Milk and Activist thoughts

I saw the film Milk last week, and I was so moved by it, and thought it was so very good. Harvey Milk was someone that I learned about when I first became interested in queer rights as a teenager, but whom I haven't thought much about for about 15 years. I was reminded how much of the core issues of the (1970s) gay lib movement’s agenda was set by Harvey (and probably others). Many of these agenda items are still vitally relevant to queer causes and communities, as well as other minorities today. I’m going to briefly mention three issues that I was most struck by during the movie

The enormous political value of coming out – although I understand why so many of us will never be able to… particularly many sex workers, who are often parents who risk hideous custody battles and other issues – it does seem clear that knowing someone who identifies as gay or lesbian (in the context of the film, and research that I can’t remember enough to site here, but read many years ago) makes you more likely to support anti-discrimination legislation or same sex relationship legislation. Certainly people in my own life seem to grow in support and passion for sex worker rights issues, than if they’d never known that I was a sex worker. So while I don’t think that you have to be out, I stand by the belief that it’s a useful strategy for increasing awareness, combating stereotypes and increasing support for minorities.

The understanding of the importance of electing openly gay people to office – I think that issue is still own that the sex worker movement battles with. Harvey Milk struggled to get endorsement as a political candidate, in the gay press, who preferred to support str8 candidates who expressed support for gay rights. I think as a movement the sex worker rights movement needs to realise that sex workers are experts in our own lives and work, that when the going gets tough we will still maintain our passion for these issues that impact on our communities. I’m so sick and tired of non-whores being supported for roles in the movement by sex workers, in order to present our issues and organisation with more credibility. Frankly, all of those beliefs emerge from unexamined internalised whore stigma. Before we get another lawyer who understands the letter of the law but not its impacts (or policing), another accountant who is all about sex workers paying tax but doesn’t understand the kind of confidentiality issues that we struggle with at the ATO, another doctor who pays lip service to sex workers as safe sex experts but pushes sexual health testing and sees sex workers as walking genitals, we need to realise that there are many sex workers who have other life and work experiences if we need those qualifications, and that we need to start believing ourselves that we are the experts when it comes to sex work, before we can convince politicians or funders. I see this issue emerge again and again, and not just with the sex worker rights movement, but with most marginalised people. Steps towards self esteem, and regular reality checks by spending time with inspiring folk from your own community can help what unfortunately often just appears to be self hating approval seeking.

The final thing I was struck by in Milk was the power of successfully creating coalitions. Milk worked on making links between union movements and gays – gaining support among the gay community for a union boycott, then got the union support for employing openly gay people. This partnership of support is a really good model for increasing the politicisation for communities and avoiding the divide and conquer approach that minorities can be so seduced by. I think partnerships with clearly defined ideas of how communities can work together to support each other, without stepping on toes are important.

Another of those "Tell us something we don't know" pieces of research

That just reinforces the obvious... but might be worthwhile to back up an argument

Single, Angry, Straight Male... Seeks Same?

Same sex attraction underlies homophobia in young men

Teens Take Virginity Pledges, and Then Have Sex

I really like this article, it's what we all already know, but it's sometimes nice to have research to confirm...

Yet more evidence that abstinence-only programs, many of which include virginity pledges, do not work.

"In the January issue of Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, there's a new study from Janet Rosenbaum of Johns Hopkins University about the effects of virginity pledges on sexual behavior.

So how do these commitments to abstain until marriage affect sexual behavior? Do teens who pledge to abstain have less sex than their compatriots? Nope. Do they wait longer to have sex? Nope. So what's the effect? Teens who take virginity pledges are significantly less likely to use the Pill or condoms than their non-pledging peers. "

"So what's my hope for the new year?

That we start thinking of sexuality education from a comprehensive, life-long, sex positive perspective. Sexuality education should be rights-based: it should be taught not because it reduces teen pregnancy or STI rates, but because all people, especially young people, have a right to accurate, complete and unbiased information about their bodies, their health and their sexuality. You teach kids about sexuality for the same reason that you teach them history, math, and logic -- they deserve the tools that help them understand and function in the world around them. "

Visible: A Femmethology

Femme–an identity that has caused controversy, celebration and ridicule–is now the topic of a two-volume set from Homofactus Press and editor Jennifer Clare Burke titled Visible: A Femmethology. Femmethology calls the LGBTQI community on its own prejudice and celebrates the diversity of individual femmes. Award-winning authors, spoken-word artists, and totally new voices come together to challenge conventional ideas of how disability, class, nationality, race, aesthetics, sexual orientation, gender identity and body type intersect with each contributor’s concrete notion of femmedom.

Femmethology is a two volume wonder all about femme identity, it's available from March 2008, published by Homofactus Press. I am very proud to say that I have contributed an article, as well as a few other Australian femmes. Check it out, at http://femmethology.com/ or on FaceBook or MySpace, as the very diversity of voices, plus the contribution of serious, respectful thought about femme (in some cases minus the lofty academic language) is a valuable thing.

International Day to End Violence against sex workers

Bringing sex workers into the light

See media related to Sydney-based activities to commemorate this Day (17th December)

Originally conceived in 2003 as a memorial and vigil for the victims of the Green River Killer in Seattle, it has become an annual international event.

The day calls attention to hate crimes committed against sex workers all over the world, as well as the need to remove stigma and discrimination perpetuated by sex negativity, conservatism and prohibitionist laws that has in effect meant that violence against sex workers is treated less seriously as violence against other people.

Personally, I haven't experienced much in the way of violence in my sex work, and I have experience more stressful work environments in community health organisations than in sex industry workplaces. Most of the sex workers I have met have not experienced violence at work, and many of us go along with the belief that we have just gotten lucky, and all the other hookers must be regularly dealing with hideous stuff.....

I think the myth that sex work is inherently violent has emerged from anti-sex work rhetoric, and every time something happens - like one of those 'Ripper' killers, it reinforces this belief. The reality is that most sex work clients want no-strings-attached pleasure, touch, company, without drama; a very understandable desire, that doesn't make anyone a dangerous psychopath, however, hate crimes committed against marginalised communities have a nasty habit of not being as vigilantly prosecuted as other crimes, so it is really important that these issues are discussed, and our communities losses are mourned.

Adventures with gender

As one of my femme identities is that of drag queen - emphasising that there is nothing natural about most people's performance of femininity - regardless of what is on their birth certificates, I don't mind not passing as a woman - I do most of the times, but in particular environments (particularly about a decade ago in Adelaide, where dyke spaces were a sea of jeans, waistcoats and short hair), with very big eyelashes, heels and hair, I have had people approach me and tell me that I tuck really well, and ask if I'm on hormones yet.

.... I am going somewhere with this.....

Some of the definitions I've heard for the term woman/ womyn/ wombmoon from separatist feminists leave me out - sometimes the definitions end up being more a list of 'acceptable' sex practices, uniforms and political views, more than anything else. I certainly don't fit those definitions - despite an "F" on my birth certificate, XX chromosomes, a menstruating uterus and other traditionally associated body parts.

Being punched once in 'women's space' (it's a long story) and having a femme ex of my abused for having long hair and a skirt at an International Lesbian Day dance, I long ago decided that 'safe women's space' often wasn't all that safe a space for me. Diversity is occasionally paid lip service to - with perfume-free policies for those with chemical sensitivity, alcohol-free space those with substance use issues, and lip service paid to issues of racism and classism - as long as working class women don't want to work on class issues with working class men, or women of colour don't want to organise with men of colour, homophobia is spoken about but gay men are still men ..... Often women's spaces become hijacked with a particular fundamentalist feminism that is so narrow and prescriptive that it lacks relevance to all but a minority of women.

Those of you that know me well will probably know that I am utterly obsessed with labels. While I am a fan of many aspects of pomo discourse, who gets to call themselves what, and how labels and identity allow us to work together, to unify and to create boundaries are issues I find immensely meaningful. This doesn't have to mean an essentialist world view, with membership of a community being etched in stone - shifting labels and identities are powerful, but I have yet to see affective community development, or activism come from a position of fluidity. Maybe when I do witness thins, I'll stop wearing my many, varied and occasionally contradictory labels on my tee shirts, soap boxes and inked into my skin.

Oh, and don't get me started on the woman-born woman issue! I don't know about you, but I was born a baby. Whoever decided on that F on my documents certainly didn't consult me. Any more that the Catholics that baptised me. Both of them got it equally wrong in my case. If I present gender cues that are consistent with what Western society considers is appropriate with my gender-assignment-at-birth, that actually feels somewhat coincidental. As many femmes who have "M"s on their birth certificate will tell you (not always transwomen, some men, not always gay ID as femmes), this works, it makes sense for us, this is how we feel powerful.

When hideous people like Janice Raymond (who wrote that nasty, mean-spirited piece of trash The Transexual Empire) also started dissing sex workers, it just made the coalition between sex workers, transwomen and to a certain extent femmes as the targets (far more so, often that str8 white, able bodied, cisgender men) of mean spirited fundamentalist feminism, and thus natural allies, on at least some issues. When I was in a long term relationship with a transwoman, I decided to no longer identify as a woman. This wasn't coming from some weird desire to guiltily reject cisgender privilege but more to use labels as an opportunity to create meaningful coalitions - and to reject those that didn't work for me. Being in the same room with a group of transwomen has always felt safer and more affirming than being around anyone with the same views as Janice Raymond, Sheila Jeffreys et al. If anything being in the same space as separatist fundamentalist feminists actually feels oppressive and abusive, as that branch of feminism spends more time critiquing my hair and heel length, my clothes, my sexual practices and my allies and friends than it does doing anything to dismantle institutionalised sexism.

This branch of feminism sees all gendered presentation as oppressive - particularly femininity as it is seen as declaring yourself as sexually available to men, unworthy of equality, fluffy and not to be taken seriously or simply making yourself a rape target. Compulsory androgyny is seen as the acceptable way to present yourself. To this I say - to those that say a binary gender system is oppressive and the way of dismantling sexism is one 'choice' not two is as depressing as that crap song that suggests the end of racism by building a 'great big meltin' pot' and producing 'coffee coloured people by the score'. I am really not resigned to the only chance for equality is when we are all exactly the same.... that isn't harmony or equality to me - it's some creepy fascist fantasy! To me the answer always feels like more choices, not less. A different gender identity and presentation for each person on the planet!

So when I have to fill in a box on forms, I put a W for whore, or - if pressed, an F for femme. I find most of the time official forms that ask people to declare a letter, do it for no purpose whatsoever, simply convention. I encourage you, gentle reader, to ask why the collection of this information is relevant, or to start coming up with your own gender identity - might I suggest wonky (just cause I really like the word) asparagus (as you then have a great opportunity to wear loads of green clothes) or 9..... because it's a really nice number.... my point is that humour, complexity, queering bureaucracy and being wilfully obtuse is more fun, and less oppressive than fundamentalism, and might just change one or two small things.

Quarter of a Million Towards Migrant Sex Worker Rights

Scarlet Alliance funded for sex worker peer education

In October 2007, sex workers around Australia gathered in Kalgoorlie to hear presentations from migrant sex worker colleagues, including Empower Foundation in Thailand. Sex workers at that meeting resolved to take migrant sex worker rights to Canberra. 12 months later, Canberra is listening, and has granted $250,000 to Scarlet Alliance to extend peer education to migrant sex workers in Australia, with the aim of improving working conditions.

"Migrant sex workers are working in legalised, decriminalised and tolerated workplaces in Australia," Elena Jeffreys, President of Scarlet Alliance, said today. "Trafficking is not characteristic of sex work, but it may be characteristic of workplaces that don't have access to the same rights as other people. Prevention is better than prosecution. By improving working conditions, we can prevent trafficking."

The funding was announced by the Hon. Bob Debus, Minister for Home Affairs, on the 23rd of October 2008. Scarlet Alliance acknowledges Mr Debus' long standing support of the sex worker community response to HIV, and welcomes his office as a new funding partner on the issue of trafficking.

"Scarlet Alliance is looking forward to using the announced funds to improve workplace conditions for migrant sex workers in Australia, to co-ordinate policy work that has previously been unresourced, and to assist our diverse membership in Australia to better meet the needs of migrant sex workers through peer education."

"This money by no means will solve all issues for migrant sex workers in Australia," Elena Jeffreys reminded supporters today.

"Scarlet Alliance will continue to lobby for adequate resoucing and policy, but in the mean time are celebrating what a succeful year we have had in 2008. The Rudd Government has done considerably more for trafficking prevention and migrant sex worker rights in 12 short months than the Howard Government achieved in 12 years."

Another new initiative by Mr Debus is a policy roundtable to better inform the Government on trafficking issues. Scarlet Alliance is a member of the roundtable, and has participated in the roundtable sub-committee that has prepared a new set of Guidelines for Non-Government Organisations who work with people who may have been trafficked.

"Scarlet Alliance is committed to working from reliable evidence to promote migrant sex worker rights and prevent trafficking of sex workers," Elena Jeffreys concluded today. "The next step is to deliver a more equitable, accessible and transparent visa framework for sex workers wishing to travel to Australia, and we are confident that with broad community support, the Rudd Government will deliver."