Domina Elle is a professional Dominatrix who hosts in her “FUNgeon” in Denver, Colorado. She is also an artist, photographer, member of the Erotic Service Providers’ Union and board member of the Erotic Service Providers’ Legal, Educational and Research Project (ESPLERP).
War has been declared upon all American erotic service providers and their clients, and as in every war a propaganda campaign has been set into motion to justify it; no one can argue with “save the children”. Certainly not the elected officials who have jumped on the legislative bandwagon to further criminalize adult consensual erotic services, and certainly not the opportunistic NGO’s participating in what has become a billion dollar federal grant program via the non profit industrial complex known to sex workers as the “rescue industry”. Certainly not the law enforcement agencies which justify arresting consenting adults, as they, too generate revenue for their employer the state. Each day there are new casualties in the war against prostitution; each day immeasurable damage is being perpetrated upon erotic service providers and the body count rises, both figuratively and literally. We must fight back. It has become more crucial than ever before that we do so, and in a solid tangible way.
The word “Decriminalization” has become a mantra chanted by sex workers around the globe. Tears of joy were shed when a council of Amnesty International recently announced its support of the decriminalization of prostitution, just as the United Nations and the World Health Organization had already done. Even the U.S. State Department, in its 2015 “Universal Periodic Review Of Human Rights“, affirmed United Nations recommendation #86, stating: “We agree that no one should face violence or discrimination in access to public services based on sexual orientation or their status as a person in prostitution”. But these declarations are as of yet merely suggestions, and have not translated into harm reduction for sex worker communities throughout the globe. To ensure that our needs are met we ourselves must transform our rallying cry into a reality, bringing about the emancipation and protections which our vast community so desperately needs. In America, this action must be accomplished through the courts; it isn’t an easy path and requires much diligence and of course a great deal of money. While the Erotic Service Providers’ Legal, Educational and Research Project’s (ESPLERP’s) legal challenge has already been filed and is in process, the truly tricky part is the continual funding of the case. Because we are criminalized and stigmatized, the US sex worker rights movement is not well funded, and the little funding which is available is not being prioritized towards striking down the unconstitutional anti-prostitution laws. So while some of the most dedicated and diligent activists I have ever known of are at the heart of supporting this challenge, without sufficient funding the case could fall apart (which is certainly what our opponents hope for).
In early August, ESPLERP members, supporters and legal representatives gathered in California to hear the lower court judge’s decision, which was that there would be no public hearing and that the ruling would be announced at a future time. ESPLERP’s lawyer Louis Sirkin stated that this type of action by the court is not uncommon, and that he wasn’t surprised at all; we were also told that there is no time limit on how long the Judge can take to render his decision, so now we wait. From day one, our plan was to take this case to the highest court possible in order for more states to be affected, and more people to be emancipated. If the lower court judge stands by the principles in the Bill Of Rights and rules in our favor, erotic service providers who are criminalized in the state of California will be free from criminalization and the real work can begin in California at least. If the judge chooses to dismiss the case, we will go up to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals; if that court rules in our favor no fewer than nine states will be emancipated from the threat and devastation of criminalization, and other sex workers and organizations in other parts of the US would be able to use the ruling to file similar cases or defend themselves from charges. THIS WOULD BE HUGE!
A legal challenge such as this is no small task. My dream, as a member of the erotic service provider community, is to see the emancipation of our people, and this case could be the key to open that door. Decriminalization is hardly a panacea; it’s only the means of stopping the immediate harm caused by arrest and the life devastation which comes with it. Law enforcement agencies would no longer have the means by which they literally rape and pillage our community with impunity. Though decriminalization is only the beginning of what sex workers need to accomplish, it will give the erotic services community a safer platform upon which to openly organize in order to demand and protect our rights that much more. The storm of oppression is already here raining down upon us, and we haven’t even seen the eye just yet. We need the legal umbrella provided by decriminalization, and we can rally around this legal challenge to achieve solidarity as we never have before; it can provide a powerful and warm fire around which we can join our hearts and minds to weather the storm together. We can do this, but it requires you to be around that fire contributing your fuel to it. For more information about the challenge please visit decriminalizesexwork.com, and to donate to the legal challenge fund please go to litigatetoemancipate.com. Viva la revolution!
While I understand the sentiment, going through the court system is hardly a “revolution”. It is more of an attempt to do this the way the bureaucrats want and, as you have probably already seen, is subject to countless legal tactics to slow it down and make it expensive on you.
That is not to say I don’t support this. Actual revolutions are bloody things and far too often the wrong people survive and the right people perish in the power-struggles that follow any successful revolution. If there are alternatives, they should be tried first.
Incidentally, I don’t think there is a war on sex-work going on. I think there is a war on people doing what they want to do (without harming others), independent thinkers and everybody that takes more stock in facts than (imposed) conventions. Once again, those that want to see everything and want to control everybody with regards to what to think, what to believe and how to live are gaining power and are hard at work reducing individual freedoms. Sex-work, just like drugs, is just one of the traditional targets on which to try out violence, suppression and other tactics. Fascism is on the raise in the west again, and I have to say that did not take long.
That, of course, makes your fight even more important.
The court system is often the only way to move the government. I don’t know much about US, but in Canada many things have been made legal through the courts, like abortion, medical pot and assisted suicide. Unfortunately we can’t exactly add sex work to the list. The Supreme court decriminalized last year but the government introduced a swedish-style law to replace the old ones. It is doubtful that this law will survive a challenge, but it is another hurdle. I assume the same kind of thing could happen in the US
this reflects a fundamental difference between Canada and the U.S. When America has an issue they fight it out-often with war whereas Canada is more likely to talk it out.
The ability of the respective Supreme Courts to adjust the laws does result somewhat from each countries founding documents. The Canadian Charter of rights and freedoms in perceived as an evolving document while the U.S. Constitution is viewed by many of its proponents to have been directly inspired by God leaving any attempts to modify being viewed as akin to blasphemy.
My status as a Canadian may bias my point of view.
We in America have added erotic services to the list.
Indeed, this doesn’t seem to jibe with last week’s ‘Wildfire’ column. The state (as we know it) is apparently on the precipice of being swept away, thus any rights that might have been secured by that state would be swept away as well.
Further, if we’re going to insist on using this ridiculous martial rhetoric (which legitimizes its use by the state), then why not take it to its logical conclusion? Thus I ask, what are sex worker’s plan to ‘take the fight to the enemy’, because no war with real propaganda and literal body counts was ever decided in a courtroom. At best, the courtroom was there for the combatants to bicker over the remaining pieces afterward.
https://reason.com/archives/2015/09/30/the-war-on-sex-trafficking-is
It’s really a war on prostitution (prostitution being purposely conflated with trafficking).
Several years back while lecturing at CU Denver for a sociology class, I was happy to be discussing this with the professor who clearly recognized the parallels between the war on prostitution and the war on drugs (which was the subject of his class). To those people paying close enough attention there is a clear agenda here to fund the state and related mechanisms such as ngo’s which support the state- using arrests, Rico, forfeitures to do it. https://reason.com/archives/2015/09/30/the-war-on-sex-trafficking-is
Something that makes this case so amazing is that it won’t just impact sex workers. It is a declaration that each adult is the master of their own destiny and that there must be a limit to the control the state presumes to have in our most personal of choices. Sovereignty.
I fully agree, especially to your second paragraph. It is in the next few years that we will find out whether the safeguards put into place to prevent the west from establishing full fascists governments work or not. I am dubious, but considering what is at stake, the effort is certainly well spent.
We have to bring truth to the rest of the world that it is the criminalization of prostitution that permits coercion and trafficking of women and men in the developed countries. Decriminalization, and laws against coercion and exploitation of sex workers–laws that were actually enforced–would do more to eliminate sex trafficking than all of the “rescue” programs and police crackdowns would ever imagine accomplishing.
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