, diverse, and democratic and still have some plans, goals, and strategies.  Getting people to show up in a small park isn't a revolution in and of itself.

It's all good and well to make a sign that tells people to "fire your boss," but how exactly is the average worker in America going to go about doing that?  Telling people to "fire your boss" is easy when you're flexibly-employed or privileged enough to be able to participate in "occupations," or a young traveling protester who is happy eating out of dumpsters and being filthy.  The group has been organized under the banner of "we are the 99%," but I really doubt the average working class person struggling to survive in this economy could either find the free time and financial resources to travel to Manhattan to attend, or, once there, gain anything useful from listening to the protesters.  Why not try to give all those regular working people tools to create actual change in their lives?  Why not use all the geek power behind this protest's social media presence to create an open database of people by area and occupation to help them find other workers to form collectively-owned businesses?  And use the streaming video feed from the "occupation" to give workshops on how to start a worker-owned co-op or small business?  And that's just one idea I had after seeing a photo of a "fire your boss" sign.  Sure, "work hard and start your own ethically-run company" isn't a very sexy tagline, but it actually does mean firing bosses.

If you want to overthrow something big - a government or capitalism or whatever - you're not going to do so as a scruffy "outsider" group of people sleeping on the street without a plan or tools for implementing change.  Successful revolutionary movements provide people things that the state isn't, plain and simple.  Revolution is about stepping up and showing the masses that you can do things better, not dropping out and sitting in a park, hoping that those beleaguered working class people you've read about in Adbusters will show up en masse and let you lead them to their salvation.  One of the most revolutionary projects across the 60s and 70s protest movements in America were the breakfast programs set up by the Black Panthers.  Lifting up your community with a long-term strategy like giving poor kids free food so they can pay attention in school might not be easy like holding a sign that says "smash capitalism," but it's stuff like that that really counts.  Remember, you have to demonstrate that you know how do it better, and you have to offer people things the current regime does not.  Occupy Wall Street uttery fails by that test.  Sadly, even the stupid Tea Party does a better job at getting large numbers of working class people on their side.

Whenever I air criticism of things like this, I get the common response: "at least they're doing something!"  There's this idea that so many people who consider themselves activists have that "doing something" is of paramount importance, and it doesn't matter what you're "doing," so long as you can tell people it's "better than doing nothing."  Yes, the people hanging out at Occupy Wall Street are "doing something," but what, exactly?  That's what no one can explain to me.  They've gotten some media attention to the idea that some Americans aren't happy with the current state of the economy, I suppose, but that's hardly news.

"Doing something" isn't doing something unless you're actually doing something.

Here's how to do something:

* Decide what you're against.  Make it well-defined, not "I'm against greed."
* Decide what you want.  Make it a clear goal, not "No more corruption."
* Explain what exactly you're going to do to get from point A to point B.  Look at the history of other social change movements and figure out what tactics best suit your cause, and which tactics are likely to fail.  Remember that just because you're "doing something," it doesn't make that something effective.
* Follow through and modify tactics as necessary until you achieve your goal.

It's pretty amazing to me how few people who consider themselves activists can't master these simple steps for how to have a campaign.  So many people seem to think that endlessly restating what they're against, or what they want, will somehow magic those things into happening.  I see this with sex workers' rights activists a lot.  There's a lot about "Stop violence against sex workers" and "We want decriminalization," but there doesn't seem to be much of an overall plan other than continuing to repeat those demands within our echo chamber.

With my project, SWAAY.org:

* I am opposed to marginalization and violence against sex workers that is the result of bad laws and social stigma.
* I want full decriminalization and for sex workers to be an accepted part of society.
* The only way to get any of these things is to get the public on board and educate them about our issues.  You can't change an ingrained social stigma and laws when the majority of the public is against you.  It amazes me that there is almost no sex workers' rights activism that does any sort of public outreach or education, since that is generally the foundation of any social change movement.  (And no, having a blog that a member of the general public could conceivably find does not count as "public outreach.")  With SWAAY, my goal has been to get people interested in the topic, using both DIY campaigns like the "respect sex workers" stickers, and paid media campaigns like the upcoming billboard to draw viewers to a web site that gives people the basics in an accessible manner.

See, it's not that hard.  Coming up with a goals and a plan is the easy part of activism, the tough work is in the implementation.  If a group or person can't handle putting together a reasonably well thought out foundation, I don't give their cause much of a chance of succeeding.

 

I've turned off comments on this post because I'm tired of reading stupid nonsense from people who couldn't debate their way out of a wet paper bag.

"Why then would anyone become a pornographer in this day and age?  What exactly is the point?  I’d argue that some have not quite caught on to current state of things.  Many still believe there are fortunes to be made.  But for most who find themselves fucking for a living, the financial incentive is no more than a rocky path towards middle-class existence; one without job security, benefits, or a retirement plan.

[...]

Porn is the new punk because it has shifted backwards.  The golden era of its success is over.  Internet piracy and over-saturation have countered the scales so that the risks of porn may now outweigh the benefits.  Of course there is still money to be made in the adult industry.  But it’s of a more modest sort than perhaps ever seen before.

For the new generation of pornographer, there is inevitably a fight to be had. No longer is there an option for passive stance."

-- Danny Wylde, in Porn is the New Punk on smittenkittenonline.com/blog

I've long complained that the sex workers' rights movement in America fritters away too much of its energy on art, feminism, and intellectual theories, and mostly ignores practical activism, like educating the public or chipping away at bad laws.  I thought it would be good to take a look at some numbers so everyone can make an honest comparison of how American sex workers' rights activists prioritize their time.

I decided to base my data on the program from last summer's Desiree Alliance conference.  (In my opinion, this is fairly representative of what I see elsewhere, although it excludes all the time people spend navel-gazing about feminism and the meaning of gender.)  I grouped each scheduled conference session into a larger category, and counted each slot towards one category only, based on my opinion of what category best described the session.  Here are the results:

[*Open mic nights and sex worker art/performances sometimes listed only a start time.  I would guess that this category is at least twice as time-heavy as the 3.5 scheduled hours listed in my graph.]

Based on how time was distributed at the key US sex workers' rights conference, we can conclude that:

* Making art is 343% more important than understanding the legal issues of one's work.

* Academia is 271% more important than activist organizing.

* Yoga and meditation are 499% more important than networking with other people and social movements.

* Anti-oppression discussions, combined with minority topics, are 56% more important than having business and financial skills.

* Harm reduction for street-based sex workers and drug users is 158% more important than activist organizing.

* And my personal favorite: witchcraft and new age spirituality are 300% more important than protecting your personal privacy.

I'd say this chart is basically upside down for what most sex workers in America would consider important to them.

Thank you so much to all of the supporters of SWAAY's sex work billboard!  We did it!

Extra special thanks to @xiancallgirl for being the largest donor, and to Dr Brooke Magnanti/@belledejour_uk for plugging the fundraiser so many times on Twitter and her blog.  It was also covered by The Gloss, Feministe, and countless other sex bloggers and sexuality tweeters.  Supporters of the billboard collectively raised an impressive $7572, which exceeded the goal of $7300.  (Epic Step says they use overages beyond the target amount to get a placement in a higher traffic area.)

Thanks to all of you, sex work issues will be breaking further out of the pink bubble.  (LAist.com has already created some buzz about the billboard, and I was contacted by a Los Angeles TV station this afternoon.)  This is exactly what I started SWAAY to: bring the cause to mainstream audiences and help the sex workers' rights movement grow beyond our current tiny (but awesome!) network of supporters.  One billboard in one city isn't going to change the country overnight, but it's a step in the right direction.  Only through greater public understanding and respect can we ever hope to start chipping away at the laws that criminalize our lives and make our work dangerous, stigmatized, and filled with over-burdensome red tape.

The billboard will appear in LA in about 2 weeks, and be up for 4 weeks.  As soon as I have a date and location, I'll post it.  Since this was such a success, I will be doing a billboard fundraiser again in the future for a different city, but I'll give you all a break from my incessant fundraising pleas for at least a couple of months.  (I'm thinking either DC or NYC, since both of those cities, like LA, are filled with people who influence the rest of the country.)

What now?

If you donated, please forward your Epic Step confirmation email to swaay AT swaay.org if you would like to be added to the donor thank you list on the about page of swaay.org.  I'm happy to thank you under whatever name, company, or handle you like, as well as link to you.  I'm eventually going to be creating a donor thank you tree of "silver/gold/platinum-level" supporters, so please let me know how much you donated.

Please let me know if you are owed a gift.  Anyone who donated $7 or more is eligible for a 10-pack of stickers, so forward your Epic Step confirmation email and your mailing address to swaay AT swaay.org  Donations over $100 from currently active providers are eligible for a 3-month trial of SafeOffice.org  If you forward your Epic Step confirmation email to swaay AT swaay.org, I'll send that along to the folks at SafeOffice.org.

The next thing I'm focusing on between now and when the billboard goes up is to get swaay.org in perfect order.  The main area that the site is lacking in the section on how to respect sex workers.

Rather than having me or any other one writer explain to people how they can be respectful friends and family members, ethical clients, and good allies, I wanted this section to show an array of voices from current and former sex workers.  The "hurdle" I have for this area is that I am looking for people who have worked in the US, and I want to post a small photo of your face alongside your short writing contribution to humanize us and show that we're relatable, fairly normal-looking people.  If you're someone who is out enough to be showing your face online, I really hope you'll take 5 minutes to submit something.  Please forward that link and send your own advice for how other people can treat you well.  There's so much writing about "it's awful that people do [shitty thing] to us," but I want to have something more positively-framed about how people can be good to us.

Last week, I posted an interview with oldschool sex workers' rights activist Norma Jean Almodovar.  This week, I wanted to feature one of my favorite of the current generation of activists, Serpent Libertine.  Serpent blogs at SexPros.net, posts videos at RedLightDistrictchicago.com, works as the director of SWOP Chicago, and made one of my favorite sex worker videos, "Sex Workers WANT to Stop Trafficking."  If you're near Chicago, make sure to check out the Sex Worker Film Festival, taking place August 11th-13th.  I liked the idea of asking people of different generations the same questions about activism, and see their perspectives.  I hope you will, too.  I bolded some bits I found especially worth reading.

Furry Girl: How did you become a sex worker?

Serpent Libertine: A roommate of mine was working as a pro-domme at a dungeon and I thought it was something I could do. After I lost my job as a dog walker, I called and asked the manager for a job there. Unfortunately he dicked me around a bit and never did put me on the schedule, but I found work at another dungeon, and for awhile, as a pro-sub (most people have a hard time believing that about me). Since then I've moved onto escort work and ran my own escort agency for awhile.

FG: Was there a particular event that motivated you to become an activist?

SL: I've been an activist of some sort since my late teens, first with the riot grrrl movement and pro-choice/feminist causes and then I ran with the local anarchists for awhile until I started to see through their bullshit. As far as sex worker rights activism goes... I'd been wanting to do something locally for awhile, but didn't really have a network of friends in the industry to organize with. Then I attended the launch party hosted by SWOP-Chicago founders kittenINFINITE and Betty Devoe and got involved with sex worker activism after that.

FG: What sorts of things are you involved in as an activist?

SL: I do a lot, it's kinda taken over my life. It's hard because I don't get paid a dime to do this stuff and it eats up so much of my time. Currently I'm the director of Sex Workers Outreach Project-Chicago, an advocacy group for sex workers. Just in the past month I've met with a local alderman to protest his proposed "prostitution-free zone", collaborated with another activist on the development a large scale survey of providers/clients/sex industry professionals on sex trafficking in the community, worked a booth for SWOP-Chicago at a porn convention, organized with members of another activist organization on a series of PSAs about sex worker/ GLBTQ youth harassment, done street outreach as a volunteer with Chicago Recovery Alliance, and curated/organized the first ever sex worker film fest in Chicago. I also have the video podcast, which doesn't get updated nearly as much as I'd like because I'm so busy.

FG: In looking back on the history of sex workers' rights activism in America and elsewhere, how do you see things as having changed over the years?

SL: There's a lot more organizations now spread out all throughout the US, not just in San Francisco, where it seems like this movement was centralized for a long time. I think this idea of having one or two cites where all progressive and radical activity is taking place is kinda pointless. The work needs to be done in the cities and places that are traditionally more conservative and it seems like little by little, there's more networks popping up in smaller cities. There's a lot more awareness about this industry now and a lot of the activists are getting more media attention.

FG: Could you share a story about an activist failure or disaster you have experienced, and how you were able to recover and learn lessons from the set back?

SL: I guess the worst failures are just ideas that were thrown around, but never followed through, which is pretty common. Oftentimes it's hard to get people to bottom line projects and the work gets dumped on the same two or three people every time. There's also been a lot of projects and collaborations that we've gotten involved with, but just fizzled out for one reason or another, usually due to people flaking out or losing interest. I think the biggest failure with this movement as a whole is that people just aren't fully committed to it, or want to do something, but once they realize that there's actual work involved, they back away. Most of the other disasters I've experienced involve people whose personalities who weren't conducive to activism work. People promise to do something and then drop the ball. I've moved forward from everything pretty smoothly but I can't say they wasn't disappointing at the time.

FG: What impresses or inspires you about the early days of sex workers' rights activism in America?

SL: The Hooker's Ball Margo St. James used to put on were pretty impressive, all the stuff Carol Leigh did back in the day. Most of the most impressive stuff happened outside of the US, such as Australia, where there SW rights movement is large and very organized.

FG: What do you think sex workers' rights activists are better at doing now?

SL: We're a lot more visible and vocal now, a lot more media savvy, thanks mostly to social networking, which has really changed the face of activism.

FG: Have your views on activist strategies and campaigning changed, and if so, how?

SL: Yes, I think they evolve over time, as I become more experienced at all this stuff. You learn from mistakes, what works, what doesn't. I've never been a fan of large scale protests because I don't believe you change people's minds by standing on a street corner with a sign yelling some wacky chant. Being an activist to me is about educating people on a less hysterical level... by talking to them individually, speaking on panels, presenting at colleges, even the advocacy videos. If people view you as crazy or "the other", they stop listening.

FG: What are the most pressing issues you would like to see sex work activists focus on in the coming 10 years?

SL: Creating more unity among other types of sex workers, breaking down stigma not just surrounding sex work, but amongst each other. I think the focus on prostitution-related issues has the tendency to alienate sex workers who aren't involved in that from getting involved as activist. That said, we need way more organization and funding. We need more dedicated volunteers willing to speak up on the issue and be able to follow through with large-scale projects that shift public opinion of sex work.  We need to challenge criminalization of prostitution but realize that it's not always a realistic goal.

FG: What message would you like to share with people who are thinking about getting involved in sex workers' rights activism, but have so far hesitated?

SL: I understand a lot of people hesitate to get involved because they don't agree with what a certain group or person has done, but there's strength in numbers. The more people that get involved, the more likely we are to reach our goals as a community. The reason why many of the activist organizations have not been effective is that they lack volunteers and manpower to get things accomplished. There's different ways to be an activist and it's best for individuals to decide what works best for them. But don't not get involved because you didn't like what so-and-so did or you don't agree with a certain stance an organization had on something. Do your own thing. Create the change you want to see.

I'm excited to see that everything is on track to raise $7300 for SWAAY's billboard.  It's 36% funded after 11 days, and we have 19 more days to get the rest.  (The billboard is being done through Epic Step, a company that works like Kickstarter for billboards.)  I know we're in a recession and everyone's watching their money, but this project is guaranteed get a huge amount of attention from the general public.  Not BDSM conference attendees, not sex blog readers, not feminists, not sex radicals - but regular people who have probably never even heard the term sex work.  This is exactly what I want to do with SWAAY.  Please donate here.

And, if this billboard is funded, you can also get some cool stuff.  Check out the list:

* Anyone who donates $7 or more gets a 10-pack of SWAAY stickers.

* The first person to donate $325 and email swaay AT swaay.org gets a one-of-a-kind handmade horror doll from Norma Jean Almodovar, one of the godmothers of the American sex workers' rights movement.

* Sex workers who donate $100 or more get 3 free months from Safe Office.  This offer is open only to adult service providers, not the general public.  Here's the info:

Safe Office is a subscription based website designed specifically for erotic service providers. Users can track their contacts, schedule, projects, and more in a secure environment. Get sensitive data off PCs and phones that are notoriously NOT secure and at risk of theft, damage, or seizure. Enjoy the privacy and reliability of offshore venue and hosting. Protect the privacy of both service providers and their clients. Although it is often denied, all professionals keep data in some form, YOUR CLIENTS WANT YOU TO PROTECT THEIR CONFIDENTIALITY by keeping it safe. If you are using a spreadsheet, "black-book," software on your PC, or a website that is not specifically designed for security, you need Safe Office. Track an unlimited number of Alias Names, Handles on Boards, Email Addresses, Phone Numbers, and more. Make Notes about Client Preferences. Use the Mailing List feature to announce your next Tour per City. We have many tools to allow separation of a provider's work life from their personal life. Also included is a comprehensive Resource-List of professionals friendly to the industry; and a Watch-List of clients, hotels, and others that are reported by members to be unfriendly to the industry. We help you organize your business, increase your profits, protect your privacy, and keep you safe.

We are offering three months added to your Safe Office subscription if you contribute $100 or more to SWAAY's "Sex Work Definition Billboard" project (click here for details). Existing subscribers will get three months added to their current subscription (so whether your current plan is monthly, quarterly, or yearly - your next payment is moved forward three months). If you are not currently a subscriber to Safe Office, we will setup an account and your first three months are free (new subscribers must be verified as established providers).

With all of these freebies, make sure you email your donation receipt to swaay AT swaay.org after August 17th if the billboard is funded.  With Norma Jean's doll, email right away to claim that, since that offer is only good for one lucky donor.

Sex work activism, by the nature of our industry, doesn't naturally lend itself to a multi-generational struggle.  So many people who do sex work do so only when they are young, and for brief periods of time (perhaps even only once).  While there are some older sex workers' rights who are still around, ours is a movement made up largely of those under the age of 30.  (I'm 27, and having recently passed the 9 year anniversary of my first porn shoot makes me feel like an old lady.)

The lack of longer-term perspectives is why I'm so happy to have an interview with one of the original American sex work activists, Norma Jean Almodovar, and have her share her views from several decades of experience.  She also explains her amazing-sounding multimedia project that's currently in development,"Old Whores and Aging Porn Stars- First Person Accounts of the Sex Worker Rights Movement in America."

If you want to own a cool piece of Norma Jean's art and history, check out this offer to get one of her handmade horror dolls by donating to the billboard campaign.  For those of you short on time, I bolded some favorite parts of the interview, although I consider the whole thing a great read on our history.

...

Furry Girl: For those who haven't read your book, Cop to Call Girl, can you summarize how you came to be a sex worker?

Norma Jean Almodovar: To make a very long story short,  in 1972 I was hired by the Los Angeles Police Department as a civilian traffic officer after my first husband, Mr. Almodovar, turned down the opportunity to join the force. He had sent for an application for a job with the LAPD but by the time they sent it, he was then working as a carpenter, making fairly good money and was no longer interested in the job. I filled out the paperwork and within a year, I was hired and started at the police academy. In 1972, women were not hired as police officers- although there were policewomen, they were only allowed to work in the office or in the jails but not on the streets or driving a patrol car. To be a police woman, the height requirement was 5'8" and I was 5'4" and not about to have a growth spurt. I took the job as a traffic officer because it allowed me to work outside and I knew that eventually the height requirement would be lowered and I could become a sworn officer. However, in the ten years that followed, I became more and more disillusioned with my job, the LAPD and police work in general. Corruption ran rampant and there was no one to turn to who could or would do anything about it. I learned I had to keep my mouth shut or I might end up dead, as several cops and prostitutes did who squealed on the bad officers.

In the beginning, I was quite attracted to my fellow officers and had a number of affairs with them.  I learned from a female colleague that if I wanted to advance in the department, I would need to learn how to "give head" to the right people rather than just have promiscuous sex with every handsome cop I met. I never followed her advice and continued to date whomever I wanted for whatever reason that suited me. Unfortunately, I also learned that those same cops I went to bed with believed that women who enjoyed sex were whores... and they couldn't be bothered to give me sexual pleasure during our encounters. Eventually I stopped dating all cops when I met the man who later became my second husband and who is the love of my life (and still is after 35 years). Toward the end of my career with the LAPD, there was a Captain who was retiring and who had always wanted to get into my pants...  so two cops I knew approached me and offered $200 if I would be the going away present for this Captain. I was insulted and told them that if I was ever going to be a prostitute, the cops were not going to be my pimps.  That incident did get me thinking about prostitution and I really had to reexamine my own beliefs about sex, morality and money.

My normal assignment throughout most of my career was working the nightwatch in Hollywood, Rampart and Downtown LA from 6:00 pm to 2:00 am or even as late as 4:00 am... depending on the number of stolen cars I had to recover, or if there was a major incident like a fire or a homicide at which I was to direct traffic. Usually I worked by myself, always without a gun, driving a patrol car into the wee hours of the morning even though I was only a "civilian" officer. Assigning me to this late shift was part of a pilot program to see if women could be assigned to work out on the streets safely. So in essence I was a guinea pig for all future female officer who now get to work in the field because I managed to survive my dangerous assignments.

So there I was on April 18, 1982, driving my patrol car up on Hollywood Blvd. when my vehicle was rear ended by a drunk driver in a stolen car filled with stolen property. It was about 2:00 am and I was making my rounds on Hollywood Blvd and about to make a left turn onto a side street where I was to impound a stolen car. But before I could make the turn, I saw a car come racing erratically up behind me in my rear view mirror, and it plowed into the back of my car. The driver backed up and took off again while I called for help.

The driver was caught after a short chase by some undercover officers who were working nearby. I was taken to the hospital for x-rays, and by 5 am, I was released and sent home. I had re-injured my back and would be on workman's  comp for a while... but that was the end of my career with the LAPD. I went home  after getting out of the hospital, tore up my uniform and cut up my shoes and vowed never to go back to work for the LAPD again in any capacity.

When my disability payments were about to end and it was time to either go back to work for them or to find some other line of work, I decided to become a call girl. I knew several call girls from my days on the department and I went to one of them and asked her to introduce me to her madam. I took to the work like a duck takes to water! I found my calling and for the years I was able to work (before the trial and incarceration happened), it was the best time in my life. I loved my work, my clients and the fact that I had time to do all the other things I enjoy- like writing and creating art. Not to mention lots of time to spend with the man I love- the man who shares my life and has for over 35 years now.

Was there a particular event that motivated you to become an activist?

In addition to needing to earn a living while pursuing my other interests, there was a major consideration for me in becoming an outcast whore- and that was to be able to make a public statement about the police corruption (in particular surrounding enforcement of laws prohibiting consenting adult prostitution) and how the laws perpetuate abuse and corruption. I witnessed the abominable treatment of underage prostitutes- whom the public expected were being "rescued" from a life of horror on the streets of Hollywood. Instead, the cops emotionally tortured and harassed these girls, ridiculing them and forcing them to urinate on themselves while handcuffed to the bench in the police station where they were kept for hours before being processed into the system. When I questioned the practice, I was told that it was better  for them than having to be out on the street and forced to sell their bodies for their pimp. I wondered how that was possible... that it was better. I don't think the girls felt that they were better off.

When I decided to become a prostitute- at the risk of being disowned by my family and friends- from the very  beginning it was my plan to expose the corruption and challenge society to do something about it. And the only way to do that was to become an activist and go public. I was very fortunate that my family and friends did not disown me... and years later, when I was released from prison, my fundamentalist born again Christian mother joined me on a national talkshow (Sally Jessie Raphael) and told Sally that I hadn't made any worse choices than her other children (she had 14) and that it wasn't her job to judge me- that was God's job.

As one of the founders of the American sex workers' rights movement, how do you see things as having changed over the years?

When I first became involved with Margo St. James and COYOTE, I really thought that we were close to decriminalizing consenting adult prostitution. We were all very optimistic that the work she and the others who were in the movement before me  had done now seemed to be bearing positive results. That was in 1983 I think. In San Francisco she and COYOTE were getting a lot of positive attention and the conferences she organized got some good press.  By this time I had been arrested on one count of pandering and was facing three to six years in prison. I did many interviews with journalists from the local and national papers then and all the journalists seemed very favorable to our cause. Even the conservative Ben Stein wrote a column about my case and the fact that it was a clear violation of my first amendment rights.

But in the early 1990s, we all noticed a change in the media. The graduates from womens' studies classes in which they were taught how "horrible" prostitution was and how it exploited all women were now getting jobs writing for those media outlets. There was a definite change in the way we were portrayed. All the media allies from the earlier years were afraid to write positive stories about our activities... because the radical feminists were out there taunting them and saying that they supported the enslavement of women if they wrote positive things about sex workers.

I was an NGO delegate to the 1995 UN Women's Conference in Beijing, one of five prostitutes from around the world who attended the conference with the sole purpose of changing some of the wording of the Platform for Action, the document which is used to enact legislation in member countries world wide. There were two paragraphs especially that concerned the sex worker rights activists, and we five lobbied the government delegates for two weeks and in the end, we were successful. Unfortunately, the radical feminists have ensured that the changes we made had absolutely no impact on how the laws are enforced.

Here are the paragraphs- original and after we got them changed:

Paragraph# 100

Old version:

100. Sexual and [gender based] violence, including physical and psychological abuse, trafficking in women and girls, other forms of abuse [and prostitution] place girls and women at high risk of physical and mental trauma, disease  [and unwanted pregnancy]. Such situations often deter women from using health and other services.

Amended Text:

100. Sexual and gender-based violence, including physical and psychological abuse, trafficking in women and girls, and other forms of abuse and sexual exploitation place girls and women at high risk of physical and mental trauma, disease and unwanted pregnancy.  Such situations often deter women from using health and other services.

Paragraph #225

Here's the way the original text read:

225. Violence against women both violates and impairs of nullifies the enjoyment  by women of human rights and fundamental freedoms. There has been a long-standing failure to protect and promote these rights and freedoms in relation to violence against women. Gender-based violence and all forms of  sexual harassment, prostitution, pornography, sexual slavery and exploitation, including those violations resulting from cultural prejudice, racism and racial discrimination, xenophobia, ethnic cleansing, religious and anti-religious extremism and international trafficking in women and children, are incompatible with the dignity and worth of the human person and must be eliminated...

Amended text reads:

225. Violence against women both violates and impairs or nullifies the enjoyment by women of human rights and fundamental freedoms.  Taking into account the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women and the work of Special Rapporteurs, gender-based violence, such as battering and other domestic violence, sexual abuse, sexual slavery and exploitation, and international trafficking in women and children, forced prostitution and sexual harassment, as well as violence against women, resulting from cultural prejudice, racism and racial discrimination, xenophobia, pornography, ethnic cleansing, armed conflict, foreign occupation, religious and anti-religious extremism and terrorism are incompatible with the dignity and the worth of the human person and must be combated and eliminated.  Any harmful aspect of certain traditional, customary or modern practices that violates the rights of women should be prohibited and eliminated.  Governments should take urgent action to combat and eliminate all forms of violence against women in private and public life, whether perpetrated or tolerated by the State or private persons.

As you know, the abolitionists/ prohibitionists has persuaded the legislators to ignore that word "forced..." because they claim there is no difference between "forced" and "free choice" prostitution.

What was the most difficult thing sex workers' rights activists fought for or against in the beginning, and has that changed over time?

Margo's crusade started because of police harassment and abuse, and that's really what got me involved in sex work and the prostitutes rights movement from the beginning. Because prostitution is against the law, it gives police officers unparalleled opportunity to extort us for sex, money and information. Obviously decriminalizing consenting adult prostitution would take that power away from the cops and so for me and most all of the old whores the issue was decrim, decrim, decrim...

From the very start of my career as a call girl and in becoming an activist, I always came from the perspective of having witnessed the corruption from the other side, so for me, decriminalization of all consenting adult commercial sex is the most important thing I have been and will continue to fight for. The best way to do that is through education- not of sex workers necessarily, but of the public. That's why I founded ISWFACE- International Sex Worker Foundation for Art, Culture and EDUCATION... because if we don't tell the public who we are and what their idiotic laws do to us, who will? Educate them by sharing our art, our films, our websites, our writings, and let them get to know us as people with lives, families, futures. Let them know the consequences of bad laws- the erosion of  our civil liberties, the corruption of law enforcement and the judicial system.

Unfortunately it is very difficult to get heard when the radical leftist feminists and religious conservatives have essentially shut us out of the public discourse about our lives. The media continues to hammer away at this idea that we are all sex slaves- victims of trafficking, exploitation and degradation. We must find a way to be heard - so that the public can't ignore us or our message. That was what we fought for back then and we must continue to do so. That hasn't changed... only the way we go about it has changed I think. We must be media savvy and train new activists to be the same.

Could you share a story about an activist failure or disaster you have experienced, and how you were able to recover and learn lessons from the set back?

I think the biggest disaster I was part of was the ill-fated 1999/2000 summer project in Butte Montana. The project would have been terrific if we had been aware of the history of the man from whom ISWFACE was buying the Dumas Brothel to turn into our international headquarters and a museum. Unfortunately, those who viewed us as saviors of the historic building said they did not want to scare us off by telling us what kind of man the owner of the building was. If I had known what this man was like, I probably would have gone ahead with this venture, but I would have done many things differently.

When we had this amazing opportunity to purchase the Dumas and move up to Montana, I had visions of having an annual Whore Camp, where sex workers from around the world would come every summer to help us restore this wonderful old building in Butte- a city that once had the second largest red light district in the US. In addition to the restoration project, we planned to have cultural events to which the local community was invited so they could get to know sex workers as real people. And, it would also be an opportunity to bond sex workers together and recruit more activists and teach them how to do what us old timers had been doing. We planned workshops and seminars- all as part of our "ICE" camp (International Cultural Exchange) or Whore Camp (which is what WE called it, but some of the local citizens of Butte were offended by that term). We had a fabulous biker rally that first summer, which was stolen from us by Butte resident Evel Knievel... and during that first summer, former US Surgeon General Dr. Joycelyn Elders came to Butte to dedicate a condom postcard that was "found" in one of the basement cribs. (The Dumas Brothel was built AS a brothel in 1890 and ran as a brothel until 1982...making it the longest running house of prostitution in the United States. It is the last intact example of Victorian/Western brothel architecture anywhere)

To make a long story short, after I got all sorts of publicity for the brothel and our project, including a small piece in Time Magazine, this man decided he wanted the brothel back so he could sell it to someone else for more money. We were paying about $95,000 for it, even though it needed SO much work and was falling down on one side. We gave him $15,000 cash and were making his mortgage payments on that building as well as his house... and he was operating five businesses out of the huge building. Anyway, we took him to court, we lost, it cost us over $150,000 plus equipment that belonged to me personally, and he got everything. Why did we lose when we had solid documentation of his lies? Because we were whores from out of state and he was a native son.

It took me three years to get over the anger and disappointment of this experience. The lessons I learned were that no matter how "whore positive" a community may appear to be, doing one's due diligence is a must for any sex worker project. I still think that Whore Camp is a viable project- but something that I don't want to be a part of. I am getting too old and am in too much pain to attempt such an ambitious project again in my lifetime. (see attached images from Time Mag and Biker Mag)

Here are some of the original workshop plans for Whore Camp 1999:

Health and safe sex into the next millennium- [2 workshops] Dr. Joycelyn Elders
Fiction Writing workshop
The Image of Women in Western Film lecture
History of Butte’s Red Light District lecture
History of Alaska/Yukon Gold Rush Red Light District
Photography workshop
Sculpting workshop
Women in Business workshop
Video Workshop-I
Makeup  and Glamor workshop
Performance art/ acting workshop
Stain glass workshop
Jewelry design workshop
International cooking
International crafts workshops
Self-defense and Yoga
Business and financial planning workshops
Unionization and labor issues

Some of the cultural events we planned:

Special midnight tours of the Brothel, conducted by celebrity sex workers

Design and build one or more floats for the 4th of July parade and a portable  “crib”  for the New York and international exhibits

Field trips/ swimming, fishing, hiking, horseback riding, various sports

Kids week begins last week of June (June 27- July 5). [To coincide with Butte’s 4th of July celebration, we are planning a “kids week” for  sex workers with children. We are organizing special workshops and other activities that will be of specific interest to kids of all ages and nationalities, such as athletic competitions between local Butte  resident children and the kids of sex workers. The kids should enjoy helping the  adults create a special float for the 4th of July parade.]

Trip to Helena (with picnic) [possibly monthly outing]

JUNE CULTURAL ACTIVITIES:

Evening of Comedy

Evening of Music/ Dance

Movie nights: classic mainstream movies dealing with sex work (Cheyenne Social Club, Risky Business, Best Little Whore House in Texas, etc.)

Poetry Readings: sex worker poets from around the world

International Cuisine Nights (based on how well the cooking classes go!)

Interaction with students and academics

STUDENT /ACADEMIC PARTICIPATION:

The brothel restoration project offers students and researchers alike a rare opportunity to  interact on a daily basis with real individuals from one of the most studied groups of people in the world. Because this project integrates a number of interrelated fields, it is an ideal  “living” classroom and offers students in those many fields a chance to learn “on the job.”

In this casual environment, students who major in archeology, mining, history, engineering, anthropology, language, sociology  and so forth, will be working in tangent with sex workers to preserve a valuable piece of American history.

We asked professors from various universities to develop a summer course for students  majoring in the following areas, which would give them course credits for volunteering   their time for the brothel restoration project. Naturally, the professors will also be invited to participate.

•archeology                    •art

•sociology dept.        •anthropology

•history                    •women’s studies

•language studies         •engineering

•mining                    •architecture

•film                        •photography

•criminal justice/ criminology        •health/social services department

•journalism                    •political science

•museum studies

You get the idea.

What do you think sex workers' rights activists were better at doing in the early days?

I don't have an opinion on this... sex worker rights activists have always been unpaid volunteers and we always do whatever we can whenever and however we can... I don't know if we did it better back then or not.

What about the current crop of sex workers' rights activists impresses or inspires you?

I hate to say this, but it seems to me that many of the new sex worker activists have no clue about many of the activities and activists from my day. I have read some of the websites created by sex worker activists and they leave out so much of our history and don't seem to know of the conferences and other events that we old timers put our hearts and souls into organizing.

In 1997, for example, COYOTE LA co-organized and co-sponsored the International Conference on Prostitution (ICOP) with Cal State University Northridge- we had the first international hooker's ball and brought sex workers from all over the world... and we (not the university) got Dr. Elders (former US Surgeon General) involved in this issue. But somewhere I read that the recent Desiree Alliance conferences were the "first time academics and sex workers got together..." leaving out all the other conferences which Margo and others organized that did exactly that.

So I am kind of disappointed that there isn't more accuracy in presenting our history out there, which is why I decided to make this an ISWFACE project- a history of our movement from the activists themselves... not a book about our history as told by some academic who was not  there... The multi-media project is titled "Old Whores and Aging Porn Stars- First Person Accounts of the Sex Worker Rights Movement in America." Eventually I hope that all the sex worker activists around the world will join this project and we can expand the website portion to include their stories and history. ISWFACE will be announcing this project very soon. We are putting our proposal together for funding and we already have the domain name for this project... www.oldwhoresandagingpornstars.com

While the project begins back when the sex worker rights movement got started, it will encompass all the current activists and info, as follows: individuals, organizations, events and outcomes. It will be formatted as an ongoing conversation - weaving in and out of the dialogue between activists. We are looking for volunteers who can help us process all the information and also who can do video and audio interviews which will be posted on the website.

Have your views on activist strategies and campaigning changed over the years, and if so, how?

Our strategy must focus on educating the public. We have to counter the lies told by the abolitionists/ prohibitionists.  The public hears only what the numbers are- and don't understand how these fake statistics are obtained. The public is our only hope- they can persuade the legislators to change the laws, but only if they understand the problems with bad laws. We must work with academics who are pro-decrim and get research funded which counters the fraudulent claims of those prohibitionists.

We must find ways of funding our efforts to educate the public. Back when I got involved in activism, we were just so eager to get out there and we did not cultivate clients or allies for the purpose of having them help fund our campaign.  Like so many of us old timers, I self-funded most of my activities and ended up a broke old whore. We have to change that if we expect other sex workers to become activists. If I knew how to cultivate big donors, I would do so. One of the things I learned after ICOP was that we had to form non profit organizations so we could raise money and offer tax incentives to those brave enough to  contribute to our cause. ISWFACE was the first 501(c)3 organization among sex worker activists groups that I know of. COYOTE was/is a political organization and cannot get a 501(c)3 designation... so ISWFACE focused not on political activism, but educational activism. We are a repository for sex worker writings, artwork, history, culture and information. Our physical library contains newsletters and 'zines from sex worker organizations around the world. Click here to read our mission statement and purpose.

We are in the process of digitizing all the material we have in our library and make it available on our website where it can be accessed by everyone, anywhere. Unfortunately because we do not have the financial resources to pay people to help us do this, it is a very long term project. Volunteers get overwhelmed and burn out. We need funding to pay for this work to be done. It is not easy to find sources of funding even with our non profit status because being on this side of the issue is not politically correct and donors want to "help victims of human trafficking" not help intelligent, independent and competent sex workers educate the public.  We need to get this information into colleges and universities where the next generation of journalists and elected officials will hear a different point of view and go out into the world with this knowledge.

More sex worker groups have to find a way to get their non profit status or they cannot accept large contributions - because most people and foundations that offer grants require that the money go to a 501(c)3 organization. It is expensive and time consuming to do the paperwork for obtaining a 501(c)3 designation, but it is well worth it when you can find someone to make a substantial donation. Without a significant source of funding for all our sex worker organizations, ten years from now we will  be exactly where we are now- nowhere.

What are the most pressing issues you would like to see sex work activists focus on in the coming 10 years?

I think this question is answered by many of my responses above: raising money, funding sex work positive research, educating the public, challenging the laws...

What message would you like to share with people who are thinking about getting involved in sex workers' rights activism, but have so far hesitated?

Becoming an activist is a huge commitment... and once it gets into your blood, you can't stop. I know, I've tried. I promised my husband a hundred times that I was never going to be an activist again. But yet I am still here- still spending all my waking moments (other than taking care of him now that he is disabled and mostly bedridden) engaged in activism.

I will never benefit from any positive changes we make in the laws- I am too old to work in the profession I love, and have no desire to be an employer for others (working as a madam). That aside, the only reason I continue to spend every dime I ever had and every waking moment on this is because I want to live in a world in which I have the right to make choices for myself of which others may not approve. I wish to  live in a world in which women can be sexual AND be  artists AND  be  writers and everything else we may want to be and not have our sexuality suppressed either by the religious right or the radical feminists. I want the saying "My Body, My Choice" to mean exactly that. If I am not willing to fight for that right, who can I expect to fight for it for me?  And if the coming generations of sex workers are not willing to fight along side us old timers, all I can say is that they will deserve everything they get. Getting arrested is traumatic. Going to prison is not fun. If we do not decriminalize consenting adult sex work soon, more and more sex workers will experience the horrors of captivity- all in the name of protecting us for our own good.

If you think those of us who are out here putting our time and money into fighting for YOUR rights are going to be here forever so you don't need to do this... think again. Either you fight back or you allow it to happen. The alternative is to take a job working 9 to 5 for an abusive boss who can sexually harass you and get away with it because you were a sex worker. You can join the "solid citizens" who are trapped in jobs they hate working for bosses who are most likely the clients of your sex worker friends, go into the office/factory/sweatshop every day until you retire- or you can fight for your right to do whatever you want with your body. It won't be easy, but then working at a "normal" job for 40 years until you are eligible for your pension and social security benefits isn't easy either. Those are your choices. Well, there is one more- become a socially acceptable whore and marry someone with lots of  money. No one will try to rescue you or throw you in jail.

...

Norma also sent me some media clippings from 1999 about the brothel in Butte, Montana. The first three are from Biker magazine, and the fourth is from Time Magazine. (Can you imagine getting an entire page of good press in Time Magazine now?)

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