Passionate Activist

Recent Activity

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  Passionate commented on the article | about 1 year ago

  Where to Find Holiday Gifts that Help Human Trafficking Victims

  The survivors who make the items should get to keep the profits for the items that they make.  If the objective is to stop trafficking, then providing survivors with viable income opportunities is a major element of this.  Survivors should also determine how the profits are spent on the goods they make and determine prices. This is an important part of empowering survivors and giving them agency. 

  
  

  Based on the websites that I visited, it didn't look like the survivors get to keep the profits from the items they make and it looked like the organizations rather than the survivors determine of the profits are spent.  Yet, I could have missed something, so please let me know if I'm mistaken. 

  
  

  It is very unethical and hypocritical for anti-trafficking groups to use survivors to make goods and profit from their labor, but then not give them the profits or allow them to determine how the profits are spent.

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  Passionate signed the petition | about 2 years ago

  Tell the HHS How the Anti-Prostitution Loyalty Oath Harms Sex Workers
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  Passionate commented on the article | almost 3 years ago

  Prostitution and Trafficking: A Policy Debate

  "Katherine, it is true that New Zealand does not have a trafficking problem that is on the same scale as some other countries, but their trafficking numbers were modest to begin with."
  
  ...but various opponents of decriminalizating prostitution have argued that it would increase human trafficking.  If their arguments were accurate, then human trafficking would have skyrocked in New Zealand after prostitution was decriminalized, but that's not what happened.   

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  Passionate commented on the article | almost 3 years ago

  Prostitution and Trafficking: A Policy Debate

  "The reason I called police brutality a red herring (above, first comment) is because I think it's about prejudice rather than what law is in place."
  
  Prejudice may be part of the issue,but this doesn't negate how criminalization of prostitution encourages police brutality, so the issues of behavior and laws are interconnected.  I recognize criminalizing prostitution isn't the sole cause of police brutality and prejudices against sex workers, but it is part of the cause rather than the solution.   I provided examples of how the criminalization of prostitution encourages law enforcement abuses in my response to the first comment you posted on this thread. 
  Also, there's an online documentary showing how U.S. imposed anti-prostitution laws have led to major human rights abuses by police and guards against sex workers in a detention centers.  A link to this documentary is posted in the debate at the top of the page, but it may be hard to find, so here's a link again:  http://blip.tv/file/970833/ . Some people on this board may have already viewed the documentary, but it's so important for all of us to watch it, be aware of the implications of anti-prostitution policies on sex workers, and advocate for change.

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  Passionate commented on the article | almost 3 years ago

  Prostitution and Trafficking: A Policy Debate

  You made some excellent points, Kerwin.  I'm glad that you challenged notions about how the mayor of Amsterdam is trying to shut down the Red Light District in order to stop human trafficking because I never thought his reasons for trying to minimize the Red Light District had anything to do with stopping human trafficking.  I used the term "minimize" because he's not proposing to completely eradicate the Red Light District, but just to minimize it and shut down parts of it.
  Though I agree with so much of what you said, I found your comments about sex workers' rights activists to be problematic.  The sex workers' rights movement exists in various parts of the world, including developed and developing countries.  Your comments about sex workers' rights activists being mostly middle-class may apply to developed countries, but overlooks sex workers' rights activists in developing countries, many of whom work in survival prostitution and are struggling to afford the bare necessities. 
  You also mentioned findings by the Sex Workers Project, which addressed that housing is the most common need sex workers expressed and decriminalizing prositution is far down the list.  However, I see the decriminalization of prostitution and housing as interconnected rather than entirely separate issues.  Though not the only obstacle sex workers face in terms of finding housing, the criminalization of prostitution is one of the obstacles.  Apartments typically do background checks on applicants for housing and are not very likely to rent to people with prostitution on their records.  Income is another obstacle for many people, but that doesn't negate how the criminalization of prostitution also presents an obstacle to finding housing.  

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  Passionate commented on the article | almost 3 years ago

  Food Activism: VegFund and Vegan Bake Sale

  Those cupcakes look so delicious!  I'm not much of a baker myself, but I'm glad that they have really yummy vegan baked goods at a natural foods store within walking distance of where I live, such as cakes, banana nut bread, and muffins.  This is an excellent fund raising idea. Does anybody know where we can buy vegan baked goods online, or other vegan foods?

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  Passionate commented on the article | almost 3 years ago

  Prostitution and Trafficking: A Policy Debate

  There actually are vice sting operations against Las Vegas sex workers and various sex workers in prostitution are being arrested in Las Vegas.

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  Passionate commented on the article | almost 3 years ago

  A Side of Rotting Baby Carcass with Your Morning Milk?

  "To those who are vegan or vegetarian, it is a significant difference. "
  I'm one of those peope you're referring to "who are vegetarian or vegan" and as a vegan, I have self-identified as a vegetarian, though I respect that some vegans don't also I identify as vegetarians. I feel that I should be able to decide for myself what label(s) to identify by, and I feel the same way for other vegans.  I'm familiar with the lifestyle having lived it, so I'm well aware that vegans don't eat or wear animal products. Yet, I also realize there's a difference between a vegan and a lacto-vegetarian or other types of vegetarians, so I'm not collapsing all vegetarians and vegans together.  I think I'm just defining vegetarianism more broadly than some people are. 

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  Passionate commented on the article | almost 3 years ago

  Prostitution and Trafficking: A Policy Debate

  The Swedish model also vicitimizes sex workers. Though various people have praised the Swedish model, Swedish sex workers have denounced it for several reasons.   A major problem I have with this legislation is that sex workers can have their children taken from them just because the sex worker exchanges sex for payment.  Being a sex worker does not justify taking away one's children and sex workers can make excellent parents.    For some sex workers, this could be as distressing or more distressing than jail time, even though I don't support jail time for sex workers either. This is one of various problems with the Swedish legislation.  Please read this report about the Swedish legislation:  http://www.petraostergren.com/content/view/44/67/ .

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  Passionate commented on the article | almost 3 years ago

  Prostitution and Trafficking: A Policy Debate

  Katherine, I agree that decriminalizing and legalizing prostitution don't increase the demand for prostitution.  A report out of New Zealand where they decriminalized prostitution could not find any evidence that prostitution increased after it was decriminalized.  Also, there's a lot more prostituton in Las Vegas where it's illegal than in the legal Nevada brothels.  Prostitution is much more complex than simply supply and demand.  You're also spot on in that having prostitution on one's permenant record makes it harder to transition out of prostitution.  It also makes it harder to rent apartments.
  In response to the comments about pimps, if prostitution were decriminalized, then sex workers would have more agency and pimps would have less control.  By legal definition, a pimp is any third party who makes a living off of prostitution, so anybody who runs a referral service that matches sex workers up with clients or a brothel is legally defined as a pimp.   I think it's important to distinguish between non-abusive management and abusive pimps, which current anti-prostitution laws don't do.  Thus, abusive pimps, in the rare cases where they are prosecuted for the abuses they commit, are sometimes able to plea bargain down to pimping charges, which by legal definition simply means being a third party that makes a living off of prostitution.  This denies sex workers who are abused by pimps equal protection under the law.  If a pimp rapes, assaults, kidnaps, or enslaves somebody, this person should not be able to plea bargain down the charges.   In this sense, the criminalization of prostitution benefits abusive pimps.  Also, the criminalization of prostitution puts people working as prostitutes in a positition where they cannot report abusive pimps without incriminating themselves in the process.