Current Events > U.S. crackdown is making life harder for sex workers worldwide

Topic List
Page List: 1
Antifar
05/12/18 2:51:59 PM
#1:


https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/may/11/criminalising-my-job-as-a-sex-worker-threatens-my-livelihood-and-safety

I work in one of two places in the world where sex work is decriminalised. I work independently, indoors, in a capital city as a white middle-class cisgendered woman who could choose to exit sex work. Arguably, I have the best possible sex-working conditions in the world, and I have no desire to abandon my business. But it looks like I might have to.

I dont want or need to quit my job. My job is fine. The work I do, like any other service provision, is emotional, physical, intellectual. Its better some days than others. It pays my rent. It is work.

Imagine this: you wake in the morning, complete your usual rituals, and go to work. You arrive to find that the building has imploded overnight. Management are unresponsive to communications. Theres no sense as to whether youll be working again anytime soon.

This is the experience that I and many of my colleagues around the world faced when we woke one morning to find that our primary source of work, Backpage had been seized by the FBI. Backpage was an online classified ads site where you could sell your car, look for a temp job, or find an erotic service provider. It was the great leveller for sex workers: whatever your presentation of gender, body type, niche services, class background, or working mode, you could find work on Backpage. Whether you were a career worker or a casual service provider, Backpage was arguably the most globally accessible way for sex workers to secure an income.

Overnight, my work flow was almost entirely cut off. For the first time in my 15-year career as a sex worker, I fear for my livelihood. 90% of my new clients came from Backpage. Its not quickly or easily replaced.

H.R. 1865, commonly referred to as Fosta (Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act), was recently signed into US law. The law targets websites that promote the provision of erotic services, removing prior protections afforded by section 230 of the CDA, which indemnified online platforms from the actions of their users. The bill is notable in its collapsing of two very distinct transactions: sex work and sex trafficking. Fosta passes from the acceptable (anti-trafficking law) to the dubious (sex work prohibition), and stands to wipe out a labour force in the process.

In the lead-up to the passage of the bill, web platforms began to censor sex worker content, disable their individual accounts, announce changes to their terms of service to exclude them, or simply close down, systematically closing every door sex workers walked towards to try to put food on the table for the week.

Whilst Fosta is US legislation, its effects are borderless. The most accessible digital tools for sex workers are US owned and operated, which is how I, working legally in Australia, can go from gainfully self-employed one day to effectively unemployed the next. Im not prosecutable in the jurisdiction of the law itself, but the essential services I use in my daily labours are.

For many sex workers, this means searching for work, scrambling for rent, hitting the food banks or taking to the streets. As a criminalised labour force, we dont have many tools with which to rebuild what Backpages closure destroyed.
...
Criminalisation renders sex workers unable to lay claim to any of the basic labour rights afforded workers in legal industries. Make no mistake about it: this, more than any other factor affecting a sex work transaction, is the single most significant contributor to the exploitation of sex workers and their labour.

---
kin to all that throbs
... Copied to Clipboard!
Antifar
05/12/18 3:41:44 PM
#2:


bump
---
kin to all that throbs
... Copied to Clipboard!
hockeybub89
05/12/18 3:44:39 PM
#3:


... Copied to Clipboard!
masticatingman
05/12/18 3:47:15 PM
#4:


Antifar posted...
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/may/11/criminalising-my-job-as-a-sex-worker-threatens-my-livelihood-and-safety

I work in one of two places in the world where sex work is decriminalised. I work independently, indoors, in a capital city as a white middle-class cisgendered woman who could choose to exit sex work. Arguably, I have the best possible sex-working conditions in the world, and I have no desire to abandon my business. But it looks like I might have to.

I dont want or need to quit my job. My job is fine. The work I do, like any other service provision, is emotional, physical, intellectual. Its better some days than others. It pays my rent. It is work.

Imagine this: you wake in the morning, complete your usual rituals, and go to work. You arrive to find that the building has imploded overnight. Management are unresponsive to communications. Theres no sense as to whether youll be working again anytime soon.

This is the experience that I and many of my colleagues around the world faced when we woke one morning to find that our primary source of work, Backpage had been seized by the FBI. Backpage was an online classified ads site where you could sell your car, look for a temp job, or find an erotic service provider. It was the great leveller for sex workers: whatever your presentation of gender, body type, niche services, class background, or working mode, you could find work on Backpage. Whether you were a career worker or a casual service provider, Backpage was arguably the most globally accessible way for sex workers to secure an income.

Overnight, my work flow was almost entirely cut off. For the first time in my 15-year career as a sex worker, I fear for my livelihood. 90% of my new clients came from Backpage. Its not quickly or easily replaced.

H.R. 1865, commonly referred to as Fosta (Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act), was recently signed into US law. The law targets websites that promote the provision of erotic services, removing prior protections afforded by section 230 of the CDA, which indemnified online platforms from the actions of their users. The bill is notable in its collapsing of two very distinct transactions: sex work and sex trafficking. Fosta passes from the acceptable (anti-trafficking law) to the dubious (sex work prohibition), and stands to wipe out a labour force in the process.

In the lead-up to the passage of the bill, web platforms began to censor sex worker content, disable their individual accounts, announce changes to their terms of service to exclude them, or simply close down, systematically closing every door sex workers walked towards to try to put food on the table for the week.

Whilst Fosta is US legislation, its effects are borderless. The most accessible digital tools for sex workers are US owned and operated, which is how I, working legally in Australia, can go from gainfully self-employed one day to effectively unemployed the next. Im not prosecutable in the jurisdiction of the law itself, but the essential services I use in my daily labours are.

For many sex workers, this means searching for work, scrambling for rent, hitting the food banks or taking to the streets. As a criminalised labour force, we dont have many tools with which to rebuild what Backpages closure destroyed.
...
Criminalisation renders sex workers unable to lay claim to any of the basic labour rights afforded workers in legal industries. Make no mistake about it: this, more than any other factor affecting a sex work transaction, is the single most significant contributor to the exploitation of sex workers and their labour.


So why should I be sympathetic again?
---
I am basically am I. Well, basically.
... Copied to Clipboard!
clearaflagrantj
05/12/18 3:49:17 PM
#5:


Legalize it, regulate it, tax it

Creates jobs
Lowers sexual assaults and rape
Increases tax revenue
Decreases STD transmissions
Reduces crime
... Copied to Clipboard!
megamanfreakXD
05/12/18 3:49:48 PM
#6:


clearaflagrantj posted...
Legalize it, regulate it, tax it

Creates jobs
Lowers sexual assaults and rape
Increases tax revenue
Decreases STD transmissions
Reduces crime

BUT BUT BUT BUT

the biblllleeee
---
... Copied to Clipboard!
DanHarenChamp
05/12/18 3:56:29 PM
#7:


Just another way that the republican government is helping the rich and hurting the middle to lower classes. Now us middle class people can't get hookers, the sex workers themselves will have to resort to pimps or going to the streets endangering their lives, all the while the rich republican elite have their own private means of getting hookers, so its no problem for them.
---
literally the pacers
... Copied to Clipboard!
#8
Post #8 was unavailable or deleted.
MangaFan462
05/12/18 3:57:40 PM
#9:


... Copied to Clipboard!
Konflikt
05/12/18 4:01:22 PM
#11:


MangaFan462 posted...
Oh wah

Get a real job lady


Coming from the unemployed brony lol
... Copied to Clipboard!
Funbazooka
05/12/18 4:01:23 PM
#12:


I imagine it's hit Antifa members pretty hard.
---
"Don't trade your authenticity for approval." -Kanye West
... Copied to Clipboard!
Inferno Dive Dragoon
05/12/18 4:01:59 PM
#13:


Great, more competition in the wage slave market, which was nothing but scraps to begin with.

Remind me again why we keep voting in Dems & Reps?
---
Les aristocrates a la lanterne!
Les aristocrates on les pendra!
... Copied to Clipboard!
foreveraIone
05/12/18 4:02:34 PM
#14:


MangaFan462 posted...
Oh wah

Get a real job lady

why do you hate the free market
---
... Copied to Clipboard!
MangaFan462
05/12/18 4:24:44 PM
#15:


... Copied to Clipboard!
Patchwork
05/12/18 4:26:45 PM
#16:


Decriminalize it so I don't have to worry about it anymore.
---
The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a heav'n of hell, a hell of heav'n.
... Copied to Clipboard!
Antifar
05/12/18 7:29:03 PM
#17:


Bump II
---
kin to all that throbs
... Copied to Clipboard!
Bat178
05/12/18 7:45:08 PM
#18:


Why does everything the US do have to impact the rest of the world?
---
Awww, isn't that cute? He thinks he can beat me!
... Copied to Clipboard!
Webmaster4531
05/12/18 7:48:08 PM
#19:


Inferno Dive Dragoon posted...
Remind me again why we keep voting in Dems & Reps?

First past the post.
---
Ad Hominem.
... Copied to Clipboard!
Antifar
05/12/18 7:51:14 PM
#20:


DanHarenChamp posted...
Just another way that the republican government is helping the rich and hurting the middle to lower classes. Now us middle class people can't get hookers, the sex workers themselves will have to resort to pimps or going to the streets endangering their lives, all the while the rich republican elite have their own private means of getting hookers, so its no problem for them.

Buddy, every Democratic senator voted for this (except Ron Wyden, I think)
---
kin to all that throbs
... Copied to Clipboard!
The Admiral
05/12/18 7:52:10 PM
#21:


Won't someone please think of these whores.
---
- The Admiral
... Copied to Clipboard!
#22
Post #22 was unavailable or deleted.
Axiom
05/12/18 7:52:41 PM
#23:


US conservatives ruin everyone's life
... Copied to Clipboard!
Bat178
05/12/18 7:54:05 PM
#24:


Axiom posted...
US conservatives ruin everyone's life

It's not fair the rest of the world can't kick the US's ass when they do something shitty that ends up effecting them too.
---
Awww, isn't that cute? He thinks he can beat me!
... Copied to Clipboard!
REMercsChamp
05/12/18 7:56:12 PM
#25:


What's next, they go after the drug dealing trade next?
---
... Copied to Clipboard!
Panthera
05/12/18 7:58:19 PM
#26:


This whole thing is one of those issues that teaches you most politicians (and an awful lot of other people too) are idiots who only take the shallowest look possible at an issue before deciding what to do. The US legislation sounds nice in theory and all, especially if you oppose prostitution being legal, but if you bother to look into it you realize it either doesn't actually decrease any of the things its targeting, or it might decrease them a bit while making them far more dangerous when they do happen.
---
We clasped our hands, our hands in praise of a conquerors right to tyranny
... Copied to Clipboard!
Allanon23
05/12/18 8:01:26 PM
#27:


Axiom posted...
US conservatives ruin everyone's life


Antifar posted...
Buddy, every Democratic senator voted for this (except Ron Wyden, I think)

---
Attention campers, lunch has been cancelled today due to lack of hustle. Deal with it.
... Copied to Clipboard!
Intro2Logic
05/12/18 8:02:09 PM
#28:


The Admiral posted...
Won't someone please think of these whores.

I know you have an interest in crime statistics. You should know that the homicide rate for women went down when the outlets shuttered by this law went up.
http://gregoryjdeangelo.com/workingpapers/Craigslist5.0.pdf
---
Have you tried thinking rationally?
... Copied to Clipboard!
voldothegr8
05/12/18 8:12:49 PM
#29:


This is the downfall of gravy trains, when they come crashing down shit gets messy. They knew what they signed up for, no sympathy from me.
---
Oda break tracker 2018- 3 (2) | THE Ohio State: 11-2 | Oakland Raiders: 6-10
Super Mario Maker Profile: 1237-0000-0073-02FE
... Copied to Clipboard!
hockeybub89
05/13/18 2:36:47 AM
#30:


The Admiral posted...
Won't someone please think of these whores.

Are whores not people? Why is sex work even illegal? Two people can get paid to have sex on camera, but one person getting paid to have sex with someone else behind closed doors is wrong? The world's oldest profession and it has been stigmatized the whole time. The only reason it's illegal is because of centuries/millennia of religious societies condemning hedonism. Congratulations to everyone for turning it into a dangerous, yet ever present job field that would take many years to legalize properly. Imagine the problems we could have prevented in society if we didn't push the "moral" narratives against things like sex and drug use for all of human existence.
---
... Copied to Clipboard!
HylianFox
05/13/18 2:41:05 AM
#31:


ah yes, the "sex is evil" bugle-call
---
I like my beer cold, my TV loud, and my homosexuals FUH-LAMING! - Homer Simpson
i.imgur.com/a2EzoIs.gif i.imgur.com/rPcGRiP.gif
... Copied to Clipboard!
TheCyborgNinja
05/13/18 2:44:14 AM
#32:


Axiom posted...
US conservatives ruin everyone's life

CINO (conservatives in name only) - they're basically anarchists who support property rights. Otto von Bismarck is a real conservative. Tearing apart the state for personal gain shouldn't be categorized with focusing specifically on strengthening it...... It's like how Antifa are basically fascists. The world has gone mad and labels mean nothing at this point.
---
"message parlor" ? do you mean the post office ? - SlayerX888
... Copied to Clipboard!
HylianFox
05/13/18 2:45:30 AM
#33:


but really, when will people learn that SEX WORK and SEX TRAFFICKING are NOT THE SAME THING
---
I like my beer cold, my TV loud, and my homosexuals FUH-LAMING! - Homer Simpson
i.imgur.com/a2EzoIs.gif i.imgur.com/rPcGRiP.gif
... Copied to Clipboard!
gunplagirl
05/13/18 2:47:52 AM
#34:


TheCyborgNinja posted...
It's like how Antifa are basically fascists.


*incredulity increases* what
---
Pew pew!
... Copied to Clipboard!
TheCyborgNinja
05/13/18 2:50:09 AM
#35:


gunplagirl posted...
TheCyborgNinja posted...
It's like how Antifa are basically fascists.


*incredulity increases* what

They want to basically "thought police" everyone else into becoming the same as them. Burning stuff and attacking people they don't like in an effort to enforce a hardline political agenda are things the SA did. They're as "anti fascist" as the DPRK is democratic.
---
"message parlor" ? do you mean the post office ? - SlayerX888
... Copied to Clipboard!
ultimate reaver
05/13/18 2:52:28 AM
#36:


The Admiral posted...
Won't someone please think of these whores.


How vile of you
---
butts
... Copied to Clipboard!
gunplagirl
05/13/18 2:56:11 AM
#37:


TheCyborgNinja posted...
gunplagirl posted...
TheCyborgNinja posted...
It's like how Antifa are basically fascists.


*incredulity increases* what

They want to basically "thought police" everyone else into becoming the same as them. Burning stuff and attacking people they don't like in an effort to enforce a hardline political agenda are things the SA did. They're as "anti fascist" as the DPRK is democratic.


Even if you only get your information from the internet, this is a terrible take. Still not as bad as the "antifa will only make Nazis more angry and empowered" detractors who are now silent because Nazis have admitted they lost a lot of steam and support because they started getting doxxed and met with resistance by antifa at every turn.
---
Pew pew!
... Copied to Clipboard!
catboy0_0
05/13/18 3:05:12 AM
#38:


America! FUCK YEAH!
... Copied to Clipboard!
smoliske
05/13/18 3:13:01 AM
#39:


ultimate reaver posted...
The Admiral posted...
Won't someone please think of these whores.


How vile of you


Don't worry, one day he'll find a nice, boring Christian girl and they'll only have sex in the missionary position in the dark, and only for procreation.
... Copied to Clipboard!
Topic List
Page List: 1