Sex Work

As a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, central to my work is my mission to provide education and awareness of the value of sex work and the need for equal rights and protection for our sex workers to my professional and surrounding communities. Although there is a great need for educational material relevant to practitioners in my field, resources are rare, so I am eager to introduce a new film, American Courtesans, an invaluable resource for therapists, clients, sex workers, as well as the general public.

Police and prosecutors in San Francisco will no longer use condoms as evidence when arresting and charging sex workers, according to an agreement announced Tuesday between The City’s law enforcement agencies and the Human Rights Commission.

Chi Mgbako: Supreme court must put public health above misguided moralism and end Pepfar policy that stigmatises sex workers

On Monday, the Supreme Court hears oral arguments in a case that will decide if recipients of government aid can be forced to oppose prostitution – or potentially any other issue as a contingency of receiving U.S. funds. The case, Alliance for Open Society International v United States Agency for International Development, arises from a controversial policy governing AIDS education, prevention, and treatment, a decade-long fight that's crossed political lines and was kicked off by Rep. Chris Smith as part of a larger conservative attempt to undermine reproductive and sexual health care. With HIV and AIDS projects facing closure if they don't adopt the government's position on sex work, it's sex workers who are paying the ultimate price.

Clearly within policy arenas there are mixed perspectives on the impacts of the PEPFAR restrictions with regards to sex work. However, real world prevention care and treatment of HIV and AIDS for sex workers does not occur in policy arenas but rather on the ground, in venues and avenues far removed from policy discourse. Meanwhile, although policymakers reflect on the intent or the outcome of the pledge, on the ground the policy has and may continue to have consequences. As a result of the pledge, in many instances information sharing about successful programming with sex workers has nearly ceased. Sex work programming has become a taboo topic; organizations that receive other funding are likely to be interested in or to seek US government contracts and funds. Others with specific missions have reigned in all activities unrelated or tangentially related to their missions; this has affected many sex work projects the world over. The anti-prostitution pledge has prevented the sharing of information about successful programming and prevented scaling up successful operations.

Industry estimates project a global condom market worth $6 billion in 2015, or some 27 billion condoms, compared to 20 billion in 2012.

Carex - the brand name of Karex condoms - holds about 15 percent of the global condom market, according to sector analysts.

Other leading brands Durex, marketed by Britain's Reckitt Benckiser group, and Trojan, owned by the US firm Church & Dwight, make up roughly a combined 25 percent.

-- 'Recession-proof industry' --

"It is a recession-proof industry. With growth rates of about eight percent annually, it is here to stay," said Goh, who has a quick smile and gives off a boyish enthusiasm.

About half of Karex's output goes to bulk purchases by governments or international agencies' safe-sex drives, mainly the UN Population Fund and the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

China is a key growth market, as anti-HIV efforts there have accelerated in line with loosening attitudes towards sex.

A Chinese business website in 2011 quoted a former top family planning official as saying 1.1 billion condoms were provided free to users by the government every year.

But religious and social taboos are also slowly being set aside elsewhere in Asia, said Goh.

The largely Catholic Philippines, for example, passed a law in January requiring government health centres to supply free condoms and birth control pills, and mandating sex education in schools.

Impassioned about freedom of sexual expression, Australian sex worker Rachel Wotton specializes in a long overlooked clientele— people with disabilities. Working in New South Wales—where prostitution is legal— Rachel’s philosophy is that human touch and sexual intimacy can be the most therapeutic aspects to our existence. Indeed, she is making a dramatic impact on the lives of her customers, many of whom are confined to wheelchairs or cannot speak or move unaided.

A 2012 report released jointly by the UN Development Program (UNDP), the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and UNAIDS pressed for the decriminalization of sex work in many countries so that HIV prevention and treatment programs reach sex workers more effectively.

Measure B: Porn Industry Vows To Defeat New Condoms In Porn Law

LOS ANGELES — The show must go on, is the entertainer's credo, and it did just that in the nation's Porn Capital even after Los Angeles County voted to require performers to use condoms when filming sex scenes.

The Sessions is based on the story of Mark O'Brien, a disabled man who used a sex surrogate to achieve intimacy for the first time. Director Ben Lewin's own experience with a disabling disease informs a sensitive look at the issues at hand.

The evening's theme is “Pretty Woman Redux.” The gathering is part of a monthly storytelling series from the sex-workers' rights group, the Red Umbrella Project. For two hours, a handful of New York’s most articulate “hos” (as they endearingly call themselves), share intimate, industry tales.

As in past sessions, donations from the event will benefit a cause vital to every sex worker in the city: banning the New York Police Department’s well-documented practice of using condom possession as evidence of prostitution.

It’s a battle health rights advocates have fought for years. In every legislative session since 1999, proponents of a “No Condoms as Evidence” bill have asked state lawmakers to squelch the practice, citing evidence that it’s forced sex workers to stop carrying and using condoms altogether. In every session, the bill has died on the committee floor.

In recent months, however, efforts to engage lawmakers have accelerated, thanks to studies released in 2012 by the Pros Network and Human Rights Watch—two Manhattan-based organizations that say the policy has led to a serious public-health crisis.

Adult film star James Deen gave the keynote speech of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Sexual Health Fest at Sterling Hall Thursday night in an event sponsored by student organization Sex Out Loud.

Deen, who described himself as “introverted” and “socially awkward,” answered questions from the audience and a panel of Sex Out Loud members about topics ranging from his own experience learning about sex at age five to his advocacy for safer sex and condom use.

Deen entered the adult film industry when he was 18 and said he has since starred in over 4,000 pornographic films. He has also directed and produced pornography since he was 19. He said he has dreamed of being a porn star for as long as he can remember and wants to have a meaningful career, one that can “de-shame sexuality” and “push borders.”

“When I see the prostitution arrests, it tells me how bad the heroin problem is in the city,” Lynn Police Lt. Peter Holey said last week. “When I see the arrests of the johns, I see there are a lot of men who are willing to take advantage of the women’s addictions for their gratification.”

So hire a sex worker for your brother, SIS, if you think it will help—even if it just eliminates an excuse that’s blocking his progress—and there’s no need to drive to Nevada. Siouxsie suggests you look for an “experienced” (read: somewhat older) escort with an online presence in your area. A sex worker who’s over 25 or 30 and maintains her own website—and has write-ups on escort review sites—is not just far less likely to be trafficked or exploited, she’s far more likely to be experienced and patient. She may even have worked with men like your brother before.

I hired a sex worker for my late 93-year-old father. He had dementia and lived in a nursing home when he said to me, “You’ll need to find me a woman”.

A Canberra man with cerebral palsy wants the services of sex workers to be considered a legitimate need for people with disabilities in the NDIS bill.

...He calls for the bill to address the emotional needs of disabled people, which includes their sex life.

Thailand and New Zealand sound like the best places for prostitutes in Asia and the South Pacific, because they face repressive laws and live miserable and dangerous lives in the rest of the region, where the sex trade is outlawed, according to a...

Five cases were reported last week, causing a trade group for the multi-billion dollar industry, The Free Speech Coalition (FSC), to call for a halt in filming to prevent the spread of disease.