Track C- Art, Entertainment, and Media

This presentation is a critical analysis of the history of prostitution in Nevada. How has the legal brothel industry come to be?  Once intertwined with the mining industry, the venues and forms that the sale of sex have taken in Nevada have changed over time, becoming illegal today except in small, rural counties. Understanding the history of Nevada’s brothel industry helps understand how public perception, businesses (like mining and gaming), and rural community intersect. Drawing from over a decade of ethnographic research, and in-depth historical analysis of policy creation, newspaper articles, and reports, we argue that understanding the relationship between prostitution and tourism is central to understanding the current manifestation of the only legal sexual commerce in the United States. The implications of Nevada’s history are relevant for contemporary conversations about the pros and cons of legal v. illegal work, pushes for decriminalization, and the proliferation of sex trafficking discourse.

            The debates about prostitution are angry and passionate. The religious right speaks against prostitution for moral reasons – it’s against family values; the feminist left is against it because they claim it’s a form of power, control and violence against women. Libertarians and pro-sex feminists argue in favour of prostitution for reasons of liberty and equality – we should celebrate our sexuality and all forms of it and not be such prudes. How to reconcile these very different points of view is the focus of this research and film. Why do men and women want to buy sex from others? How do we create public policy that will alleviate the violence and health issues of women and men working in the sex industry? How do we differentiate between the choice issues and exploitation of the trafficked teen in Nepal with the independent call girl in Los Angeles? How does the context of prostitution help us decide whether prostitution should be accepted and legalized, de-criminalized or abolished? Should sex workers be regulated, licensed and taxed like any other employee? Are brothels and red light districts the answer to our tough public policy questions?  Selling Sex Globally examines the prostitution industry worldwide, with examples coming from the trafficking of women from Nepal to India, streetwalkers in Halifax, brothel workers in Vancouver and Nevada, and female sex tourists in the Gambia. The hope is that the viewer, regardless of their personal point of view, will come to see why academics and activists advocate for de-criminalization of prostitution – whether just for the women (as in Sweden) or for all involved (as in New Zealand) and how different contexts require very different policy responses.

Print media, specifically Edmonton-based newspapers, the Edmonton Sun and the Edmonton Journal, are my focus for this discourse-based investigation. I also look to alternative discourses, such as those presented by sex worker organizations and advocacy groups, to better understand the contested nature of such ‘knowledge’. By drawing on multiple discursive venues, I find that while much of the newspaper content works to dehumanize sex trade workers, there is also a discursive attempt to rehumanize the murdered women through the voices of family, friends, and advocates.

This outreach organization spanned an interesting crossroads that was grounded in social service agents, law enforcement, and neighborhood association leaders. As someone who inhabited the roles of volunteer, employee, and researcher during the thirty months I worked on my academic research, I gained valuable insight based on multiple perspectives and discussion about this organization, their mission, their goals, and their day-to-day practices. In addition to my own experiences, I also draw from approximately twenty interviews with street workers as well as a total of twenty interviews with social service agents, police officers, activists, and neighborhood association leaders. My research is based on an ethnographic, interview study grounded in rhetorical analysis of the language used by my participants in order to offer suggestions for how this language influences perspectives about street sex work and street sex workers.

This presentation focuses on best practices of outreach and harm reduction based on the perspectives of those who were closest to the program: 1) my interviews with social service agents who worked at this organization; 2) my interviews with police officers and neighborhood association leaders about street sex work and this organization, 3) my interviews with street workers about their experiences with this organization, and 4) my own experience volunteering and working with, as well as researching, this organization. I then offer suggestions for how outreach programs such as this one might better understand and reach their intended audience, as well as integrate their clients (street workers) and their clients’ expertise into their outreach and harm reduction practices.
Wednesday 4:00-4:30 Greg Scott & Erin Scott: Rediscovering and Reporting the 'Badness" of Violence: Lessons Learned from a Grassroots Attempt to Create a "Bad Date List' Program for Street Level Women Sex Workers
In the course of providing harm reduction outreach services (e.g., sterile syringe exchange, HIV-STD testing and counseling, condom distribution, etc.), the Chicago Recovery Alliance (CRA) recognized the overwhelming incidence of victimization—particularly violence, psychological/emotional abuse, and financial injury—among street-level (i.e., “open circuit”) sex workers. In an effort to reduce these instances of victimization and thereby assist sex working participants in achieving “any positive change” as defined on their own terms, the presenters worked with CRA staff and the most affected participants to establish a “Bad Dates List” program.

The BDL operates in conjunction with CRA's mobile outreach sites and serves as an “information hub” for women performing “open circuit” sex work (primarily on the streets, “in the public way,” and in short-term occupancy motels). Each week women who have experienced some form of harm while plying their trade report their encounters to BDL staff, who reduce the accounts to brief typed reports which they later compile in a digest and circulate throughout the community on a weekly basis (titled “Community Alert”). Ideally, women performing sex work in the area then read the weekly digests and assimilate the information into their daily work lives as they continually attempt to determine the relative safety of each prospective sex transaction.

In its 18-month existence the BDL has waxed and waned. Early on, volunteers came to appreciate one of the central obstacles to success: The relative normalization (structural, organizational, and psychological) of street violence among sex workers combines with the exigencies of drug addiction to produce a high level inertia among the women who ostensibly would benefit the most from the program. Upon realizing the difficulty of attracting women to the outreach location, BDL volunteers had to craft inventive methods for “incentivizing” women's participation in the program. In short, the problems with the BDL lay not in convincing women to submit their reports of “bad dates,” but rather in helping victimized women to see their injuries as legitimate and “report-worthy” and also in simply drawing them to the program site where they can give their reports.

Various attempts to “publicize” the BDL and increase participation in it have achieved varying degrees of success. In this presentation we focus on some of the key lessons learned from the BDL program in general and more specifically from the latest BDL-enhancement initiative, the now one-year-old clothing and cosmetics exchange called RECOVERY RAGS (RR).

RR's participants are often not only dealing with the common risk-factors associated with sex work but are also facing problems surrounding substance dependence/addiction and homelessness. The “life structure” of many participants demanded that Recovery Rags develop new methods for program delivery. Many of the participants rarely enjoy reliable access to proper shelter, clothing, and other basic necessities, much less the capacity to access or pay for medical care, legal services, or other forms of assistance. In response to the expressed “needs and wants” of participants, Recovery Rags distributes gently used clothing and new toiletries/make-up to any woman who comes to CRA's outreach site. Although the going has been slow, we have compelling evidence that this approach is increasing the level of participation in the BDL. At the same time, however, we also have found that there are many more needs that neither this program nor any other single program can meet. In short, we have found that satisfying some of the immediate yet seemingly “superficial” wants and needs (e.g., cosmetics, nicer clothing, skin care products, etc.) of women sex workers is essential to the successful implementation of a program designed to achieve much more critical goals, in this case the preservation of health, wellbeing, and in some cases life itself.
Wednesday 5:00pm to 6:30pm Sessions
Track A- Academic and Policy: The Value of Sex Work
Wednesday 5:00-6:30 Megan Morgenson: The Value of Sex Work (Cross-listed with Track D)
A presentation including a brief historical perspective of sex work throughout history, leading up to current thoughts about what value sex work has in current society from financial, emotional, psychological and physical perspectives.  I will include my own perspective as a sex worker for over 15 years as well as insights from others that have corresponded with me privately about their own ideas of where they find value in sex work.  In an attempt to show an understanding of the full spectrum of experiences, a small section will also be included on the arguments made against sex work having any value in society, and in some instances, arguments may be presented to refute some of those claims when appropriate.
Track B- Activism
Wednesday 5:00-6:30 Scarlett Lake: Film- "A Safer Sex Trade" with Q&A
A Safer Sex Trade is a documentary that explores the stigma of prostitution through the eyes of three women: a former survival sex worker, a highly paid escort and an established Madam. They share their experiences while working in the City of Vancouver, where Robert Pickton stands trial for the alleged murder of 26 women, most of whom were working in the sex trade.

Scarlett is a highly successful madam with 30 years experience in the sex trade business; Simone is a high-class sex worker who services wealthy clients in five Western Canadian cities; and Jennifer is a former drug addicted prostitute who now works tirelessly to offer support to sex trade workers on the streets. These women have had different experiences in the sex trade business, but they're united by one concern-the safety of women in their stigmatized industry.

The documentary premiered at the Whistler Film Festival and has since been purchased by every major institution of higher learning, across Canada, for their libraries.

Production was completed in November of 2006 and the film enjoyed its world premiere to a packed theatre at the Whistler International Film Festival December 2nd. The documentary had its world television premiere on CBC Newsworld’s, The Lens, on January 23, 2007. Since then the film has been purchased by every major Canadian institution of higher learning for their libraries.

A Safer Sex Trade is an original concept created by Carolyn Allain and co-written with David Ray, produced by their independent film company Cheap and Dirty Productions. 

Scarlett Lake will show a portion of the film and be available for discussion.

Relative to the United States, Canada is considered a sexually open country. But a closer look at its laws reveals a framework that is arguably hypocritical. This paper explores aspects of the Criminal Code (especially the prohibitions under section 212 on living under the avails and section 210 on bawdy houses) and discusses how de-criminalization can help to overcome problems within policies that marginalize and make precarious the work of sex professionals. Referring to the constitutional challenge taking place in Vancouver, attorney Katrina Pace states that “What the case is actually about in the long-term is the way that criminal laws that relate to adult prostitution violate the safety, and the liberty and the equality of sex trade workers.” Citing the democratic vision, Pace makes clear that the law does not in all cases protect the interests of all members of society, thus shattering any claim that we live in an equal society. If what is at stake, following Pace, is the protection, freedom and equality of marginalized workers, then how does de-criminalization support these goals? The paper explores some of the issues­ surrounding de-criminalization, making a distinction between real and perceived threats, arguing that the latter must be challenged in order to recognize the autonomy of sex workers.

The presentation will address innovative techniques for teaching about sex work in academia, including class and small group discussions; educational videos and DVD’s; selection reading materials;  art; lectures; responding to challenging questions and stereotypical comments about sex work;  and community building with groups inside and outside of academia.  Vegan Vixen believes that a major purpose of education must be to expand our minds, and the way people teach and learn about sex work plays an important role in this.  Many sex workers are also students, and it is important that academia provide a welcoming environment rather than a hostile one for sex workers.  Educators and students play an important role in making this a reality.

This caucus series, led by community members and activists from various backgrounds, attempts to create safe spaces for sex workers from all walks of life to more deeply explore the ways in which sex worker activism has been influenced - and divided by - race, class, and experience, and strategize about how we can develop more solid, diverse foundations of mindful, inclusive community support and accountability in relation to our own positions of privilege and poverty in the world at large.

A brief survey will be distributed in days preceding the caucus to give conference/caucus attendees the chance to voice their opinions on what issues they would like to see addressed during this caucus. Based on the information gathered from these surveys, the caucus facilitators will have a better understanding on how to guide the caucus discussions.

There will be two caucuses happening simultaneously – a People Of Color Caucus, and a White People’s Caucus. In these 2 break-out caucuses, individuals will have the chance to dialogue about things such as: their experiences in sex work, political work, working/volunteering with organizations or non-profits, work that exists alongside or in collaboration with individuals, groups and/or orgs, and more. What has worked for you? What obstacles have you encountered? What changes would you like to see in the sex worker activist movement? How have issues of race, class, and privilege influenced your personal, political, and work lives, and how have you addressed it? Do you even identify as a sex worker?

Following the break-out caucuses, the two groups will convene together to report back and dialogue about the issues that were raised in the break-outs. Facilitated within a healing framework of anti-oppression principles, this Community Caucus hopes to build greater connections and understanding between individuals from varying experiences and backgrounds.

In sharing our experiences, successes, failures, frustrations, strategies, and desires for progress, we hope to create a safe, supportive, healing space where sex workers and sex worker activists can begin talking more seriously as a community about how these complexities influence the current state of the sex worker movement, and how we can effectively build the bridges necessary to create a sex worker (activist) community that is more inclusive, inviting, and accessible to sex workers from a diverse range of backgrounds.

As sex workers, part of what drives us in this industry is being able to create a sex worker identity that best reflects our personalities, likes, and dislikes and helps us create a lifestyle which helps us find peace within ourselves. Whether it be our interpersonal relationships with clients or other workers, being an ethical sex worker means creating and cultivating a positive experience for ourselves, our clients, and those in our communities. While many of us keep separate sex worker "identities," what we should be doing is a reflection of what we ourselves actually enjoy in order to find comfort within our work and our community. Sex workers need to discover what draws them to this type of work and how our attitudes and behavior while we are in it reflects upon the industry as a whole. Based on the above, we intend to create a loose discussion about identity and other ethical issues around sex work. This presentation will be conducted in a roundtable format, and participation is encouraged by all attendees.

As many women who enter the sex industry may not have solid familial ties, it becomes imperative that an effective support system be set up to provide for their children. Including education, after school or night-time care while the sex worker parent is working. It is important to teach the sex worker parent how to contend with a co-parent that may not agree with the sex workers chosen profession or fighting with government run children’s services that might try remove the children from the home in areas where some forms of sex work might be legal yet a morally questionable occupation. Also covered are work proofing your home and explaining sex work as occupation in age appropriate terminology.

The session will include a formal presentation to ensure adequate basic information, self-assessment activities to guide learners in reflection and small group interactive tasks to build understanding and skills.
Thursday 12:50-1:30 Jean Gray: Energetic Protection and Cleansing for Sex Workers
Sex workers, whether acknowledging this or not, conduct work of an intensely spiritual nature. Our energies and our auras are constantly being touched, played and collided with. With these constant interactions we are sometimes left with energetic residue. Many sex workers that continually suffer from stagnant or negative thoughts and anxiety may be able to follow this back to the subtle energy. Energies, negative or not, periodically attach themselves to the subtle body; consequently, individuals who work intimately with these energies must keep a strong practice of shielding and cleansing in order to thrive.   Taking exercises and small rituals that body workers, spirit workers, and healers have used for centuries to ensure their own energetic health and the health of their clients, you’ll see how they can be used and adapted to counter the challenges of intimate exchanges involved in all forms of sex work. This workshop will cover basics of energetic protection and renewal such as grounding and shielding, as well as a few solutions to shed yourself of excess energies. As sex workers, we don’t have to accept that we are constantly operating on low levels of energy because our clients and coworkers drain us.  With self awareness, and a few tools, we can ensure that we are as well taken care of spiritually as our clients are physically.
Track E- Harm Reduction and Outreach
Thursday 11:45-12:45 Serpent Libertine and BeBeDoll: The Ethical Sex Worker (Cross-listed with Track D)
Thursday 12:40-1:30 Sinnamon Love: Parenting and Sex Work: Balancing Life, Family and Work (Cross-listed with Track D)
Thursday 1:45 Lunch Keynote: Nina Hartley
Thursday 3:00pm to 4:30pm Sessions
Track A- Academic and Policy: Sex Work Shaken and Stirred
Thursday 3:30-3:50 Crystal Jackson and Elizabeth Nanas: Academic Roundtable Wrap-up
As scholars, we engage in critical research that can help inform and influence public policy and public opinion. This scholarship is complicated by political, economic, and social positions of researcher and subject. Power and influence are critical concerns to both scholars and sex workers. Furthermore, scholars have specific material concerns regarding the ways that we may or may not be supported as scholar-activists especially where tenure concerns arise. Another practical problem emerges where scholars who are “outsiders” desire to be sex worker rights allies.

With these concerns in mind, we offer introductory and post-conference roundtables. These roundtables will specifically focus on questions such as: What does an academic ally look like? How can we best engage in an activist movement respectfully, thoughtfully, and with an eye toward social change? How has our research impacted policies at local, state, or national levels? How can we best engage in social justice oriented research? How can we help activist movements strategize and move forward?

The goals of this workshop are to:

1.      Discuss what it means to be an academic ally for a rights movement

2.      Educate each other on the use of research as a tool for social justice

3.      Name concrete ways our research can assist the sex workers’ rights movement

We strongly encourage all academic presenters to attend this workshop and to bring your questions, concerns, and ideas to the table.  We understand that some of us have a long history of activism and others are new to it. This roundtable is open to all scholars and researchers attending this activist conference.
Thursday 3:55-4:30 Carol Leigh: Sex Worker Media Library (Cross-listed with Track B and C)
Sex Worker artist Carol Leigh (AKA Scarlot Harlot) and the Center for Sex & Culture (CSC) are the new home of the CSC Sex Worker Media Library. Created with the goal of preserving sex worker culture and discourse, funded by a grant from the Creative Work Fund, the library features a pathfinder-based delivery system of digital materials documenting the stories, artistic expressions, history, and legal and social positions of sex workers internationally. The library is located on-site at CSC and available for viewing by application only. Project director Carol Leigh explains, "This resource is designed to assist researchers, scholars and activists (including sex workers, of course) in their efforts to understand and support sex workers rights and culture. This resource is sorely needed as we survive in a world of stigma, discrimination and criminalization."
Library categories include: art and performance documentation; political demonstrations, marches and street theater; festival films by and about sex workers; interviews/oral histories of sex workers and allies; and documentation from conferences around the world.
Track B- Activism
Thursday 3:00-3:40 HOOK Collective: Yet To Be Named- a zine completely created by participants at this conference!  (Cross-listed with Track C)
In conjunction, and following the Community Caucus, we will have a Writing Workshop where time will be allocated for individuals to be given the chance to write and submit to ____. ___ is a zine that will be compiled, copied, and distributed completely at the conference.

___ will be a political, creative forum where people can share their stories, experiences, ideas, politics, rants, raves, ads, artwork, erotica, etc. Be sexy, be silly, or be pissed - just let it be real! This zine especially encourages those who may be on the margins of the sex worker community to speak out and share their unique experiences! You can choose to remain anonymous. ____will be a parting gift to conference attendees to take home and peruse, ruminate, and share with others at their own pace, on their own time. It is our hope that digital version will be available online to view and print as well, sometime after the conference.

The idea of ___ is to give sex workers the space and time to have our own voices be heard, and also to take home tales of a variety of other community experiences that we may not always have access to, or understanding of. Because the sex worker community is diverse and many – to the extent of where some who engage in “sex work” may not even identify themselves with the sex worker community - it is our hope that this zine will inspire new dialogue, build stronger bridges, and expand the understanding, and connections of ourselves to each other, all fighting for survival, safety, and support within the sex industry!

A call-out for submissions and zine-making participation will be announced both before the conference, and at the beginning of the conference. Individuals can write something fresh at the conference, or bring a prepared, printed work to submit. Submissions must be turned in hard copy form, sized to fit on a 8”x5.75” or 8”x11” page. Deadline is 5pm on July 28.

This highly interactive session will talk frankly about the history of Indigenous rights as they pertain to sexuality and sex work and their exclusion from the mainstream sex work rights movement. Case studies discussing the realities of Indigenous sex workers across the United States and Canada from current projects and initiatives will be shared from the perspective of a young Indigenous sex worker, who is also the founder and Executive Director of the only Indigenous organization working in the full spectrum of sexual and reproductive health across North America that isn't solely disease-control focused and refuses to just put a feather on something and call it "Aboriginal"; the Native Youth Sexual Health Network.

How useful would it be to explain Tantra in just one short conversation and demonstration? How do you get to 'union' without getting too religious, abstract or ‘spiritual’? This modality is a wonderful exoteric teaching to help bridge your students to the esoteric inner-work that occurs in private chambers. Magnetic Tantra is a Gateway modality, and can be felt with or without clothing on, so be ready to play together and feel the power of your own magnetic powers with another person. These same techniques were used to integrate successfully with the Seattle, Scottsdale and Phoenix police departments as well as the FBI and IRS. You don't want to miss the fundamentals of safe sex work from a woman who has helped hundreds of sensual body workers, escorts, and dancers transition to a life as a sacred intimate. Finally, give your gifts without fear; bring your practice into total security and celebration. The Temples are hosting impromptu talks and demonstrations at our table during the event, visit us during the Desiree Alliance OR call / write when the festivities expire.  Namaste' (the divine light in me recognizes the divine light in you). 

School of 1 Admissions:  602.956.0651 ask for Wayne
Mystic Sisters Ordination: 480.772.6577 ask for Freya
Track E- Harm Reduction and Outreach
Thursday 3:30-4:00 Claire Kitui: Nature of Sex Work (Past and Present), Reasons for the Increase, Problems Faced in Sex Work, Sex Work and the Law and Conclusion
Sex work is illegal in Uganda but studies have revealed wide prevalence of the practice in different parts of the country especially in urban and semi urban centres. Sex work was mostly wide spread only in Kampala currently accounting for 50% but has now spread to many other towns. Most sex workes are aged between 15-24 years. Children who are below 18 years account for 24% of sex workers leading to a conclusion that the youth are the ones mostly involved in sex work. Many are uneducated, though there is evidence of University students who meet their costs of study by working as sex workers. The transnational networks or traffickers and pimps prey on women seeking employment and opportunities leading them into sex work. Cases of trafficking of sex workers exist mainly on the Islands of Lake Victoria and there are currently no laws or policies that address this issue.

Sex work is mostly associated with women and it takes the form of street walkers, housewives making money from sex work, “Flying sex workers “working in different locations and migrant sex workers from Congo, Rwanda and Burundi and HIV infected sex workers.

There is high use of drugs among sex workers which drugs mainly include Alcohol, marijuana and cocaine.

The growth of sex work has been blamed on the economic situation, domestic violence and deteriorated traditional values. Sex work has been perceived to pose a threat to cultural values by the government, religious leaders and other activists. It is also associated with the spread of HIV AND STIs.

The women’s movement had for a long time refused to incorporate sex workers into their own programs but because of our continued dialogue and lobbying, sex workers programs were finally recognized and today many women activists are now defending the rights of sex workers.

Reaching out to serve sex workers has not been effective as they live in fear of being arrested. Aside that, they are vulnerable to diseases, human sacrifice, rape by both clients and the police, refusal of clients to pay the agreed money, refusal to wear condoms, drugging by clients, one client becoming many, and stigmatization by health workers among others.

There is no clear law to criminalize sex work; however they are continually detained under the “Idle and Disorderly” penal code. A new bill has recently been drafted which criminalizes sex workers as the main spreaders of HIV/AIDS. It clearly states that once a sex worker is proven guilty as charged, they will be jailed for 3-5 years. Another extraordinary charge leveled against sex workers is that of “Disturbing peace by using violent or scurrilous or abusive terms of reproach.”

With all these the patriarchal state attempts to control promiscuous women and their “deviant” sexual acts. It all zeros down to the seller of sex (majority of women) and not to the clients (mainly men). I stand here before you today, calling on each one of you to join our efforts to fight against this discrimination believing that there is power in powers and there are no BAD WOMEN, JUST BAD LAWS.

This workshop/panel discussion intends to be part of these discussions. Presenters will speak about the ways in which various issues which have not yet been fully expressed in the current re-emerging movement for rights. How can people who identify as sex workers be allies to those people who engage in sex for the things they need but do not identify as sex workers? What do people from highly marginalized communities (women drug users of color, young men of color, trans street workers drug users and more) know and opine about current approaches of sex worker rights organizing? What can be included as part of "sex worker rights organizing" and what can be/is being addressed elsewhere by harm reductionists, communities of color, groups working to address street economies in general?

Understanding Tantra

Methods: Snow-ball sampling was conducted from December 2009 to January 2010 and 151 Japanese female sex workers were recruited from the “Fashion/Delivery Health” service from Tokyo and Yokohama. They completed a self-administered questionnaire covering demographics and sex work practices.