Regular readers know that every Friday the Thirteenth, I ask those who aren’t sex workers to stand up for us. If you’re one of them, you already know the sorts of things I’m going to say; if you aren’t, you can simply go back and read the essay for the August 2021 occurence, which contained quotes and links for every occurence of this particular day and date combination. And if you value all the work I’ve done fighting for sex workers over the past 14 years, a concrete sign of that (via continuing subscription or one-time donation) would not only be deeply appreciated, but also provide vital resources for the continuance of that work.
Posts Tagged ‘Friday the Thirteenth’
Friday, January 13th, 2023
Posted in Perception, Tyranny, tagged activism, Friday the Thirteenth, holidays on January 13, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Friday the Thirteenth Yet Again
Posted in Perception, Tyranny, tagged activism, Friday the Thirteenth on May 13, 2022| 1 Comment »
Regular readers know that every Friday the Thirteenth, I ask those who aren’t sex workers to stand up for us. If you’re one of them, you already know the sorts of things I’m going to say; if you aren’t, you can simply go back and read the essay for the previous occurence last August, which contained quotes and links for every occurence of this particular day and date combination. And if you value all the work I’ve done fighting for sex workers over the past 13 years, a concrete sign of that would be very much appreciated.
Racing the Pendulum
Posted in Perception, Tyranny, tagged activism, Friday the Thirteenth on August 13, 2021| 2 Comments »
Regular readers know that every Friday the Thirteenth, I ask those who aren’t sex workers to stand up for us. If you’re one of them, you already know the sorts of things I’m going to say; if you aren’t, you can simply go back and read the essay for the previous occurence in November, and the one before that from March 2020. So this time, as I did on July 4th this year, I’ll content myself with reminding y’all of everything I’ve previously said on previous occurences of this particular day and date combination.
Governments sending brutal thugs to inflict violence upon those who enjoy themselves in ways their overlords dislike is less popular in this country than it has been in a century, so now is the time to push even harder to chip away as much of the edifice of prohibition as possible before the pendulum inevitably begins to swing the other way again. – 11/13/20
Though many people conceive of sex worker rights as a “special case”, in truth it intersects with many other movements. – 3/13/20
If our allies get lazy and think we no longer need their help because the politicians are finally giving us lip service, we’re going to lose the ground we’ve worked so hard to win. – 12/13/19
One of the reasons so many outside the demimonde are afraid to stand up for the obvious fact that the government has no business “regulating” private sexual arrangements is they’re afraid of guilt by association. – 9/13/19
We need your support more than ever, because now voices calling for sex worker rights are more likely to be taken seriously than ever before. – 7/13/18
Though the sex trafficking hysteria is dying, moral panics get worse as they collapse, and even after the panic is history the tyrannical laws it engendered will still be there for “authorities” to destroy lives with. – 10/13/17
It doesn’t so much matter what you do today, as long as you do something to promote sex worker rights. – 5/13/16
Stupidity, ignorance, prudishness, statism, control-freakishness and bigotry run deep in human society, and it will take vast resources and millions of voices to beat those back into the outer darkness where they belong. – 11/13/15
Any contribution – loud or quiet, public or private, eloquent or laconic, lengthy or brief – is important and worthy, and everyone one will hasten the day when governments no longer believe it’s acceptable for them to persecute sex workers, our clients and our associates in any way they please. – 6/13/14
It’s time we let the prohibitionists know that if they want to pick on sex workers, we have a whole lot of brothers and sisters they’re going to have to face as well. – 9/13/13
Even though any one person’s influence is small, lots of buckets eventually fill a pool. – 7/13/12
Sex worker rights are human rights, and there can never be too many voices speaking up for them, nor too many occasions on which to speak. – 4/13/12
No collective, “authority” or government has the right to tell women what we can and cannot do with our own bodies. – 1/13/12
The Time is Now
Posted in Perception, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged activism, censorship, Friday the Thirteenth, holidays, politicians on November 13, 2020| Leave a Comment »
Regular readers know that every Friday the Thirteenth, I ask those who aren’t sex workers to stand up for us. If you’re one of them, you already know the sorts of things I’m going to say; if you aren’t, you can simply go back and read the essay for the previous occurence in March. and the one before that from last December. But since the US has just seen two unrepentant prohibitionist authoritarians elected to the presidency and vice-presidency – the latter of which founded her national-level political career on censoring sex workers’ advertising and demonizing those who provide our advertising platforms – your support is now more important than ever. If you generally support the “red hat” crew, I don’t need to give you extra reasons to oppose the new regime’s policies; if you generally support the “blue hat” crew, you probably don’t need my urging to oppose policies that give cops more money, power, and excuses to lock people in cages for consensual sex; and if you recognize that the two crews don’t differ by much other than the color of their hats, you’re probably already opposed to the abominable concept that peaceful, consensual acts of any kind can be crimes. Most of the recent pack of Democratic presidential wannabees, including the new vice-president elect, pretended to accept the need for deciminalization of sex work (even though they really support Swedish criminalization); over 50% of Americans support true decriminalization, and the same elections which resulted in a new president also resulted in a wave of drug decriminalizations and legalizations in many states. Governments sending brutal thugs to inflict violence upon those who enjoy themselves in ways their overlords dislike is less popular in this country than it has been in a century, so now is the time to push even harder to chip away as much of the edifice of prohibition as possible before the pendulum inevitably begins to swing the other way again.
For You As Well
Posted in Perception, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged activism, advertising, censorship, Friday the Thirteenth, holidays, politicians on March 13, 2020| 3 Comments »
It’s only been three months since the last Friday the Thirteenth, so absolutely everything I said in that essay is every bit as true as it was in December (and September, and July of ’18, and…) so you really should go and reread one or all of those if you need a refresher on what this day is about (especially paying attention to the excerpt from “Straight Talk“). Since the last two were so recent, I don’t think I need to rehash them already; instead, I’d like to share something I wrote on request a few weeks ago about how sex worker rights is not an isolated issue:
Though many people conceive of sex worker rights as a “special case”, in truth it intersects with many other movements. Because sex workers are of every ethnic and national group, sex worker rights intersects racial justice, migrants’ rights, and even religious freedom (goddess-centric pagan groups are often targeted by US police). Because the majority of sex workers are female, sex worker rights is a feminist issue, and because male police use deception to gain sexual access to sex workers, that should anger those fighting against rape. Because many if not most sex workers are LGBT (most male sex workers are gay, many female sex workers are lesbian or bisexual, and roughly 30% of trans women have done sex work), sex worker rights is an LGBT issue. Because disabled people are often unable to obtain physical intimacy by other means, and because many suffering from chronic illness or mental health issues find sex work a flexible and accessible means of support, sex worker rights intersects with the rights of the disabled. Because criminalization of sex work is nothing less than the criminalization of a motive (sex for any reason other than profit is not banned), it should be of great concern to those interested in intellectual freedom issues. Because “fighting prostitution” has been used an excuse for internet censorship, internet freedom groups should be very worried, and because the same excuse has been used to dramatically expand mass surveillance (facial recognition systems and social media spying software were first tested on sex workers), privacy rights groups should be as well. Because people are arrested and subjected to penalties for consensual acts, thus feeding more nonviolent people into the carceral system, sex worker rights is of major importance to libertarians, anti-carceral groups, criminal justice reformers, and those fighting police violence. Because sex work is a form of work and most sex workers are self-employed, both labor rights activists and small business associations need to pay attention. And even fiscal conservatives should be angry about the incredible waste of tax dollars going to pay police to spy on, brutalize and incarcerate people for nothing more than adult consensual sex.
In short, this isn’t just about us; to paraphrase Donne, the bell of tyranny is tolling for you as well.
Now is the Time
Posted in Perception, Tyranny, tagged activism, advertising, censorship, Friday the Thirteenth, holidays, politicians on December 13, 2019| 9 Comments »
Today is Friday the Thirteenth, which as long-time readers know is the day I ask non-sex workers to stand up for our rights. It hasn’t been long since the last one; September and December are always in sync with one another, with the same days on the same dates. But as I pointed out in September, it hasn’t been long since the topic of sex worker rights became politically “safe” for the cowards who want to be called “leaders” to bring up in public, and the prohibitionists are sparing no expense, avoiding no ugly lie, and leaving no C- or D-list “celebrity” untapped in their fanatical effort to change that. So your help is now more important than it has been at any time since I started asking for it over nine years ago; while in the past the prohibitionists didn’t hesitate to accuse any woman who defends sex worker rights of being a whore herself, and any man who defends them of being a client, that simply won’t fly now that even the hang-to-the-rear political crowd is talking about it. We need y’all to help us keep this issue in the public eye rather than allow the fanatics to push it back into the shadows so they can keep claiming to speak for us. There are plenty of ideas on how you can help in previous columns for this occasion, and I strongly encourage you to look at those.
But as usual, the best way you can help, better than any other, is money. As I wrote a year and a half ago, “donate to SWOP-USA, to SWOP Behind Bars, to the EFF or Woodhull Foundation to support their anti-FOSTA lawsuit, to individual activists…or to sex workers who have been harmed by increasing censorship of our ads.” You might especially consider donating to some of the more marginalized sex workers who have emerged as activists since FOSTA; their voices are critical in shutting down the prohibitionist drivel that all activists are “privileged” and/or “pimps”, but they have less money to spend on going to conferences and meetings and the like. Your support for them is going to be critically important in the coming year, because election years are always bad for business, and on top of the advertising chaos caused by FOSTA and the wanton destruction of Backpage, and the climate of fear among clients engendered by constant and ever-intensifying pogroms, that could mean one of the worst years for sex workers in the 35 that I’ve been paying attention to it. As I wrote in “Straight Talk“,
I understand you may be nervous about the political situation; well, we are too. And if you profess to care about us, you need to step up and be generous. So, book a session with your ATF. Book one with a lady you know has kids. Book one with a lady you like, but haven’t seen in a while. Book with a male escort you’ve been wanting to see. Book with a domme or FBSM pro you’ve had your eye on. Book with me or any of the other sex workers you see me interact with online…If you don’t have time to book but still want to help, most sex workers have PayPal or Patreon or some such you can use to give them a monetary token of appreciation. Because there isn’t a single one of us who won’t be grateful for it right now.
As I’ve often pointed out, we are winning in the court of public opinion. But that is a long, slow process, and if our allies get lazy and think we no longer need their help because the politicians are finally giving us lip service, we’re going to lose the ground we’ve worked so hard to win. Furthermore, as I wrote last time, if the sex workers you care about and the activists you admire are going to make it through to the end, we’re going to need your help in every way you can give it; people who need to use every waking hour for working have neither the resources nor the energy to go to war against well-funded authoritarians on top of that.
We Need Your Help
Posted in Perception, Tyranny, tagged activism, advertising, censorship, Friday the Thirteenth, holidays, psychology on September 13, 2019| 1 Comment »
Today is Friday the Thirteenth, which as long-time readers know is the day I ask non-sex workers to stand up for our rights. This is not the first such occasion since the passage of FOSTA, but it’s the first one in 14 months (though we’ll see another in December, as is the case every time we get one in September), and it’s the first one since the topic became politically “safe” for the cowards who want to be called “leaders” to bring up in public. The latter point is, I think, extremely important; one of the reasons so many outside the demimonde are afraid to stand up for the obvious fact that the government has no business “regulating” private sexual arrangements is they’re afraid of guilt by association. And this is by no means a foolish dread, because prohibitionists absolutely will not hesitate to accuse any woman who defends sex worker rights of being a whore herself, and any man who defends them of being a client. But now that even the hang-to-the-rear political crowd is talking about it, the prohis have only got so many fingers to point; anyone who wants to help but is still shy can share any number of pro-decrim articles in major media outlets. There are plenty of ideas on how you can help in previous columns for this occasion, and I strongly encourage you to look at those. But as usual, the best way you can help, better than any other, is money. As I wrote last year, “donate to SWOP-USA, to SWOP Behind Bars, to the EFF or Woodhull Foundation to support their anti-FOSTA lawsuit, to individual activists (because traveling around the country to do this work is much more expensive than you might think), or to sex workers who have been harmed by increasing censorship of our ads.” This is especially critical because, as you may have noticed, the orange-utang’s deranged trade war has already caused enough damage to the economy that bookings are falling and sex workers are getting worried. As I’ve explained before, election years are always bad for business, and any old-timer like me can tell you that election years in a bad economy can be devastating. Add to that the advertising chaos caused by FOSTA and the wanton destruction of Backpage, and the climate of fear among clients engendered by constant and ever-intensifying pogroms, and we have a recipe for what could possibly be the worst year for sex workers in the 35 that I’ve been paying attention to it. As I wrote in “Straight Talk“,
I understand you may be nervous about the political situation; well, we are too. And if you profess to care about us, you need to step up and be generous. So, book a session with your ATF. Book one with a lady you know has kids. Book one with a lady you like, but haven’t seen in a while. Book with a male escort you’ve been wanting to see. Book with a domme or FBSM pro you’ve had your eye on. Book with me or any of the other sex workers you see me interact with online…If you don’t have time to book but still want to help, most sex workers have PayPal or Patreon or some such you can use to give them a monetary token of appreciation. Because there isn’t a single one of us who won’t be grateful for it right now.
As I’ve often pointed out, we are winning in the court of public opinion. But that takes time, and we’re now in the “getting worse before it gets better” stage. So if the sex workers you care about and the activists you admire are going to make it through to the end, we’re going to need your help in every way you can give it.
Friday the Thirteenth Again
Posted in Perception, Tyranny, tagged activism, Friday the Thirteenth, holidays on July 13, 2018| Leave a Comment »
Once again it’s Friday the 13th, the day on which I ask those who aren’t sex workers to stand up for our rights. Due to the increasing presence of sex workers in the public eye, and statements by groups like Amnesty International, more people than ever before recognize the need to abolish criminalization; even some politicians are starting to take notice, and those who hoped to silence us by means of FOSTA are finding that their efforts have backfired, calling more attention to the harm done by criminalization than ever before. And that means we need your support more than ever, because now voices calling for sex worker rights are more likely to be taken seriously than ever before. If you can afford to contribute, please do so today: donate to SWOP-USA, to SWOP Behind Bars, to the EFF or Woodhull Foundation to support their anti-FOSTA lawsuit, to individual activists (because traveling around the country to do this work is much more expensive than you might think), or to sex workers who have been harmed by increasing censorship of our ads. And if you can’t afford to give money, I’ve written many times on what you can do; follow this link and you’ll find plenty of suggestions, including some Stacey Swimme provided on the last Friday the 13th in April. If you can’t think of anything else, you could at least post the anti-criminalization principles a group of us (led by Desiree Alliance chair Cris Sardina) drew up last month in as many places as you can think of. We can win this war, but it isn’t going to be easy. And we absolutely can’t do it without your help.
Call To Action
Posted in Guest Columns, Perception, The Dark Side, Tyranny, tagged activism, drugs, Friday the Thirteenth, law, prohibitionist myths, shame, violence vs. sex workers on April 13, 2018| 3 Comments »
Today is Friday the 13th, when I ask non-sex workers to stand up for us. So when one of the founders of SWOP-USA started discussing this on Twitter a few days ago, I asked her to elaborate for this column. This is the result.
Come out only to the people you know, and who know you, not to anyone else…Once they realize that we are indeed their children and we are indeed everywhere- every myth, every lie, every innuendo will be destroyed once and for all…. And when you do, you will feel so much better. – Harvey Milk, 1978
When I told my mom in 2008 that I was an escort, she was accepting, but she told me it’s not something she wants me to discuss with other family members. I agreed, but later when I joined Facebook for a brief period, my personal and activism lives collided. Any one of my extended family members could see my posts about International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers, posts vehemently opposing the censorship of the Craigslist Erotic Services section, and if they chose to, they could read through commentary left on posts by me and my sex work friends. I’m sure they have gossiped about it over the years, but nobody ever says anything to me about it.
It’s a strange sort of in-between place for me. “Everyone” in my life knows that I’m a sex worker. I am “accepted” by my family in a way that I can appreciate, but I don’t call them allies. There’s no talk of disowning me, no exclusion of me or my son or my intimate partners from family occasions, but they won’t voluntarily make it known that someone they love is a sex worker. It’s just another weird thing I do that they don’t understand and don’t want to understand, but they love me anyway. I’m generally at peace with how this has played out with my family. I have a compartment in life where I can keep feelings, priorities and responsibilities associated with my birth family neatly tucked away to pull out for holidays and birthdays. Then I have a larger compartment, a space preserved for my Found Family, the people I get to share my full identity with. This doesn’t mean that while we are together I am constantly in “sex work mode”; it’s more that these people don’t need me to suppress any part of my identity in order to keep them comfortable.
Prohibition forces most of us to keep our activities and our whereabouts a secret from those who care for us the most. That secrecy makes sex workers more vulnerable to abuse; opportunistic predators seek out victims who are least likely to be reported missing by loved ones. The fear our loved ones have of shame-by-association is an asset to those who aim to harm us- predators and politicians alike. The Green River Killer said he targeted sex workers because “….they were easy to pick up without being noticed. I knew they would not be reported missing right away and might never be reported missing. I picked prostitutes because I thought I could kill as many of them as I wanted without getting caught.” Sex workers need the world to know that we have people who care about us in our lives, in our communities, in our families. Below is a micro-Call-To-Action for different communities who intersect with sex workers. Find your own way; there’s something small and meaningful you can do for the sex worker in your life, something you can do within your own comfort zone. No matter who you are, if you care about sex workers, please start with educating yourself. There’s been plenty of writing on how to be an ally to sex workers. This article from psychologist Marijke Vonk covers essential tips for allies plus links to even more resources for you; also go over to Black Girl Dangerous for a piece on allyship written by a sex worker.
Micro-Call to Actions:
Parents of sex workers: Tell your child that you love them, no matter who finds out what they do; bonus points if you attend a sex work community event with them. Get to know the area of their life that they traditionally hide from you; you’ll be relieved to find that the people you meet are just ordinary humans with an extraordinary job- and your child is not the one sane, stable exception in an industry reputed to be unsavory.
Partners of sex workers: Support each other! Yes, I’m sure you were expecting me to say, “go talk to media” or “post on social media” or “reveal to your parents that your partner is a sex worker.” And yes, I do want you to do every single one of those things. However, I don’t believe that you all, at this time, collectively have enough support, information and expertise to minimize the harms and maximize the benefits of coming out as a partner. Please get there. Figure it out, folks. This needs to be peer-led; you all need each other. Maybe a live twitter discussion by and for partners to kick it off? Start with something small and achievable.
Friends of sex workers: In recent weeks my friends have done some amazing things! Several have made bold statements in support of sex worker rights on social media for all of their friends and family to see. One friend of mine asked how she and her husband can help sex workers right now, so I sent her over to Red Light Legal to sponsor legal research for sex workers impacted by record seizures at BackPage and other ad sites. Yes! Married feminists can be allies to sex workers! Donate if you can, make calls to lawmakers when we ask for it, correct misinformation when you hear it within your social networks.
Clients of sex workers: Be good clients. Donate to funds that support the most marginalized workers in the aftermath of FOSTA/SESTA. If you are wealthy and can make a substantial contribution, do it! If you’re paranoid about your financial statements showing something sex work related, give to SWOP Behind Bars or Desiree Alliance because their fiscal sponsors’ totally un-sexy name will appear on your statements.
Cannabis Industry: It is time to retire the strain name “Jack The Ripper”. This is insulting because it reveres a name that is infamous due to the brutal murders of sex workers in London. It does not give due reverence to the long struggle of cannabis legalization and the healing properties of this wonderful plant. In 2009, I pointed this out to a dispensary operator in San Fernando Valley; he said, “You’re right, I’m sorry to offend, I’ll change the name and let me hook you up with a free eighth, I didn’t mean to offend you ma’am.” Boom! Ally in action. Nine years later, I have a new Call To Action for California’s cannabis industry: Let’s collectively change the name of the Jack the Ripper strain to Jacq The Stripper, a true hero who deserves to have her name glorified in weed. Also- hire sex workers for legal cannabis jobs! As the legal cannabis industry booms, prison mongers are moving to recover lost profits by increasing legal penalties against sex workers. It’s not a coincidence.
There are dozens of ways to actively support the sex worker in your life. Ask your loved one what they need as an individual. Be there for them first, then look at how you can support our community as a whole. The next opportunity to both educate yourself and help us raise awareness is June 2, 2018 for International Whore’s Day; follow Survivors Against SESTA for organizing updates. Sex workers have struggled for decades to build the peer-led resources, safety networks and community spaces that reduce the harms we face. These resources are now under direct attack by policy-makers, law enforcement and misinformed advocates who believe that eliminating our safety resources will make sex work disappear from the world. We will not disappear, but we need our allies to ensure that we are not silenced and excluded. Please stand with us so we are not alone in this fight.
In the News (#784)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged agency denial, Available Weapon, Between the Lines, California, Colorado, consensual crime, cops, Do As I Say, Enabling Oppression, fantasy, FBI, Friday the Thirteenth, Georgia, Guinea Pigs, hysteria, illegal aliens, Indiana, language, masturbation, Michigan, Moloch, Neither Addiction nor Epidemic, New York, Ohio, Paint By Numbers, Pennsylvania, politicians, porn, prisons, propaganda, psychology, rape, scams, sex offender registry, sex toys, surveillance, The Maze of Consent, The Puritan Recrudescence, The Pygmalion Fallacy, To Molest and Rape, United Kingdom, Vermont, violence vs. sex workers, Virginia on October 21, 2017| 1 Comment »
“Sex addiction”…is a steaming pile of quackery invoked by those unwilling to take responsibility for their actions. – Angela Mollard
Sex workers face many of the same stigmas that hackers do. In addition to being misunderstood by the general public so often that they may choose to not even self-identify publicly unless they are in “safe” environments and surrounded by their own kind, the mainstream portrayal of such groups of people is riddled with the most ostentatious and over-blown stereotypes…If we search for the word “hacker” what are we going to see for the results?…Black hoodies and balaclavas everywhere. The stock image sites are among the worst offenders, as always. But that’s what editors (and, by extension, their readership) sees in their mind when they hear the word “hacker.” By and large, we are seen as scary, malicious, and out to cause mayhem. Let’s try a google image search for “prostitute” now…Is it much of a surprise to anyone that the trope of the “at-risk street walker” is far-and-away the most returned image?…I put it to you that the “prostitutes” in these photos are no more representative of the sex work population than the “hackers” in the earlier images are of our own community…
I’m glad a few people recognize how loathsome it is to use talk of “slavery” to oppose human rights:
…The click bait power of slavery and human trafficking, often encouraged by sensationalist headlines such as “victims branded like cattle”, operates to obscure real problems. This is tied up with how we label people. People entering the UK illegally, for example, are characterised as one of two types: either they are seen as undesirable migrants, or else as victims of slavery. Our use of such labels – “slave”, “trafficking victim”, “refugee”, “migrant” – highlights our need to distinguish between those who deserve protection and those who don’t…the continued use of the idea of slavery to invoke an emotive response…promotes overly simplistic solutions – such as awareness raising campaigns…
Men, women and children took to the streets of Newcastle to make a stand against human trafficking. With their mouths taped shut, more than 100 people dressed in black walked in single file through the city centre down to the Quayside on Saturday, stopping briefly to make a silent demonstration at the Monument…One of the Newcastle Walk for Freedom organisers, Rachel Jobes…said: “When we say this is a crime that’s happening under our noses we aren’t exaggerating. We [fantasize] there have been trafficking victims in nail bars, held as slaves in parts of our city and we [masturbate to thoughts of] people…sexually exploited on the streets where we walked”…
How can people read this and still think prostitution laws are a good idea?
…in Henrico County, Virginia…the number of female inmates at the county jail has more than doubled in the past year…due to…an intensifying police crackdown on sex workers and on people with drug dependence issues…[prosecutor] Michael Feinmel…claims that…these people are a nuisance to the public…or pose an immediate danger to themselves. But this isn’t true. Henrico County vice cops go out of their way to arrest these women…They troll online ads, reach out to sex workers pretending to be customers, and rent rooms at local motels where they can lure these women in order to arrest them…They do this under the guise of fighting “human trafficking,” but it’s just punishing women who sell sex…
State actors keep trying to crucify a young man after their first attempt to destroy him failed:
Zach Anderson, the young man…whose harsh punishment for consensual sex with an underage teenager he wrongly believed was 17 made headlines around the country in 2015, has been arrested for violating his probation…He stopped by for dinner at his parents’ home. His younger brother was present, and incidentally, so was the brother’s friend. The brother thought this friend was 19 years old, but he turned out to be just 17. Anderson, unfortunately, is not allowed to have contact with anybody under the age of 18, except his own siblings. There was one other thing. Anderson works on the tech team at his local church. Recently, a 17-year-old girl joined the church staff as an intern. While Anderson has never met or spoken with her, the fact that they volunteer on separate teams at the church is a violation of his probation, according to officials who issued a warrant for his arrest last week…Possible outcomes range from dismissing the charges to extending probation, putting Anderson on the sex offender registry, sending him to prison, or any combination thereof…
Don’t feel left out, amateurs; they’ll get around to you next:
PornHub…uses a tagging system to categorize all its content…But videos already outpace humans’ ability to keep up and tag everything, and so the site is turning to help from software…using facial ID tech not unlike that which Facebook, Amazon, and other media entities apply…There’s nothing illegal about making…from porn…[but] it’s…not a line of work one really discusses in-depth with the neighbors. Performers, especially amateurs, may well prefer to keep their public, working persona separated from the name and identity they use in private life…[so] this particular use of facial recognition is a privacy disaster in the making…A video that has been uploaded and tagged on PornHub won’t necessarily stay on the service, but will instead travel the internet — and bring the performer’s auto-tagged name along with it. There’s also the entire challenge of revenge porn…although the site has tried to make it easier for victims to report content and have it removed, it still exists on the site until or unless someone flags it…
Rapist cops don’t limit themselves to women:
A…Pennsylvania…[cop] will serve no more than two years — and possibly less than one — for [repeat]edly raping two boys and threatening to kill them. David Turkos…accepted a plea agreement in June on misdemeanor charges…His two victims came forward as teenagers and told police that Turkos began sexually abusing them in 2001, when they were 6 and 4 years old…Turkos threatened to hurt their mother and pets or take away their toys if they revealed the abuse. One of the boys told police that Turkos choked him and used zip ties to restrain him during the abuse, and…held a hand over his mouth to muffle his screams. “I hope you die — you’re a piece of crap,” Turkos told one of the boys…Turkos frequently pointed his gun at the brothers to frighten them…
The Puritan Recrudescence (#645)
Say what you like about Larry Flynt, but he’s a dedicated foe of tyranny:
…Larry Flynt is offering “up to $10 million” to anyone who produces information that leads to President Donald Trump’s impeachment and removal from office. He lays out the offer in a full-page ad in the Sunday edition of The Washington Post…
…sex experts say vibrators–no matter how technologically advanced they become—will never surpass human intercourse. What’s more, they say any addiction to automated sex is downright impossible. “The term addiction is often misused,” Dr. Kat Van Kirk…says…”A true addiction would mean the behavior would negatively affect the person’s day-to-day life…and using it to the exclusion of intimate live partner play.” She says there’s “absolutely no research” to indicate vibrators’ addictive properties…Nicolette Heidegger…said that her clients often raise the question—a result of our collective 21st century fear that sex dolls…could one day replace actual intimacy…between humans…But “the fact of the matter is that there is no empirical data to support the claim that you can become physiologically or biologically addicted to a sex toy”…
Forced into sex with large groups of strangers, stripped of their freedom and ferried from house to house by their controlling pimps, the story of how a group of vulnerable young women were turned into modern day slaves is brutal and uncompromising…thanks to the efforts of Greater Manchester Police officers the women were eventually freed and the gang who had trafficked them jailed…Why had these women – alone, afraid and forced into degrading and unsafe sex…never tried to escape their pimps?…police in Manchester turned to a leading expert in trauma to help them understand. His report…paints a bleak picture in which the victims of the case were portrayed as being “brainwashed” into “childlike dependency” through controlling behaviour…Dr Michael Korzinski…[fantasized that] “Trafficking robs the victim of the most basic modes of relating to reality”…
The Unsinkable Liz Brown looks at this year’s “Operation Cross Country”:
The FBI just wrapped up its 11th annual “Operation Cross Country,” a massive multi-day vice sting conducted under the guise of stopping sexual predators…The media will largely lap up this sensationalist pageantry, as it has in previous years. And once again, everyone will ignore the real victims of Operation Cross Country: the vulnerable women and girls tricked, frightened, robbed, detained, arrested, incarcerated, and otherwise mistreated by police and federal agents as part of this sick charade that claims to help them…[they] have any money they have on then taken by the cops…may spend days in jail (and away from families or day jobs) before even going to court…have their names and mugshots plastered all over local news and online (sometimes in conjunction with degrading details and comments from cops); and…face court fees, fines, and a criminal record…
Do As I Say, Not As I Do (#783)
If you get caught paying for sex, you may be charged with “sex trafficking”. But cops?
In an Oakland case…most were let off the hook, including three…whose cases were dismissed last week…NYPD [cop]…Raul Olmeda was indicted this week for allegedly paying a teen girl to have sex with him on multiple occasions and filming the sexual activity…Denver Police Department…[cop] Zachery Phillips…was recently given a 15-day suspension without pay after admitting to an encounter with a sex worker…The woman…was…charged with prostitution and possession of a controlled substance…in Cleveland…Mark Reilly is back on the job after spending 10 days in jail for paying for sex…In Vermont, police dispatcher Earl Benway was charged with paying for oral sex and leaking information to the sex worker he paid…And, finally, Abraham Flores Galvan…in Tunnel Hill, Georgia…was caught in his own colleagues’ sting operation [last] Thursday. Galvan responded to an online ad posted by [wanker cops pretending]…to be a teenager under age 18…
Neither Addiction Nor Epidemic (#783)
Weinstein has inadvertently made it possible to publicly attack “sex addiction” as malarkey:
…I am not a sex addict but my attendance at an SLAA meeting was part of a six-week investigation I undertook into sex addiction for a British newspaper. Posing as a PR girl who went out several times a week to pick up men, I sought help via a psychotherapist, a phone counsellor and one of the world’s most reputable rehab clinics. My conclusion? That “sex addiction” — the malady Harvey Weinstein claims is responsible for his deplorable behaviour — is a steaming pile of quackery invoked by those unwilling to take responsibility for their actions…
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