When two consenting adults have sex behind closed doors and if money changes hands then that is none of the state’s business. – Laura Lee
Police in eastern India were left red-faced when a raid on a sex district discovered four of their own along with a convicted murderer whom they were supposed to be…transporting…to hospital for a check-up…
I’m really happy to see the media slowly growing more skeptical of ludicrous statistical claims:
…[Several news sources claimed that] “According to the FBI’s latest study, more than 58,000 kids were abducted by non-relatives in one year”…The number is derived from data collected between 1997 and 1999, mainly from a telephone survey in 1999…these numbers come from an era that predates the wide use of mobile phones, which allow parents to keep much closer track of their children…this is an estimate, based on a survey, not based on actual incidents…Two key components of the 58,000 figure are children who are reported missing by their caretakers or children who were missed by the caretaker for at least an hour but no report was filed…These incidents may meet a legal definition of “abduction” but generally do not conform to the public’s understanding of an abduction…The number of stereotypical kidnappings is significantly smaller: 115…the most recent (2014) FBI data on abductions by a stranger in a single year is 332…
A Porirua man is facing two rare charges of failing to use a condom during sex with a prostitute. The safe-sex law is thought to have been applied only about seven times since the Prostitution Reform Act was passed in 2003…Before prostitution was decriminalised, sex workers were not able to complain about clients not wanting to use condoms…[The man] said he knew the prostitute would not have consented to his taking the condom off, so he did it without her knowledge…
I certainly hope you saw this coming:
Since Los Angeles County passed a 2012 law requiring all male porn performers to wear condoms, some Californians have been trying to extend the requirement throughout the state. Legislation to this effect failed last summer, but activists are now seeking to put the matter before voters in 2016…If…Michael Weinstein gets his way, he could be subsidized by the state to sit around reviewing porn. Under the proposed condom measure…”Weinstein would be placed in charge of monitoring any adult film produced in California to determine if condoms were used…If a condom wasn’t readily apparent in each scene, Weinstein would be deputized by the Attorney General to review the raw footage of the production, and file lawsuits against anyone involved in the production, including but not limited to the producers, distributors, agents, and anyone with a demonstrable ‘financial interest’ in the production”…To remove Weinstein from this role would require a majority vote from both houses of the state Legislature…
Hundreds of social workers, police officers, clinicians and concerned locals gathered…to learn about the growth of…sex trafficking in southeastern Wisconsin…the Human Trafficking Forum…explored the causes and symptoms of what they call “modern-day slavery”…Every 10 minutes, a woman or child is trafficked in the U.S, resulting in more than 15,000 victims each year*. An official with the Department of Homeland Security…described Kenosha as a “stopping spot” between Chicago and Milwaukee…[a cop bloviated that] “Twelve and 13-year-olds are the primary target, that’s middle schoolers. We need to get the word out to parents and teachers”…
Canadian cops are just as absurd:
…Is there human trafficking in Guelph [Ontario, population 121,668]? “Absolutely”…[lied cop Patty] Pronovost…girls as young as 12 are exploited by pimps…classified ad sites like Backpage…are popular among prostitutes and pimps…The average age of a girl entering the sex trade is 14. On average, they would see 10 to 15 customers each day, but 30 in one day is not uncommon…
I wish 30 clients a day really were “not uncommon”; if that were true my bank account wouldn’t be in the sorry shape it’s in.
*15,000/year = 1.7/hour = 1/35 minutes ≠ 1/10 minutes.
My friend Laura Lee does it again:
A sex worker is using European human rights legislation to try to overturn a new law in Northern Ireland that makes it illegal to pay for prostitutes. Dublin-born law graduate Laura Lee is launching an unprecedented legal challenge that could go all the way to Strasbourg, against a human trafficking bill which includes banning the payment for sex among consenting adults…
Nearly two years ago, Monica Jones was…arrested for prostitution during a massive police sweep. Now, she’s in Geneva, Switzerland, taking her case to the United Nations. The arrest in May 2013 was not the first time the cops had harassed Jones, and she fought back, successfully challenging the charges in court while rising to become an outspoken activist and a widely recognized human rights advocate. Beating her own charges was not enough for Jones, and now she is using her story to challenge the United States’ prostitution policies on the global stage. The UN Human Rights Council is preparing its quadrennial review of the US’s human rights record in May, and this week Jones and advocates from across the world are lobbying the council’s member countries on policy recommendations…
The Last Shall Be First (#513)
A bill that would ban transgender people from using their preferred public bathrooms has now…been amended to make an exception for some transgender people who have legally changed their gender on government documentation. In essence, it means transgender people would need to have their papers on them to pee…[the bill’s sponsor] claims that the ordinance would prevent male sex offenders and other perverted, unsavory characters from entering women’s bathrooms and that it’s a matter of public safety. Of course…such incidents…are almost unheard of in other states and municipalities that have passed protections for transgender individuals…
The fact that money is tight and online porn free couldn’t possibly have anything to do with this; it must be video games!
Strip clubs, with flashy signs advertising nude dancers, once had a strong footing in downtown centres across Canada. But…an adult industry insider says strip clubs are an endangered species being killed off by lack of demand…Tim Lambrinos…[said] “It seems that young Canadian males are more distracted with other types of interests — Game Boys, plugging in things and so on”…Toronto had 63 strip clubs a decade ago, now it only has 14. Lambrinos admits licensed clubs are plagued with the perception they are tied to crime and unsavoury characters, but…that doesn’t match with the reality. “In terms of crime, even public complaints, the licensed adult entertainment clubs were the bottom of the list…There were nail salons and hair salons and barber shops, restaurants that got far more complaints”…
Looking to criminalize our way out of something hasn’t worked in any other issue and won’t work here…Services shouldn’t have to push victims to cooperate with law enforcement in order to receive funding…We need to be removing children from the judicial system, not increasing their involvement…being a trafficker is a specific crime and not just a catch-all for everyone who did something wrong to a child…This bill buys into a sensationalized presentation of a complex issue, to which the criminal justice system is somehow the solution…
”the ordinance would prevent male sex offenders and other perverted, unsavory characters from entering women’s bathrooms”
A bathroom law will really convince a rapist not to go in a ladies room. I guess it just makes it easier to prosecute. If you plead guilty of being in the wrong restroom we will drop the charges for a more serious crime we cannot prove.
”other types of interests — Game Boys, plugging in things and so on”
Yes, guys like to ”plug in” their thing. Men prefer to see entertainers that better serve their need even when it’s illegal. It’s funny that the strip clubs are blaming police for not doing more to stop the illegal sex work that is ”stealing” all their customers.
The old adage “Which Witch is Which” – the snippet on small towns avoiding labels about prostitution such as the old school “Payton Place” and moving to calling themselves ‘stops’ (No doubt Whistle Stop as both terms would reinforce stereotypes about the South but I digress) in Wisconsin and ‘modern day slavery’ and the blurb about ‘safe sex’ laws ‘Down Under’ also rings a bell about racism and aesthetic abuses of culture and how ‘feminism’ and ‘idealism’ are subjective terms to begin with in aesthetics and gendered discourse at the political and economic level. God forbid Southerners not be permitted to play at post modernism and race baiting about Israel in ‘blackface.’
I wonder if those cops in India ever saw “The Last Detail” (1973)? It’s not exactly a film about prostitution, but there is one memorable scene in which Carol Kane more than holds her own with Jack Nicholson as he negotiates to get Randy Quaid laid.
The California porn law is further proof that Jerry Brown is to that state as Edwin Edwards is to Louisiana. As for the strip clubs, as much as I like free porn; there’s nothing like going to a strip club on Bourbon Street.