The criminalization of sex work is based in nothing more than petty moral outrage. – Chris Sosa
While sex workers were celebrating the growing recognition among decent people that sex work prohibition is nothing less than the violent suppression of consensual sexual behavior, the most rabidly-prohibitionist government on the planet was scheming to prove the pro-decriminalization forces correct by unleashing yet another act of violence against peaceful businesspeople. Like Escorts.com and MyRedbook before it, the venerable gay escort site Rentboy was raided by federal officials anxious to put on a good show:
Federal agents raided the Manhattan headquarters of Rentboy.com as part of a money laundering and state prostitution investigation Tuesday…Seven people, including CEO Jeffrey Hurant, were arrested…Department of Homeland Security agents and members of the NYPD, which assisted in the raid, were seen removing boxes from the offices…More than $1.4 million from six bank accounts was seized in connection with the probe…the government said it was taking steps to shut down the website…”Rentboy.com attempted to present a veneer of legality, when in fact this Internet brothel made millions of dollars from the promotion of illegal prostitution,” Acting U.S. Attorney…Kelly Currie [bloviated]…
As it later turned out, the raid was not justified under the typical excuse of “money laundering”, but rather under a different infinitely-elastic federal “crime” statute, the Travel Act of 1961:
…the Travel Act makes it a federal crime to use the mail or interstate or international travel or communications for the purposes of engaging in certain illegal acts or for distributing the proceeds of certain illegal acts. The list of illegal acts covered by the law includes crimes like gambling, prostitution, drug trafficking, extortion, bribery, and arson. This is not a complete list…these…acts don’t have to be federal crimes to be covered by the Travel Act. They can be violations of the laws of the state where the crime took place…Rentboy.com allegedly violated New York’s laws against prostitution, but the U.S. Attorney’s Office…is arguing that Rentboy.com facilitated and promoted prostitution crimes across state and international borders…
Though by the timing it may seem that this was intended in retaliation for Amnesty International’s call for decriminalization (which essentially reveals the US as among the world’s most oppressive regimes as far as sexual freedom is concerned), or in reaction to the Ashley Madison debacle, in actuality the feds can’t do anything that quickly; this has been planned for months. The usual “sex trafficking” rhetoric used to cram these pogroms down the credulous public gullet was notably (and tellingly) absent here; it was all talk of sin crime and chastisement prosecution rather than “rescue” and “exploitation”. Because while women are delicate, chaste little fluffy-bunnies who could never ever ever conceive of a pragmatic motivation for sex, men are perverted abusers who are never more than an errant thought away from criminality (unless they’re government actors, of course, in which case they’re totally incapable of evil). But all snark aside, the government actually had very compelling reasons for the raid…1.4 million reasons, to be exact.
In the long run, though, it may prove very expensive for the prohibitionists. As I’ve complained on a number of occasions, mainstream gay rights organizations seem unconcerned at best and hostile at worst to sex worker rights, despite the fact that members of the GLBT community are disproportionately represented among both sex workers and clients (many closeted gay men rely almost entirely on escorts for male contact). Gay, Inc has obsessively pushed its white-picket-fence married-couple big-table fantasies to the exclusion of the majority of queers who will never want lifelong committed monogamy, despite the fact that the entire gay rights movement owes its origin to sex workers. But special-interest groups don’t simply disband once they’ve achieved their original goals; indeed, they actively seek out new goals so as to justify their continued existence. Now that picket-fence queers have every conceivable right their straight vanilla counterparts enjoy, Big Gay will need a new campaign to pursue…and the feds may have just provided it. The personal information of thousands of closeted gay men is now in the hands of evil monsters who view human beings only as points to be racked up, and if that’s not a gay rights issue I’m not sure what is; even the hopelessly-square Advocate reported on Lamba Legal’s pro-decriminalization stance (though its headline idiotically asked, “Decriminalize sex work?” as if they didn’t quite get it). When the victims are women, most Americans seem content to swallow the patronizing & agency-negating “rescuing trafficked girls” narrative, but since the victims are men this time journalists seem to have suddenly awakened en masse. The Huffington Post‘s reporting on the issue is typical of what I’ve seen since Tuesday:
The site has operated within public view for many years. This is not a secretive, dark web enterprise hidden from the public eye. It’s a popular online destination that allows escorts to set their own rules and rates. RentBoy’s platform gives its escorts a degree of agency that sex workers forced to walk the street or be managed by a pimp simply do not have…The Department of Homeland Security…took millions of dollars and ripped six employees from their homes. While these employees face huge financial and reputational damage, thousands of sex workers who rely on RentBoy as a safe place to conduct business could find themselves in genuine danger…The United States has a responsibility to reform its outdated and violent laws around sex work. RentBoy’s high-profile raid should make us think about all the quiet acts of violence committed by our government against sex workers…We supposed-progressives chant about bodily autonomy and criticize the American Right for denigrating women, but we participate in the same denigration when we shame sex workers who conscientiously exercise authority over their bodies…
There’s nothing in that excerpt that doesn’t also apply to female sex workers and our advertising venues, but without the “sex trafficking” smoke and mirrors many of these writers appear to be recognizing it for the first time. Though I have the deepest sympathy for everyone who will be hurt by this monstrous injustice, it may be that the Rentboy raid was the biggest blunder the prohibitionists ever made; if it attracts the big Gay guns and makes sex worker rights “safe” for ordinary people to talk about again, decriminalization is already on the way.
I agree that it seems like a mistake from the abolitionist standpoint. Usually they are careful not to mention male sex workers in their narrative.
On the other hand, law enforcement only care about rhetoric that serve them. I think police, like sex workers, are very pragmatic people. I guess law enforcement people can see that the abolitionist are losing ground and have almost outlived their usefulness. Possibly they want to seize as many property as they can while sex work is still illegal.
This raid may very well be a blessing in disguise for sex workers. The publicity this is generating along with the obvious gender double standard with respect to “sex trafficking” and “modern day slavery” will make if difficult for the Neo-Puritan Feminists to ignore.
Has anyone heard from Julie Bindel, Alice Schwarzer, Rachel Moran, or Melissa Farley?? Are they on a safari in Madagascar?
LOLOLOLOL. The leading men haters. Anyone who takes the time to really look into human trafficking will find that there are by far more BOYS who are being abused. But that’s not the narrative they want to propagate now is it??? Pedophiles in the UK and elsewhere by far prefer boys. Surely the FBI has seen this during their investigations. Even looking at DOJ prostitution arrests of minors over a 33 year period we see more boys than girls ages 10-12 were found (and arrested for being victims) see policeprostitutionandpolitics.com for quantified data. Those bitches don’t care for accuracy they just hate men. Of course they are dumbfounded by this.
Why is Homeland Security involved with prostitution at all ? Isn’t this the responsibility of the FBI ? I thought the job of HS was to stop terrorists and protect the borders.
A lot of people are upset at HS because of the useless security theater at airports. The hassle, groping, and theft from bags is becoming tiresome and well known.
Maybe HS is looking for some cheap positive publicity to justify their budget.
I believe that this is a new area of activity by HS. When you do something new for the first time, you tend to make mistakes. Let’s hope there were some big ones.
Have you read the book POLICING SEXUALITY? The FBI totally got its first big boost and became a truly federal agency off if the back of a FAKE HUMAN TRAFFICKING SCARE. it shouldn’t even be the FBI’s job to harass consenting adults for their private sexual choices! But yes- it’s a government agency free for all. And thanks to the passing of the JVTA and SAVE act we are going to see a lot more of this. It’s the new war on drugs baby. Increased poverty has led to an increase in people choosing sex work. Leading to an increase in police operations and how convenient!!!! It’s a wonderful means of stealing from the people and generating revenue for municipalities during economic failure! With the stamp of approval from all the holier than thou’s in the world. Plenty of those enablers of a predator state!
There are plenty of queer women in the sex trade, yet now everyones coming out hard for the rights of sex workers? Harm Reduction Coalition,Transgender Law Center. HIV Prevention Justice Alliance — the list goes on of these non profits making statements re: Rentboy after radio silence on My Red Book, Back Page (the host of mostly female/femme advertisers)????
Did you need Amnesty International to tell you what sex workers already told you?
Is it because men are allowed to do sex work, whereas women will always be victims?
The outrage is well placed and appropriate – but where was it for female sex workers?
I noticed hundreds of new #rentboy ads on backpage this morning.
How about a law for #sexworkers now #rentboy & #LGBT?
https://liberatetoemancipate.tilt.com/liberatetoemancipate
PS the above quote came from “Lindsay Anne”
One thing I think is telling is the radio silence from the usual prohi crowd about the raid.
Radfems like to position themselves as LGB allies (less so the T), and regrettably a lot of the “Big Gay” organizations had swallowed their line. What neither of them seemed to realise is how big a presence RB had in the queer community in general, even amongst those who never used the site for it’s “official” purpose; they’ve been one of the main corporate sponsors of Pride parades and club nights etc. for as long as I’ve been out.
So the level of grassroots support for Rentboy that has emerged from the queer community since the raid has caught them on the back foot; especially if Big Gay is recalibrating its official position. Approve of the raid and they run against the Scylla of losing their gay allies; condemn it and they fall into the Charybdis of having their hypocrisy exposed. Their only hope is to keep silent and hope that mainstream media homophobia buries the story when the news cycle rolls over.
Which means our job now is to make sure it doesn’t.
Because while women are delicate, chaste little fluffy-bunnies who could never ever ever conceive of a pragmatic motivation for sex, men are perverted abusers who are never more than an errant thought away from criminality (unless they’re government actors, of course, in which case they’re totally incapable of evil).
BRILLIANT!!!
Yeah tell it Maggie! Both Lambda and rentboy declined to support our historic court case for decrim in California which lays the ground work for decrim in the US. Just think, if rentboy had signed on as advertiser plaintiff, they could now claim the government raid and arrest is retaliation. They could have posted links to our case on their site to support our case, but they didn’t. I’m sorry for all the out of work guys. Us Girls now what that’s like. Who does our corrupt government have in its sights next?
[…] Source: Now They Notice […]
They have the foresight of a grasshopper.
Pardon me if I’m not seeing how this will put any sort of dent in the prohibitionist front. It may not have been a direct reaction to Amnesty or Ashley Madison, but I bet it had something to do with the Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage. There must be a sizable contingent in that section of the government that does not support that ruling, and there is a sizable part of the general public that doesn’t support that ruling either. So this might be the beginnings of a backlash that particular cohort can get behind. Never mind the corporate malfeasance that is radically altering the planet, or the Wall Street malfeasance that has robbed people of the money they need to enjoy what little time this modern world of ours has left; those queers are not only having their queer sex but getting PAID to do so? Get ’em an’ give ’em hell, J. Edgar!
As for the $1.4 million, I’m guessing that won’t even come close to covering the expenses already incurred in this “investigation” or will be incurred in the inevitable court battle. In this day of multi-million dollar fines to the government and multi-billion dollar bailouts, this seems like chicken feed and suggests the motivation was not just mere money. It never is when you’re trying to make the world safe for “decent” people.
And finally, what of those gay activists? Why should they lift a finger to fight this? They’ve finally got their picket fences, and all their resources will now be marshalled to make sure no disease-spreading, homewrecking sex worker threatens what they’ve spent decades cozying up to the state to acquire. “We’re not like those ‘bad’ homosexuals who take money for sex, Mr. and Mrs. America. We’re just like YOU!”
I know it means I’m 12, but I giggled my self silly over the “big gay guns”