This week in Arizona, two "sacred temples", aka, Pagan-themed sex businesses, were raided on charges of "illegal control of an enterprise, prostitution, maintaining a house of prostitution and receiving the earnings of a prostitute."  The busts at the Phoenix Goddess Temple and the Sedona Goddess Temple have liberal sex bloggers rushing to cry foul and act shocked, asking, "What about freedom of religion?!"  It's apparently an outrage that sex workers who are Pagan (or claim to be Pagan to earn money) weren't given a special exemption from the laws that apply to other sex workers.

First off, for those of you not familiar with the funny double-speak about "tantric healing," "goddess worship," and "sacred touch," you might wonder what goes on inside a typical "sacred temple."  Sometimes, sensual massage parlors and brothels are gussied up with a bunch of new age mumbjo jumbo, and the businesses stress that they are "churches" that are not selling sex, but providing sacred healing sessions for "donations."  You're not supposed to notice that these "sacred healing sessions" look exactly like regular prostitution, and if you suggest such a thing, you will be accused of oppressing people for their "religious beliefs."  Whether the owners and workers in such sex businesses choose to go this route because they think it will offer them legal protection, or because they honestly believe they have magical powers, seems to vary on a case-by-case basis.

Earlier this year, an Arizona paper ran an exposé, "Phoenix Goddess Temple's 'Sacred Sexuality' Is More Like New Age Prostitution," for which the "temple" workers were happy to demonstrate a "healing session" where a nearly-naked woman massaged a naked man and then fingered his ass while giving him a handjob.  Really, go read that article and tell me that the "temple," which took in $20,000 in "donations" each month, doesn't sound anything like a for-profit sex business.  (Tracy Elise, the "Mystic Mother Priestess" who founded the Phoenix Goddess, had her last business/"temple" shut down by law enforcement in Seattle for allegedly being a brothel.)  The article is full of gems, like one worker's claims that being touched by him will cause you to re-grow lost body parts, or this, a description of language:

There's a euphemism for everything in temple-speak. There are no johns, but "seekers." No sex, only "sacred union." There are no handjobs, only "tantric touch." No payment is accepted, but hefty "donations" are expected. There are no hookers, just "goddesses." They don't work with penises, but "wands of light."

Let me emphasize: I support all consenting adults' rights to buy and sell sex, but there is no difference between selling sex while burning incense and selling sex while not burning incense.  I am sick of seeing sex-positive people act as though Pagan-themed sex work is morally/ethically superior to non-Pagan-themed sex work, and that if you claim a certain religious belief, that you deserve special treatment under the law.

I absolutely support freedom of religion and our First Amendment rights.  However, arguing that the law should apply differently to people of certain religions is actually the opposite of "freedom of religion".  It's state-sponsored favoritism, which is what the First Amendment was set up to prevent, not to create.  I don't want to live in a world where each faith has a different set of law books, and people can pick and choose which religion they say they're currently a part of based on which laws they want to follow.  Again, I don't think consensual adult sex work should be illegal for anyone, but I don't support carving out special legal rights only for sex workers who are Pagan, or those who pretend to be Pagan to make money as a part of their work persona.

I have sympathy for the "temple" people arrested in Arizona, and I hope they beat their charges, but my sympathy is not because I think they have supernatural healing powers or deserve special treatment, but because they're sex workers like me.  It's too bad that so many of the people who will now rally around the Phoenix Goddess "temple" are not doing so out of concern for sex workers' rights for all, but because they want special rights for Pagans only.

My WikiLeaks cable search continues, and this time I spent a full day reading about how US diplomats cover abortion.  A lot of the items I've seen mentioned with the cables are "big deal" political issues like terrorism, censorship, corruption, but I think it's also important to consider more "pedestrian" topics, such as the issue of abortion.  Access to safe abortion services might not garner headlines like an leak about who we've tortured, but it affects far more people worldwide in their daily lives.

Most of the results for "abortion" are about the Catholic Church opposing it, snippets about sex-selective abortion in India and China, and brief mentions of forced abortions at the hands of human trafficking rings.  Meddling from pro-life Republican Congressman Chris Smith came up in four cables about abortion, and that's just what I noticed as a casual reader.  (What does your representative do overseas on diplomatic missions?  Why not search the cables and see?)

This post is by no means exhaustive, and like my roundup of cables on sex work and prostitution policies, reflects only some of the things I found while poking around on CablegateSearch.net.  If you find something else interesting, post it in the comments, or on Twitter with the hashtag #wlfind.  If everyone spends just a couple of hours looking through the cables for a topic that's interesting to them, we can all find more stories in this huge repository of US diplomatic information.

Cables of note, mostly on abortion, plus two on FGM I stumbled across:

* A January 2010 cable from China discusses the country's sex-selective abortion and how it affects their gender ratio.  "Social consequences of this imbalance include an estimated excess of over 30 million unmarriageable males, a potentially destabilizing force that threatens to cause unrest in the most economically marginalized areas, and could lead to increased gender violence through demand for prostitution and trafficking in girls and women."  The @WikiLeaks Twitter account mention this earlier today.  I still am wondering what defines one as an "unmarriageable male" in China.

* A December 2009 cable from the Vatican, marked SECRET, "reiterate" the Vatican's position on US healthcare legislation.  "[Archbishop] Mamberti asked the Ambassador about the status of the health care legislation now pending before the U.S. Senate, and reiterated the concerns expressed by the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops that the final version of the legislation not contain funding for abortion."

* A November 2009 cable from the UN summarizes a meeting on population, family planning, development, and climate change.  Call me ignorant, but I wasn't previously aware that the Catholic Church has a representative at the UN.  Really, why should they of all people get a seat at the table in UN population and family planning meetings?  Does the Taliban get to have a place to influence debates on the global response to terrorism?

* An October 2009 cable from Colombia explains how the country's complicated system of having 4 types of courts hinders clear decisions on abortion rights.  "In September, [Inspector General] Ordonez successfully scuttled the Mayor of Medellin's plans to offer abortion services at a new integral women's health clinic.  Some hospitals and doctors still refuse to perform the legal abortions due to objections of conscience, and some judges have blocked the full implementation of the ruling. Ordonez argues that abortion is still a crime (punished by one to three years imprisonment) with specific exceptions, and not a right."

* An October 2009 cable from the Vatican summarizes a conference on getting more faith-based groups to work with governments on HIV/AIDS charity work.  The Vatican's event had nothing to do with promoting condom use or sex education (surprise!), but on the importance of HIV testing and treatment for children, how to work to prevent HIV transmission between mother and child.  The Vatican wants to see more groups providing care to children born with HIV, but has zero interest in addressing the reasons why babies are born with HIV or how HIV is most commonly transmitted.  The US embassy considered this event "very successful."

* An October 2009 cable from Afghanistan on the situation of women weighs the pros and cons of a drug.  "Hemorrhage is the leading cause of maternal death in Afghanistan.  JPAIGO, a USAID implementing partner affiliated with Johns Hopkins University, conducted a study in which midwives and health workers provided expectant mothers with misoprostol, a drug that prevents hemorrhaging if taken immediately after delivery.  The Afghan Government is cautious about using the drug, since it can also be used to induce abortion, which is illegal in Afghanistan."

* A September 2009 cable from Kazakhstan explores the many factors that caused one town, Temirtau, to be dubbed "The AIDS Capital of Kazakhstan".  They include layoffs from the world's largest steel company, AcelorMittal, which once employed half the town.  Later, on the subject of efforts to promote safer sex, "...only 1-2 percent of Temirtau's residents use contraception to restrict birth; abortion remains the overwhelming preferred method of birth control."

* A September 2009 cable from the Vatican covers a Catholicism conference headlined by Tony Blair and Jeb Bush.  After defending the event from critics, the cable reluctantly notes, "It is, however, at the forefront of the cultural wars pitting traditional Church values against Western European secularism.  As such, it works assiduously to advance Church teachings on controversial issues such as euthanasia, abstinence in the fight against AIDS, abortion, and the role and influence of religion in society."  The cable refers to the conference as a success.

* An August 2009 cable from Morocco deals with abortion and family planning.  "Abortions are legal in Morocco only to safeguard the health of the mother.  The practical measures to garner permission for a legal abortion, however, are especially difficult. In addition to written consent by the spouse, the region's chief medical officer must approve all pending abortions.  These stringent procedures mean that legal abortions are rarely approved beforehand."

* A June 2009 cable from Russia says that family planning efforts are having a hard time "gaining a foothold" in the face of religious and state opposition.  "Svetlana Yakimenko, the Director of Project Kesher, an international women's rights NGO, told us May 21 that Planned Parenthood International had a difficult time gaining a foothold in Russia and faces opposition to its work from both the GOR and the Orthodox Church. [...] The GOR pursues an official policy of encouraging women to have as many children as possible in order to counteract the country's demographic problems..."

* A June 2009 cable from Poland discusses the country's abortion laws.  It notes that "abortion is allowed only in three instances: when pregnancy poses a threat to the life or health of the mother, when pre-natal examinations indicate a high probability of severe birth defects or incurable disease, and when pregnancy was the result of rape.  As women's rights NGOs point out, even those entitled to legal abortion under the strict anti-abortion law are often denied.  Under Polish law, a doctor has the right to deny an abortion if it is in conflict with his/her conscience (so-called conscience clause)."

* A June 2009 cable from the Vatican seems to be written for Barack Obama, explaining what the Church wants to discuss on his visit.  "Vatican officials grudgingly accept that abortion is legal in the U.S., but oppose making it more widely available.  Internationally, the Vatican would forcefully oppose USG advocacy of legalizing abortion elsewhere, financing foreignabortions, or making abortion an international 'reproductive right.'  The Vatican would welcome an honest, respectful dialogue with the United States on abortion."

* A June 2009 cable from Mexico covers the abortion debate in the country.  Abortion is legal in cases of "confirmed rape," which makes me wonder what their rape certification process looks like.  "Some pro-abortion NGO's claimed a modest victory in regulations requiring a response by state health authorities no more than 120 hours after a confirmed rape, provision of emergency 'morning after' contraception, as well as abortion on demand in rape cases. Such organizations, however, noted that the regulations require written authorization by law enforcement authorities who must certify that a rape had taken place (for victims under 18 a parent or guardian must also provide authorization)."

* An April 2009 cable from Guinea titled, "Exploring Fgm- Sorcery, Secrecy, And Livelihoods" talks about female genital mutilation and the women who perform it.  "...Asst Poloff had a rare opportunity to interview women who actually perform FGM, or 'excision'. The interview took place at the community health center, with four local women in attendance. [...] Although any woman can attend the actual procedure, it is usually older girls who have already been excised and/or older female relatives such as aunts or grandmothers.  [...] The excisers balked when questioned about the role of men in the practice of excision. The younger exciser explained that men would not 'dare' involve themselves in the domain of women."  (And here we Westerners are told  that FGM is caused by a thing called "The Patriarchy," not an empowered sisterhood of women.  A cable from the UAE in 2005 notes that FGM is inflicted by "elderly women or midwives" when it happens in that country.)

* An April 2009 cable from India discuses sex-selective abortion and gender disparities in the country.  "Though President Patil, India's first female president, claimed in her talk in December 2008, in Yavatmal, Maharashtra, 'Today, our women are competing on an equal footing with men,' the reality for many in western India belies this claim."

* A March 2009 cable covering the presidential election season in Slovakia notes how Catholic Church campaigns against one female candidate.  "Recently, several bishops helped to ignite the Slovak 'culture wars,' by publicly calling on Catholic voters not to support her.  Banska Bystrica's Bishop, Rodulf Balaz, recently went as far as to indirectly compare [her] to Hitler because of her attitudes toward abortion and gays."

* A November 2008 cable from Nicaragua speculates on whether the country's anti-abortion president is causing it to lose foreign aid.  "Finland is not the first country to withdraw budget support from Nicaragua since Daniel Ortega became President.  In August 2007, Sweden announced it would end its foreign assistance to Nicaragua, as a result of its decision to shift focus on countries in Africa and Eastern Europe.  Observers in Nicaragua speculated that the true reason behind the Swedish decision was Ortega's prohibition of therapeutic abortion, an assertion denied by the Swedish Ambassador."

* A July 2008 cable from Ethiopia discusses inteference from an anti-abortion American politician.  The country apparently doesn't want outsiders meddling in its laws, citing "the example of Congressman Chris Smith of New Jersey, who adamantly opposes abortion.  When Ethiopia's parliament passed a clause allowing abortion in instances when the mother's life was in danger, Congressman Smith severely criticized the Prime Minister and his government and is now a vocal critic of Ethiopia.  If Ethiopia accepted funding from anti-abortion groups and overturned the Parliamentary law to be in compliance with Congressman Smith, it would not be a law truly embraced by the people of Ethiopia."

* A September 2008 cable from the Vatican is titled, "Catholic Movement Wary Of European Human Rights Discourse".  The Church is upset that they think Europeans and their governments "are promoting the view that abortion, euthanasia and same sex-marriages are human rights," views that "betray" the "true essence" of human rights according to Catholic religious doctrine.

* A December 2007 cable from Kenya discusses various ways that religion influences politics in the country.  On religious activism: "While some positions are clearly in line with church doctrine -- such as the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Kenya calling for aspiring leaders to reject abortion, euthanasia, and the death penalty -- other leaders' declarations have been more political and have correspondingly sparked controversy."  Good to know that the Catholic Church is always working hard on issues that really matter, like fighting against abortion access in developing countries.

* An October 2007 cable from Nicaragua covers abortion debates and the Catholic Church's role.  Interestingly, anti-abortion politicians decided to turn it into a homophobic issue.  "Agreeing that the only women in favor of abortion were homosexual, deputy Navarro scornfully called the female protesters 'lesbians, lesbians, lesbians' during his turn at the microphone."  The US embassy concludes, "In our discussions with women's organizations and NGOs, we have made it clear that U.S. foreign policy does not condone or recognize the right to abortion."

* A May 2007 cable from Brazil covers the Pope's visit amidst debate on changing the country's archaic abortion laws.  Ever the sensitive guy, Pope Benedict "asserted that the spreading of the gospel during colonization did not represent 'alienation of pre-Columbian cultures nor the imposition of a foreign culture.'" The cable also mentions "a Vatican proposal to make religious education obligatory in public schools."

* A March 2007 cable from Senegal plainly spells out that the position of the US government is anti-abortion.  It covers the visit of pro-life US Ambassador Rees to discourage the country's adoption of the Maputo Plan, which aims to improve sexual health and family planning for the people of Senegal, and includes abortion.  (Trivia: Rees was once a legislative aid to what US Congressman?  Chris Smith!)  "Ambassador Rees voiced U.S. concerns that the Maputo Plan of Action requires countries to integrate all HIV/AIDS programs with family planning/reproductive health programs, an integration that would likely divert badly needed HIV/AIDS fund to family planning, and also seemed designed to require African countries to make abortion more widely available. [...] During a 30-minute meeting with Minister of Health Abdou Fall on March 21, Ambassador Rees stressed that the Maputo Plan of action was not a consensus document, could create 'an abortion industry in waiting.'"

* A March 2007 cable from the Vatican reports on a "right to life" conference.  "Addressing conference delegates during a private audience, Pope Benedict XVI stressed that the right to life must be supported by everyone because 'it is fundamental with respect to other human rights.'  The pontiff then lashed out against interest in developed nations in immoral biotechnological research, 'the obsessive search for the perfect child' through genetic selection, a renewed global push for abortion rights and same-sex marriage, which is 'closed to natural procreation.'"

* A February 2007 cable from Portugal notes that the country is about to legalize abortion (up until 10 weeks).  The country's leadership "hailed the outcome, underscoring that it would ensure Portugal's move toward modernity and place it among the world's contemporary democracies."  I like that increasing abortion access is seen as a cornerstone of modernity and democracy.

* A January 2007 cable from the Vatican summarizes Pope Benedict's speech about what he thinks wrong with Africa.  Abortion is apparently one of the key problems facing the continent.

* A December 2006 cable from Nicaragua talks about the country's abortion laws.  "[Nicaraguan Minister of Health Margarita] Gurdian expressed regret that the medical community was shut out of the legislative debate that was strongly influenced by Catholic church and Evangelical group interests."

* An August 2006 cable from Fiji discusses the visit of US politicians, who discussed the pressing issues of abortion and war.  Dana Rohrabacher, a Republican Congressman, "expressed hope that Fiji would not support a UN program that he said advocates abortion as a means of family planning.  A spirited discussion followed among several of the congressmen on abortion-related issues."  The country was thanked for "Fiji's participation in the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq."  (At this point in time, Fiji probably had less than 300 troops in Iraq.)  Perhaps in return for their support of the war, Fijian politicians were "very interested in prospects" that the 2000-ish Fijian citizens illegally living in the US can be shown "some consideration" in upcoming immigration bills.

* An August 2006 cable from Vietnam talks about the current state of affairs for the country's population policies, including what it defines as "real abortion".  "[A government official] raised doubts about the reliability of abortion rate figures and stated that 93 percent of all reported abortions performed in Vietnam are actually 'menstrual regulation.'  This procedure allows women to end a pregnancy during the first trimester by artificially triggering withdrawal bleeding.  Some 20 percent of women undergoing this procedure are actually not pregnant and just 'want to be on the safe side,' he said.  Therefore, the [government's population department] only considers mid- or late-term abortion cases to be 'real abortions' and has allocated funding to try to reduce the number of these cases, which account for seven percent of the reported abortions."

* A March 2006 cable from Vietnam mentions Congressman Smith's penchant for telling developing other countries what to do with their abortion laws: "Smith had promised to work cooperatively with Vietnam on the issues of combating trafficking in persons (TIP), preventing abortion and promoting religious freedom."

* A March 2006 cable from France summarizes how the US has been portrayed in the local press, including Bush's abortion politics.  It quotes one concerned article: "This anti-abortion law does not concern South Dakota alone... When it comes to morals and culture, the wind often blows from the U.S. onto our shores.  President Bush, spurred by the 'Christian right' is already waging an anti-abortion crusade worldwide.  He is making anti-abortion legislation a condition for aid to poor and developing countries.  This crusade will intensify if the right to abortion was questioned in the U.S."

* A January 2006 cable from South Africa expressed US concerns with what it considers "contradictions" in a newly passed law.  "Under the new bill, a child can consent to medical treatment, including HIV testing and the purchase of contraceptives, at 12 years of age. Previously, under the Child Care Act, the minimum age had been 14.  There are contradictions in the new bill.  Having sex with a child aged 15 or younger is considered statutory rape, but the new law assumes a 12-year-old is mature enough to purchase condoms.  Another concern is that, at 14 years old, children can now consent to surgical procedures, including abortion.  However under the new bill, a girl can consent to giving up her baby for adoption only at 18, whereas previously, a 16-year-old could make that decision."

* A December 2005 cable from Vietnam talks about Congressman Smith's advice of using fake "pregnancy crisis centers".  "On abortion, the Congressman noted that faith- based pregnancy-care and pregnancy-crisis centers are very powerful weapons in the fight against abortion."

* Another December 2005 cable from Vietnam states that Congressman Smith "is deeply concerned about the prevalence of abortion in the world".  A Vietnamese official smartly notes, "Preventing abortions is a noble goal... a far better solution than abortion is to provide the social and financial methods and resources to prevent unwanted pregnancies in the first place."

* A September 2005 cable from El Salvador touches on the Catholic Church's anti-abortion lobbying in the country.  "[Archbishop] Saenz Lacalle succeeded in an effort to prohibit legally all types of abortion, by busing Catholic schoolchildren to the Legislative Assembly to stage anti-abortion demonstrations.  In an effort to influence legislators, Opus Dei also solicited thousands of signatures for anti-abortion petitions from churchgoers after Mass; some political observers viewed this as an inappropriate intervention in national policy on the part of the Catholic Church."

* A November 2004 cable from Brazil reports on an effort to amend strict anti-abortion laws to exclude cases of anencephaly, an extreme deformity that renders a fetus/baby incapable of surviving.  An earlier cable on this potential exception notes opposition from a Catholic church group, stating they "will struggle for the preservation of the rights of anencephalics, especially the right to be born."  (The Wikipedia page on anencephaly includes photos you may consider disturbing.)

* A January 2004 cable from Ghana mentions the country's abstinence-focused sex ed.  "USAID,s program works to decrease the abortion rate by promoting family planning for married couples, educating girls and boys on abstinence and delayed sexual initiation, and advocating faithfulness between married partners (school-based curricula, Life Choices media campaigns and the Church's Counseling curriculum are examples)."

* A November 2003 cable from Croatia explains the Catholic church's role in politics.  "Catholics were also directed not to vote for parties and individuals who support legalized abortion, euthanasia, and same-sex marriages."

WikiLeaks has released tens of thousands of new US embassy cables this week, and I spent almost every waking hour of Thursday looking at the results.  I don't have the time to read everything, but you might be interested in getting a peek at how diplomats talk about both sex workers and relevant policies in foreign countries.

See the results for sex work, whore, prostitut*, stripper, porn, transgender, transsexual, transvestite, LGBT, lesbian, bisexual, and homosexual.  (Most of the ho-related results are about the US Trafficking in Persons Report and horror stories that conflate all sex work with forced trafficking and slavery, or mention it alongside drug addiction as a social ill to fix.)

WikiLeaks' crowdsourcing effort invites you to post stories of interest to Twitter with the hashtag #wlfind.  Find something interesting?  Share it!

Some bits I found about sex work, plus one odd one about a trans woman:

* Out of 10 mentions of the word "whore," 6 are quotations of someone using it as an insult.  Two are mentions of a women's rights NGO called "Ni Putes Ni Soumises (Neither Whores nor Submissives)."  Two more uses the term to refer to stigma.

* A report on people organizing against sex work criminalization in Rwanda from a January 2010 cable.  "Rwandan civil society is weak and neither its members nor the government fully understands its role.  These recent efforts may be an indicator of increasing strength and organization."

* According to a January 2010 cable, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, "German government funds" have been used to establish "rehabilitation centers for women engaged in prostitution."  (I wonder if these centers are anything like the forced rehabs in Cambodiawhere sex workers report violence, sexual assault, and even rape at the hands of their "saviors"?)

* In a report on "women's issues" from the Czech Republic in January of 2010, the author praises, without even a hint of irony, a government conference on reducing prostitution which had lectures on leadership from female entrepreneurs.  (As though prostitution and female entrepreneurship are opposing concepts!)

* A December 2009 cable from Kenya is surprised by a survey's findings on gay/male prostitution.  "...a 2007 Kenya Aids Indicator Survey found that male prostitution occurs throughout the country and that eighty-one percent of the clients are Kenyan.  These findings run contrary to the perception that LGBT activity is concentrated in Coast province and initiated by tourists."  A 2009 cable from the Philippines reports something similar: "about 70% of prostitution clientele are local Filipinos, and only 30% are foreigners."  (Gasp!  You mean it's not just evil white Westerners, high on their internet porn "addictions," who buy sex in foreign countries?)

* A December 2009 cable from Tanzania explains how anti-prostitution laws are selectively used to persecute homosexuals.  "Dr. Emmanuel Kandusi, Executive Director of the Centre for Human Rights Promotion, told Poloff that 39 individuals arrested on prostitution charges on October 7 were targeted for their membership in gay and lesbian support groups. [...] Gay rights activist and CPSS member Ali Semsella related to Poloff other incidents of harassment and arrest.  For example, a group of seven individuals arrested in January on charges of prostitution continue to be held in remand prison because they could not make the Tsh 500,000 bail (USD380)."

* An October 2009 cable from the Philippines covers how a police officer moonlighting as a pimp got caught in an NGO sting and convicted under anti-trafficking laws.  The cop apparently said "that he was the club's manager and that he had four underage girls working for him that they could take out of the club for sex.  [He] told [the NGO workers] not to worry about any legal problems because he was a police officer and could protect them.  He even offered to escort them to a hotel to ensure there would be no problems."  At trial, though, one of the teenage girls in question said that she had never been forced to have sex with anyone.

* An April 2009 cable from Vietnam posts some snark on the subject of how to prevent prostitution in karaoke bars.  It quotes an unnamed local blogger who suggests, "To prevent prostitution, all women entering a karaoke bar must be accompanied by boyfriend or husband; an official inspector will check her certificate of marriage or certificate proving girlfriend or boyfriend-ship."

* A December 2008 cable from Turkey makes a rare mention of sex workers' rights activism, even going so far as concluding, "MEASURES TO CURTAIL LEGAL PROSTITUTION MAY EXPOSE PROSTITUTES TO GREATER ABUSE... While concerned about the plight of trafficked women in Turkey, these sex workers and advocates emphasized the need for protection, fair housing and respect for Turkey's prostitutes, who are often abused by residents, clients and police."

* A September 2008 cable from Turkey reports that a trans woman helped overthrow the previous government.  "Actress Nurseli Idiz, her manager Seyhan Soylu and lawyer Levent Temiz were taken into custody in Istanbul... Papers recall that Soylu, a transvestite, is believed to have organized a scheme which sparked a political scandal ahead of the 'February 28' process in 1997, and led to the collapse of the government of the Islamist Prime Minister  Necmettin Erbakan."  (When not plotting coups, Seyhan Soylu developed a reality TV show about pitting various faiths against each other in a competition to convert atheists.)

* An April 2007 cable from Korea reports that even though prostitution was criminalized in 2004, it still exists, and was only driven underground.  "As pressure against the prostitution industry mounted, brothel owners began to shift their work to alternate venues such as massage parlors, barber shops and singing rooms although a few traditional red-light districts continue to operate.  The Internet also became a popular method to arrange sexual encounters because it provided protection for business owners who wanted to keep a low profile."  Here's an interesting tactic in the quest to end demand: "A serious debate on the issue erupted late last year as MOGEF introduced a plan where men would be paid if they promised not to engage in prostitution as part of the traditional end-of-year parties hosted by their employers."

* A September 2006 cable from Cambodia questions the effectiveness of arresting suspected prostitutes and forcing them into "rehab" centers.  "Targeting sex workers alone is not a viable solution to ridding Cambodia of prostitution nor is it particularly effective in addressing trafficking in persons. The fact that no pimps or brothel owners have been held responsible after the raids on nine brothels raises questions as to the government's motivations. Police could have done a better job identifying and arresting the pimps and closing down the brothels, instead of only rounding up the prostitutes and turning them over to AFESIP."  (AFESIP is an NGO founded by Somaly Mam, who has come under fire by sex workers in Cambodia for violence and abuse in her "rehabilitation centers.")

* A July 2006 cable from Armenia reports disappointment at the unexciting realities of "trafficking" of Armenian women. "We went to Vanadzor expecting to hear stories of illicit smuggling across borders and of girls lured into prostitution under false pretenses. What we heard was significantly more pedestrian... And while the prostitutes and the NGO employees we met said sometimes women are abused in the brothels, or aren't paid in full, they said the greater part of women generally understand what they are getting themselves into, and may already have worked as prostitutes for years."  The cable concludes, "...fist-banging won't change the fact that many prostitutes work simply to get food on the table, and that they believe they will be paid better in Turkey or the UAE.  The Armenian government cannot improve a bad economy with stricter laws and harsher sentencing.  While both are needed here, Armenia has to offer these women an alternative to turning tricks if it is to eradicate trafficking."

* Three cables from June 2006 talk about the sex trafficking scare around the World Cup in Berlin.  One notes, "Over 20 NGOs throughout Germany have received government funds to conduct dozens of trafficking prevention and awareness campaigns."  It goes on to report on the raid of 48 Munich brothels in search of said trafficking victims, though it couldn't find any.  Another cable reports on raids in Hesse, where hundreds of police officers were involved in a massive sweep that saw 74 women detained.  A police officer "pointed out that many women do not initially see themselves as victims but come to that realization after counseling and assistance." [...] "Regarding the large-scale raids on May 10, [police chief] Thiel said police findings demonstrate there has been no substantial increase in TIP and that the oft-repeated figure of 40,000 prostitutes converging on Germany for the FIFA World Cup is a gross exaggeration."  A third cable declares that in spite of being unable to find trafficking victims, the whole mess is a victory anyway.  "Extensive pre-World Cup police raids of brothels and other venues around Germany (reported refs C through F) sent a clear message to traffickers that police are watching and likely dissuaded many traffickers from expanding their operations."

* A December 2005 cable from Turkey expresses concern about the growing popularity of trans prostitutes, giving a very detailed rundown on where trans prostitutes can be found.  "Transvestites have taken over the streets.  In recent years the rate of transvestite prostitution has increased, in particular on Istanbul streets.  Until ten years ago, they were seen only on the Cevizlibag-Merter portion of the D-100 highway; now they are everywhere... On weekends there is a transvestite prostitute every five meters from Tarlabasi Boulevard to Harbiye."

* A November 2005 cable from Thailand paints popular vacation spot Pattaya as filled with prostitutes, fugitives, crazies, drunk Americans wandering into traffic, and "heartbroken loners".  "Thailand has one of the highest rates in the world of death by non-natural causes for Amcits.  After Bangkok itself, most Amcit deaths in Thailand occur in Pattaya: this year 21 of the 106 non-natural Amcit deaths in Thailand have occurred there.  The leading causes of death are traffic accidents (usually involving alcohol), drug overdoses (ranging from laced cocaine to using Viagra without a prescription), suicides (from heartbroken loners) and homicides... Many American fugitives have taken up residence in Pattaya over the years, along with people who should be getting treatment for mental illness, but are not."  The cable's conclusion: "As Pattaya continues to grow, so will the numbers of American citizens that go there to work, play, retire, and die."  (Best tourism slogan I've ever read!)

* A November 2005 cable from the Czech Republic is pleased that left- and right-wing members of the Czech Parliament came together to reject a bill taking steps towards legalized prostitution.  "Though clearly a positive development, the defeat of legalized prostitution still leaves the sex trade in a highly ambiguous position in a country where trafficking in persons remains a problem.  Although the Czechs are clearly unwilling to legalize prostitution, there is also little will to adopt more stringent steps to criminalize the practice."  (Another 2005 cable on the subject mentions MPs being lectured by the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, an international feminist anti-sex worker group, which also lobbied against San Francisco's Proposition K.)

* A bizarre August 2004 cable from Nigeria details the case of "juju men" (shamans/witch doctors) convicted of sex trafficking.  "The two juju men, Prince Omoruyi of Ehengbuda shrine and Goddy Akhimeon of Uromi, were brought into the press conference and asked by NAPTIP's head of investigation to describe the items on display, which had been confiscated from their shrines.  Clippings of women's pubic hair and fingernails would be kept in the shrine until the 'curse' was lifted.  The juju men explained that they 'blessed' the semen of male customers of prostitutes in order to prevent the transmission of AIDS; a pile of semen-stained tissues was displayed among the evidence."

* An April 2004 cable from the Netherlands expresses annoyance at the country's legalized prostitution, but notes we need their troops for our wars.  "We don't like their social policies, but even G/TIP admits the causal link between legalization of prostitution and trafficking has not been proven."  The cable author begs its reader to not downgrade the Netherlands' ranking in the Traffickings in Persons index.  Doing so would "undermine the forceful public outreach we have been making to strengthen the alliance.  The Dutch are extremely valuable allies to us, providing troops in Afghanistan and Iraq and supporting us on transatlantic and global issues.  In the next month, the government faces a delicate vote in parliament over extending Iraq troop deployment and the MFA Political Director told me Friday that a decision to put the Netherlands in Tier 2 would be damaging and could not come at a worse time."

* A February 2003 cable from Canada tries to clumsily quantify the amount of local prostitution and sex trafficking.  Their methodology?  Noting that there are 20 pages of escort ads in the phone book.  "THESE ADS, UP FROM 17 PAGES IN 2002 AND 2 IN 1998, HIGHLIGHT WHAT A BIG BUSINESS THE SEX TRADE HAS BECOME IN QUEBEC."  The report concludes that motorcycle gangs are the kingpins running the sex industry in Quebec.  The guesses in the cable reads like a 1970s sexploitation novel: "IN THE OPINION OF POST'S POLICE CONTACT, ONCE GIRLS ARE BROUGHT INTO A TRAFFICKING RING, THEY FACE A SLIPPERY SLOPE.  VULNERABLE GIRLS, DRAWN TO OFFERS OF PROTECTION AND CARE, OFTEN THINK THEY ARE IN LOVE WITH THEIR "PROTECTOR."  COERCED INTO NUDE DANCING, THEN PROSTITUTION, THE GIRLS QUICKLY BECOME PART OF A SEAMY WORLD..."

Though she's been an adult entertainer since the 1980s, Kimberly Kupps is currently best known as half of the Florida couple who was arrested for shooting porn in the privacy of their own home.  Like me, Kimberly operates her own independent porn site, so it's a case that definitely caught my attention.  Some sex workers mistakenly view porn as legal, easy, and even dismiss it as "sex work lite," because supposedly, those of us who make porn don't break any laws and face no risk.  As a pornographer, even if you are trying to stay within the bounds of the law and don't shoot anything "extreme," you can find yourself dealing with an obscenity prosecution, as Kimberly and her husband have learned this summer.

The pair was arrested on June 3rd by their local Polk County Sheriff, who is going after them as a part of a war on porn to clean up the conservative area.  (Sheriff Grady Judd is also facing a federal civil rights lawsuit for allegedly harassing another local woman for her atheist organization.)  Kimberly and her husband are being represented by well-known first amendment attorney Lawrence Walters.  Walters is donating part of his fee, but there are still plenty of costs being incurred with mounting a strong legal defense, so Kimberly has set up a defense fund.  Please donate if you can.  You know you would want the same done for you if you were facing a legal battle due to your own adult work - whatever type of work that may be.

Although their computers were seized by the police, Kimberly recently took the time to do an interview with me from her iPhone.

Furry Girl: First, can you tell us who you are, what you do, and how long you've been involved in the adult industry?

Kimberly Kupps: I started dancing in Houston, Texas in 1980 at Ricks after seeing an article in Playboy magazine that the dancers there could make up to $1,000 a day.  Having worked at the University of South Florida as a medical secretary, hardly making anything, it looked very attractive.  I stayed there for almost 10 years, then I heard of some girls getting large implants and doing magazine shoots and touring as a feature dancer.  Since my husband and I both loved to travel, we went for it in 1990, going with the name Kimberly Kupps (Kimberly since I liked Kim Bassenger).  I danced all over the US and Canada, also shooting over 100 magazine sets (for Gent, Leg Show, Busty Mag etc).  After a few years, the fans and clubs wanted to see the feature dancers "in action."  Having been with a husband who loved me in all situations (we are both nudists) we jumped right in and went to Los Angles and started shooting XXX sets on a regular basis.  That is fun, and you start getting a following of fans who then come to your stage shows and buy items such as magazines you have been in and Polaroids taken with them after the show.  After over a million miles of driving all over the US and Canada, working 6 days a week, the business got less attractive since more and more girls were starting, and by then it was not a unique thing any more.  When the world wide web was starting, we opened KimberlyKupps.com, both running the site and taking the photos.

FG: Was your web site your sole source of income, or do you have a day job?

KK: Having created an extensive worldwide fan base due to the 100+ adult videos I have been in, it creates a oportunity of ongoing sales of "personal videos," which is when a fan creates a idea that he wants to see me doing, mostly by myself talking to the camera saying "his" name so he gets the video as if I was there with him. The website is our primary source of both income and reference to others of where I might be performing or shooting my next video.  Both my husband and I have met some wonderful people all over the world.

FG: What charges are you and your husband facing, and what are the maximum sentences and fines you could be looking at?

KK: 13 charges of selling obscenity, one felony of commercial distribution of obcenity for the both of us.  We have not asked the sentences nor fines since we whole heartedly believe in our innocence and the US's freedoms.

FG: What specifically about your content has the state alleged to be obscene?

KK: I will answer vaguely since they might use anything against us.  We did get questions on a "POV" [point-of-view] clip, but it is a solo one.  They think it is me with [a fan in person], but it is me talking to him as if he was there.  We have NEVER done fisting, rape style content, underage people, BDSM or bondage with sex.  We do not understand [our prosecution] when we can get all this stuff on DishNetwork on our TV now!

FG: How did the local and national media reacted to your arrest?

KK: From what our friends told us about the media coverage (in the Lakeland Ledger) and a few TV news reports, the commentary has been 95% positive.

FG: You've started a defense fund to help with your legal costs.  How has response and support been from others in the sex industry?

KK: Support has been okay, but since it is not yet a national issue, others either forget or do not care since it is not their problem.  But if [the state wins], the next county over will say, "Hey let's do it, too," and it starts a domino effect.

FG: Is there anything else you want people to know about you and your case?

KK: It DOES affect all citizens of the US to choose what they want to view in the privacy of their own home.  This invasion of our privacy and first amendment freedoms need to be defended at all costs!  Please do not take the freedoms you think the constitution guarantees for granted.

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?)

A favorite photo of mine from when I was in Buenos Aires.  That city has sex work ad cards all over the place, like you would see in Las Vegas.

Yesterday, Argentina's president Cristina Fernandez banned sex work ads in print, supposedly to combat sex trafficking.  Fernandez is Argentina's former first lady who succeeded her husband to the presidency, and is the country's first elected female president.  She drew criticism as a senator for having unfair influence through her husband's office as the president, and her most commonly mentioned personality traits are her love of fashion and being unable to handle criticism.

With an election coming up in October, people are asking questions about whether her true motive on banning the adult ads is simply to take advertising dollars away from newspapers who don't favor her.  This could be another sad case of sex workers getting caught in the middle, and bearing the dangerous fallout, of other people's political ambitions.

Highlights from the Rueter's article for those of you short on time:

Argentina's government is banning prostitution ads in newspapers and other mass media as of Friday, saying it is combatting violence against women.

[...]

But some of the president's opponents fear it may be used to punish opposition media this election year by removing an independent source of revenue for an industry that in many cases depends on official advertising, a flow of revenue that press freedom groups say has been unequally directed toward the government's supporters.

[...]

Fernandez specifically took aim at the newspaper Clarin, a frequent antagonist. She cited the opposition paper's Area 59 section as particularly unethical. Area 59 has included columns of ads for escorts, "gym teachers" ''massage therapists" and "underwear models" offering "pleasures without limits." Until now.

[...]

In Argentina, most media organizations are aligned either with the Fernandez government or its opposition. Many on both sides have run solicitations for sexual encounters. But Grupo Clarin's conglomerate of newspapers, magazines, broadcast stations, internet providers and web sites may have the most to lose.

Marketing director Emiliano Szlaien of the LectorGlobal media research firm estimated the ban could cost the Grupo Clarin $5 million.

It's somewhat strange for me to be talking about forced trafficking so much lately, because while I do care about how anti-trafficking organizations hurt consensual adult sex workers and ignore genuine victims, and have read much more on the subject that most other people, I will be the first to tell you that I am no forced trafficking expert.  My only real blog post about trafficking is advocating that people seek out better sources for information.  After a couple of weeks of peeking at the Twitter feed of Ashton Kutcher's fans talking about trafficking, it's very clear that most people lobbing opinions on the subject (and angrily contacting their elected officials) know nothing beyond sensationalist crusades led by celebrities, covered by media outlets who gussy up the story to be as dramatic and upsetting as possible.  I might not be an expert, but I certainly have a more informed opinion than most other people publicly blathering about the subject.

I need help in creating an important resource that does not seem to exist yet.  Unlike the mainstream anti-trafficking and anti-sex work groups that view all males as probably drooling for a chance to rape a child sex slave, I want SWAAY to show real consideration and appreciation of clients who strive to be ethical.  I think the American sex workers' rights movement is missing out by neglecting to court clients as allies or consider them potential supporters.

For one, I am still still seeking short pieces of advice from current and former sex workers on how clients can be respectful and ethical towards us.  I am hugely disappointed that after a month of the site being live, not a single sex worker has submitted a suggestion for how clients can treat them better.  (Admittedly, I am limiting my scope to sex workers who have worked in the US and are willing to post a photo of themselves.  But I personally know oodles of sex workers who show their face online, and they've not shown any interest in reaching out to clients through this part of the site, despite my mentioning it regularly.)  We all tweet and blog gripes when clients do something that pisses us off or violates our boundaries, but there's almost nothing written about how to not be that douchebag who gets ranted about.  Let's do something positive and help people understand how we do want to be treated.  What seems like common sense to us can be a confusing and vague world to others.

Secondly, since I have not seen such a resource anywhere yet, I'd like to add information specifically for clients of sex workers who might be concerned about seeing an underage prostitute or someone who is being abused.  Clients are in a better position than celebrities, NGOs, and even sex workers to locate and report potential victims of exploitation.  Yet, I don't believe I've ever seen anything from the sex workers' rights movement targeted at clients to give them information about how they might attempt to identify and report suspected forced trafficking, abuse, or underage victims.  The short answer is "call the police from a payphone in an area without security cameras," but that's not good enough.

The DNA Foundation, as well as other anti-sex work anti-trafficking organizations, have their own hotline for people to call to report abuse.  (I sincerely wonder what kinds of calls those numbers get if the organizations running them train people to consider all sex workers as victims who need saving.  "Hello, Mr Kutcher!  This is Bob in San Franciso.  I wanted to report a strip club I saw, which no doubt filled with trafficked slaves.  Am I hero now?")  Does anyone on "our team" have a phone number people can call?

I do hesitate to tell people to phone the police.  What if a well-meaning client triggers a raid on an area of prostitution (like an hourly motel) and ends up just getting a lot of hard-up people arrested who are not victims?  What if the police do indeed find a 16-year-old engaging in prostitution, arrest them, and ship them back to an abusive family from which they escaped and are desperate to never see again?  There's no easy solution, especially since "rescue" means arrest first, ask questions later, and can mean sending people into more abusive situations.  (As someone who was kicked out shortly before turning 16, yet never engaged in sex work at the time, I know that I would have been fucking livid if someone had tried to "help" me by involving the police.  I might not have had a stable address and enough to eat at all times, but I vastly preferred that lifestyle to other options.)

But where do we start?  How can we genuinely work to include clients in the fight against both forced trafficking and serious abuses, as well as the inadvertent mistreatment of consensual sex workers?  What are answers that don't involve arrests and involvement of the state, which can make things worse on already disadvantaged people?  Would clients carry a business card-sized list of non-governmental shelters and support services to give to anyone they think might want to seek help?  These are the tough questions I'd like to see the sex workers' rights movement addressing.

Edited to add: a commenter pointed out this awesome-looking UK resource: Redline.  It seems to be exactly what I wish we had here in the states.

It's vanishingly rare for a large media outlet to cut through the knee-jerk emotional hysteria surrounding sexual trafficking, but The Village Voice knocks it out of the park this week.  Make sure to read Real Men Get Their Facts Straight: Ashton and Demi and Sex Trafficking.  This is probably going to end up being of my my top favorite articles of the year.  After completely destroying the bogus "there are 100,000-300,000 child sex slaves in America" myth, it goes on to look at the celebrity philanthropy industry behind the hype:

The actors were watching TV in bed when they saw a horrifying documentary about sex slavery in some faraway foreign land and decided they needed to get involved.

But how to help?

Sex trafficking is a grim problem, and not one actors know a lot about—even if Moore played a stripper in a movie and has alluded to how she was "manipulated and taken advantage of" by a 28-year-old boyfriend when she was 15 years old.

So Kutcher and Moore did what any savvy Hollywood couple would do, which is call Trevor Neilson. Neilson isn't a household name, but he's quickly establishing his Santa Monica, California-based Global Philanthropy Group as the premier charity consultant to the entertainment industry's biggest and brightest. Neilson is a former Hillary Clinton staffer and Gates Foundation director who has been the subject of glowing profiles in Details and the New York Times.

"The king of Hollywood philanthropy" and his wife and business partner, Maggie, can charge up to $200,000 a year for their services because they're the best in a new and growing industry. The concept of a celebrity charity consultant is relatively new, but it makes sense, as Hollywood grows ever more concerned about image management. Neilson is the guy Madonna called to help her save face in the debacle surrounding her failed Malawi schools.

The Neilsons cooked up a 140-point "secret sauce" plan of attack for the Demi and Ashton Foundation (known as DNA).

[...]

Getting data about sex slavery was not easy, she says: "Versus most social issues I've worked on, there is actually a dearth of data—so it was absolutely cobbled together."

Accuracy is not a major concern for Maggie Neilson.

"All of the core data we use gets attacked all the time," she says. "The challenge is, it's that or nothing, right? And I don't frankly care if the number is 200,000, 500,000, or a million, or 100,000—it needs to be addressed. While I absolutely agree there's a need for better data, the people who want to spend all day bitching about the methodologies used I'm not very interested in."

Really, go read the whole thing.  I promise you'll love it.

The sex work scene can be a fickle, catty creature when it comes to how it views non-prostitutes.  On the one hand, it says it wants to see a greater variety of sex workers involved and taking up the unifying title of "sex worker," yet it often uses the terms "sex worker" and "prostitute" interchangeably, and concerns itself almost exclusively with issues that affect prostitutes.  I've watched one woman who has ranted at me privately that porn people like myself can't possibly understand what it's like to be a real sex worker also rant publicly how it's infuriating that more porn performers don't identify as sex workers.  That two-faced approach, along with the term "sex work lite," make me bristle.

"Sex work lite" is apparently anything that doesn't involve a man putting his penis in your vagina for money (without the presence of a camera), and proponents of this concept wrongly believe that only prostitution carries real risks for those engaging in it.  (It's not just about the distance between myself and clients online.  I've even seen dominatrixes who do the penetrating with strapons dismissed as posers.)

"Sex work lite" is bullshit, and not just because it's divisive, but because with porn, it's flatly untrue.  Porn has only been established as legal to produce in the state of California - otherwise, it's mostly just tolerated, like jaywalking.  Porn people are at risk of being charged with bigger crimes that carry bigger prison sentences and bigger fines, at both the local and federal level.  So, how exactly is it that people like me can't possibly understand what it means to engage in work that involves risks?  Granted, I am very unlikely to be physically attacked by any of my customers, but I make less money than I would if I were a prostitute, and I am more likely to go to federal prison and face hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines if some prosecutor in Kentucky wants to make a name for himself by alleging that my porn is obscene.  Every type of sex work has its own set of risks and rewards, and no one is immune from potential problems.

Earlier this month, a couple in Florida was arrested for operating a small porn site from the privacy of their own home.  Kimberly Kupps and her husband had their legal names and home address splattered across the news, and are currently fundraising to fight the charges.  According to a local paper,

[The husband] was booked on six counts each of wholesale promotion of obscene material and distribution of obscene material, a misdemeanor.

[Kimberly Kupps] was booked on six counts each of selling obscene material and distributing obscene material, both misdemeanors. She was also charged with the felony wholesale promotion of obscene material.

There's not a lot of details in the news, but it seems like the conservative police department "received a tip" that the couple were making porn.  The police, with no other crimes to solve and nothing better to do, then paid to join the website, establishing "proof" that the couple was selling porn - not unlike how police set up stings and entrapments of other kinds of sex workers.  The couple's web site is currently offline, which might have been their only form of income.

I could be the person in Kimberly's shoes right now.  I also run a porn site from the privacy of my own home, and while I choose to live in a big city of atheists and stoners who are less likely to lynch me, I could still be charged in a conservative small town, since my work is online.  (How many prostitutes have been prosecuted in Utah for giving a blowjob in Manhattan?  Making porn - online or mail-order video - means there is no such thing as counting on living in a tolerant city to save you, as your alleged crimes are federal once porn crosses state lines.)

I hope that my readers who have some money to spare will chip in on the Kimberly Kupps Legal Defense Fund.  She is just one example of the very real risks faced by non-prostitute sex workers.  From the web site:

Kimberly Kupps needs your help! She does not possess the financial wherewithal to fight the unlimited resources of the State, funded through tax dollars. She has hired Lawrence Walters, Esq., of Walters Law Group, along with Kelley Collier, Esq., an experienced Polk County criminal trial lawyer, to defend her in this case. Although some legal time will be donated to defending this case on a pro bono basis, Ms. Kupps will be required to expend substantial funds on court costs, expert witnesses, and attorneys' fees as the case progresses.

Kimberly has supported Free Speech rights and the erotic entertainment industry for years. She now asks for support from those of you who are in a position to help.

I was thinking about the stigma, shame, and illegality around the clients of sex workers, and it reminded me that I've never blogged about a policy of mine.  I'm mostly an online, from-a-distance ho, and I wonder if many face-to-face sex workers give much thought to whether they would side with the police or with their client if they were ever arrested.  Here's my own honor code story.

He was my first offline client, and a politically-connected person.  This wasn't long after the Elliot Spitzer scandal, and I suppose that if I were him, I'd be feeling damned nervous.  Before even taking my strapon out of my shoulder bag, I felt the need to explain what I saw as an important sex worker/client "courtesy" I wanted to establish.

"I want you to know that if arrest or prosecution ever stems from our time together, I would never testify against you.  I don't agree with what 'Kristin' did to her employers and Governor Spitzer.  If people agree to do something together, it's unethical for one of them to later help the state destroy the other.  I understand my right to remain silent and I take it seriously."

My guy just sort of gave me a bemused look.  I'm guessing he had never been with a sex worker who came with an anti-snitching disclaimer.

In the case of sex work that could be construed as illegal, I've always seen clients as literal and figurative "partners in crime" where our joint opposition is the meddling of the government.  It's disappointing to imagine either a sex worker or client blaming the other in an attempt to win a reduced sentence from the state.  (In "Kristin's" case, she was rewarded with immunity for her own illegal acts in exchange for being a witness for the government.)  Do any other sex workers establish whether or not they would betray their clients/associates to help the government's campaign against sex work?  I've never seen discussion of this issue before, but maybe I'm reading the wrong blogs.

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