Out of curiosity, why was your experience with that meeting so alienating? Did the others refuse to acknowledge your existence or discuss any topic of actual relevance to you, or did you experience some explicit form of prejudice?

While it doesn’t feel right to continue hiding out in my incall, waiting for others to reclaim my rights as a sex worker, citizen, and human being, the one meeting I did attend developed into my most alienating experience in recent memory. As much as I would like to fight the good fight, I refuse to put myself in the painful position of being sneered at by the very people I’m supposed to follow into battle. Perhaps if I dye my hair electric blue and find myself a female “beard”…

Poor Maggie! I HATE being sick.

The thing I hate most about it is being unable to do anything; normally I even have trouble sitting still for the length of a movie so a day in bed is like Oriental torture to me.

I think that we’ve done a really good job so far of bringing the ‘invisible majority’ out of the shadows and am proud to be included amongst such original thinkers.

Credit where it’s due, my dear.

So am I. I hope this will progress well, and that people will realize that stereotypes about prostitutes are just that — stereotypes, while real people are more complicated than that. They may have none of the obvious stereotypical features. Even when some of the stereotypical features are present, others may well be absent.

The best thing about this is actually making people know you and who you are, so that they can realize there’s a lot about sex workers that isn’t in any way different from what they are (‘we’re all human’). When I read blogs by gay activists (like Dan Savage’s advice column), I often see stuff that is endearing precisely because it shows how much like other humans we all are.

The perception of similarity is the best stigma-killer. Here’s hoping that it will work for sex workers, too.

“When The People talk, everybody eventually listens, even if only to disapprove… ” – Asehpe

I figure that if I manage to piss people off at least it means they must be listening.

I think that we’ve done a really good job so far of bringing the ‘invisible majority’ out of the shadows and am proud to be included amongst such original thinkers.

Douglas – I just now got to read your article. It explains a lot of things I’ve noticed and kinda sorta suspected but that I now have a much better understanding of! thanks!

“We’re here, we’re not really all that queer, get used to it” – Maggie McNeill

LOL

Best wishes, and welcome back to health!

Of course, the problem with the rank-and-file becoming audible is that differences will come to the fore (say, the streetwalker-escort divide) and opportunists might be able to take advantage of that. As in all movements involving The People, one hopes that the similarities between all those involved will outweigh the differences.

But it will be difficult. Sex worker activists — like all activists — will also need a good serving of luck.