When one of the men caught in Seattle’s anti-sex pogroms offered to write about his experience in “john school” (i.e, coerced “re-education” sessions), naturally I accepted. Also naturally, I gave him a pseudonym to protect him from retaliation by Val Richey and company.
I was mandated to attend the Organization of Prostitution Survivor’s STOP Exploitation class (in other words, “john school”) in Seattle, WA. It’s well-known that such classes have no actual deterrent effect; the only things they actually achieve are enriching the organizations which hold them, and disseminating radical feminist dogma. Over the ten weeks I was forced to attend, the most consistent elements of the sessions were the use of fear and shame to induce conformity, and the toxic perpetuation of sex worker stereotypes and tropes. Indeed, the existence of sex workers is only barely recognized in this course, and when they are mentioned at all it’s as a “privileged minority”; most sex workers are claimed to be “prostituted persons”, passive objects subjected to constant violence and coercion by “pimps”. Ironically, it’s parasitic organizations like OPS which are the real exploiters of sex workers; they are manipulated through court mandated diversion programs, lied about by professional “Prostitution Survivors”, and oppressed by law enforcement and prosecutors to perpetuate a cycle of violence via the criminalization of sex work. Sex workers are not even afforded a voice in a “school” that should have been focused on them and their struggles; instead they are extinguished as individuals with free-will to fuel an anti-sex agenda.
The hypocrisy and falsity of STOP are well-represented by its chief facilitator, Peter Qualliotine; his plastic smile and smarmy manner are inadequate cover for the dangerous oppression he helps enable. The local media has been unfriendly and unbalanced regarding the topic of sex work. Sex workers are claimed to be “sex slaves” or “victims” and the lies and disinformation promoted by opportunists like Qualliotine and professional “survivors” like Alisa Bernard are accepted without question or the most rudimentary fact-checking, despite the fact that SWOP Seattle is extremely public and it would be the work of only a few minutes for any reporter to get a statement from them about these claims. Interestingly, even Qualliotine himself seems to know there’s something fishy about his claims; though there’s a gleam in his eye when he tells us that he “enthusiastically endorses masturbation!” as an alternative to seeing sex workers, his shoulders slump, his arms are crossed and he looks down at the floor when he claims that decriminalization will never work and that independent sex workers are a very slim minority. And disturbingly, he brightens up again when discussing Gary Ridgway, the Green River Killer (which he does often over the ten weeks). The fact that Ridgway claimed it was wrong to pay for sex, just as Qualliotine himself claims, is not ever mentioned.
I paid attention as closely as I could because by the third week I realized that I wanted to write this, but it wasn’t easy; when Qualliotine isn’t quoting Melissa Farley’s bogus “statistics” and infantilizing women by claiming they aren’t psychologically able to make their own sexual decisions (because of “PTSD” and “trauma bonding”), he’s regaling his captive audience with the grade-school baseball analogy for sex, talking about “toxic masculinity” and claiming that simply looking at a woman exists on a “Continuum of Sexual Violence” that leads to rape and murder, with paying for sex at about the halfway point. He also alluded to BDSM, conflating it with domestic violence, and though he branded male-dominant relationships specimens of “male privilege”, he paradoxically also claimed it’s men’s responsibility to end “sexist” sexual interactions (including money for sex) even if a woman prefers them or demands them. Almost as an afterthought, he added that the cops need to “go after” madams and female escort service owners as well as male “pimps” and clients. In a session mostly devoted to intimate partner violence, Qualliotine lists public shaming, outing and debt as forms of violence; presumably, the shaming, outing and debt inflicted by police stings don’t count. It was all so stultifying a number of attendees slept; Qualliotine either didn’t notice or didn’t care. I assume he gets the same amount of money per warm body from King County whether anyone actually listens to him or not.
Valiant Richey, King County Prosecutor (in other words, Demand Abolition’s local propaganda officer) claims most sex buyers are white and well-to-do, a proposal that promotes the concept of patriarchy. But that’s not what I saw in these sessions, which are at least half men of color, many evidently working-class; one couldn’t ask for clearer evidence that, as with all prohibition, the consequences of criminalization fall upon the marginalized despite OPS’ claims to the contrary. Qualliotine is an entitled white man bloviating against entitlement, whiteness and masculinity in order to play the hero and set himself up on a pedestal. His pretense of personal outrage is so clearly false it’s embarrassing; during one of his rants about whiteness I saw two of the men of color firmly close their eyes, as though they could no longer bear to look upon this vulgar hypocrite. This isn’t about feminism or justice; it’s about feeding Peter Qualliotine’s ego. His sense of entitlement is immense; he actually expects attendees to trust him and OPS before even working with them, demanding one-way respect before earning it. There exists no independent review of this dangerous and banal reductionism; it’s a middle school curriculum produced by an art student that reduces complex life issues to abstract polemic theory with no expectation of producing any effect. Indeed, it reinforces the very stereotypes that it claims to want to expose. If the goal of STOP was to make an ally, it failed. Rights, not rescue; I’ve never believed in it more.
Ten weeks… What a nightmare, this criminal attempt at forcefully infantilizing adults. Thank you for sharing, though.
I’d like to see Qualliotine get the guillotine.
Interesting stuff, thanks for telling us about it!
This sounds worse than traffic school, and infinitely more dangerous.
I think this piece should be offered to any media outlet that will publish, post, or air it. The word needs to reach a wider audience than the readers of this blog, most of whom would readily agree with it. The only way to expose these scum balls is to raise the rock under which they hide and let the light shine in.
yeahp! so many truths to this article in how they operate, however the rhetoric they spin is all lies!
I would like to know more about his arrest and if he was coerced or given options if he would help them by giving info on others in the sex industry. If you have an opportunity this would be good insight to all who read your posts. After all it is the men who are getting the shit end of the stick right now. They can’t stop us one way then they’ll use another tactic.
I thought the article had great insight to how us ladies feel about the demoralization of our lifestyle choice but to see a man’s opinion that is similar to mine made me realize we are all in this together.
I assure you that when those men were arrested the police without a doubt came at them with ( if you give us information it will make you;re situation much better } That is how the police rolls lol
Always say “lawyer” and shut your trap!
I’ve noticed how men in radical fauxminist circles come across as even more fanatical than their female counterparts. It’s like they feel a continual pressure to prove themselves. Just keep spewing rhetoric, like permanent penance for having a penis. But to subject other men to this garbage, Peter must really hate being male!
Hi, John 🙂
Thank you for that cringeworthy yet important account. And you’re right; whether it’s sex workers being arrested or their clients, it’s mostly the marginalized who make up the arrestees. Half the men being of color in the “class” is quite telling in a city that’s majority white like Seattle. With sex workers in NYC, it’s mostly immigrant, homeless, and poor women of color who are arrested. Of course, this is easier for “authorities” because their victims are too poor to fight back, or they can be easily deported if they do.
Although Maggie might have told you this already, it’s best to go to established women for your companionship, i.e. women who’ve had their ads up for quite a while, or women with continually repeating ads. It should NOT have to be that way at all, but that’s what sex work prohibition does 🙁
I’m so sorry you had to suffer through King County’s violent criminal justice system where guys like Val Richey make themselves famous with claims they want to save imaginary victims he invents in his imagination all to justify the torture and destruction of better men them himself entirely to play the hero in the press. How ironic that if a sex worker faced a real crisis, you would likely be the first person on his speed dial and Val Richey would be the last.
What a telling glimpse into the psycho-sexual world of Peter Qualliotine. I once heard him speak publicly about himself and his course and felt real pity for his failure to process his own traumatized childhood, until I realized he was using his twisted view of sexuality to torture other men rather than seeking the hard core mental and sexual therapy he needs.
The irony is that the deal of Demand Abolition is, even more, bat shot crazy than Peter and I doubt he would ever choose to work for her if not for the steady infusion of cash she gives to Alisa Bernard, Debra Boyer (who was for legalization before Swanee Hunt through her enough cash to change her opinion) Bob Beiser and Mar Brettman. Like Val Richey himself, they are all on the take financially. In fact, several of the other members of OPS can’t stand Peter Qualliotine, but humor him because he serves a political and money raising function for them.
Peter is wrong, but he eats his cooking. The others in his organization to little more than feed off the cash trough he generates for them.
The people have been sold a lie with OPS and I have no doubt in 50 years history will lump them in with the well meaning progressives at the turn of the century that believed all our social ills could be solved by sterilizing social outcasts and minorities.
They too claimed they were “helping.” A common refrain you hear from Peter and Val as they destroy the lives of men and their families.
I’m so sorry you had to suffer through King County’s violent criminal justice system where guys like Val Richey make themselves famous with claims they want to save imaginary victims he invents in his imagination all to justify the torture and destruction of better men them himself entirely to play the hero in the press. How ironic that if a sex worker faced a real crisis, you would likely be the first person on his speed dial and Val Richey would be the last.
What a telling glimpse into the psycho-sexual world of Peter Qualliotine. I once heard him speak publicly about himself and his course and felt real pity for his failure to process his own traumatized childhood, until I realized he was using his twisted view of sexuality to torture other men rather than seeking the hardcore mental and sexual therapy he needs.
The irony is that the leader of Demand Abolition is, even more bat shit crazy than Peter and I doubt he would choose to work for her if not for the steady infusion of cash she provides to Alisa Bernard, Debra Boyer (who was for legalization before Swanee Hunt paid her enough to change her opinion) Bob Beiser and Mar Brettman. Like Val Richey himself, they are all on the take financially from DA. In fact, several of the other members of OPS can’t stand Peter Qualliotine, but humor him because he serves a political and money raising function among the man-hating crazies in the money-raising game. There are a lot of them.
Peter is wrong, but he eats his own cooking. The others at OPS do little more than feed off the cash Peter raises for their failed organization.
Before Demand Abolition blocked me from commenting on their Facebook page, I asked several times about PQ’s qualifications to run what is essentially a counseling program. Education? Psychology? Social work? Their only reply was a puff-piece bio from the OPS website.
Here we find his degree is in … art. How apropos.
His only “real” qualifications is that he worked for Melissa Farley, from whom he bases the nonsense behind this program. How I would love to see prosecutors call him to be an expert witness, only to have the judge deny him because of his lack of educational and professional qualifications.
UPDATE: In the follow-up to this column, David commented:
“The art degree is a common misconception Peter likes to perpetuate. He went to high school in New York and attended a few years of art college before dropping out. He regularly misrepresents that he completed his degree to pander to fellow prohibitionist pseudo-intellectuals, but that is not what his CV shows. His credentials are as phony as Melissa Farley’s.”
On what basis can a court or prosector’s office compel someone to take a class by a private organization? Is there any alternative providers of this type of class available?
It would be very interesting to see a sex worker organization offer such a class (teaching actual facts about sex work) for courts to refer arrest victims to. And more interesting still if the prosecutor’s office could be compelled to refer arrest victims to it, or at the least, to require that those convicted take simple take a course from any one of a number of providers, rather than compelling them to pay $900 to Qualliotine and his ilk.
“Johns schools” are offered as a “diversion” program for first-time offenders, who are given the “choice” of taking the program to avoid conviction. Thing is, most convictions for solicitation usually result in a fine which, in many cases, was about the same or even less than the cost imposed on participants in the program.
By upgrading client solicitation to “sexual exploitation,” King County is manipulating more and more of the sex work clients they arrest to attend Qualliotine’s lectures.
What they also don’t tell the public is that these programs do not deliver the results they promise. Despite proponents bragging that San Francisco’s program would pay for itself, it’s actually cost taxpayers over a quarter million dollars in a five year period. Very expensive quackery indeed.
This isn’t re-branded traffic school. This is Chinese Cultural Revolution re-education.
I wonder if a first amendment challenge to the practice (on the basis that we’re all being forced to pay for spreading these lies, and we disagree with them) would win.