Response to Melissa Farley

Dear Ms. Farley,

Thank you for your response to our blog. While you excluded SWOP from your statement I would like to answer a few of your questions directly and also ask a few of my own.
“Melissa Farley has never taken a ” federal antiprostitution oath” whatever that is. Her research was supported 70% by Prostitution Research & Education and 30% by the Trafficking in Persons Office of the US State Dept. No agency has influenced Farley’s findings or her conclusions, including the US government. Farley’s opinions are her own.”
That you don’t even know what the Federal Anti Prostitution Oath is a devastating statement to those you are representing who want to get out. I would strongly advocate you research this Anti Prostitution Oath under TVPRA and USaid as it is killing many of the very people worldwide that are in line with your views and want to get out but lack the resources and ability to do so and also lack the street outreach and resources that existed for them prior to this oath’s implementation in 2005. As a prostitution expert it is quite an astonishing statement that you are unaware of such major Federal legislation that is so strongly opposed throughout the rest of the world. Legislation that is seen as imperialistic, first world lack of cognizance of the realities faced by the remainder of the world and as lethal to sex workers and empowering to the pimps, traffickers and customers that you oppose.
• Certainly the pimps and customers benefit by the lack of funding for agencies worldwide as a result of this oath as many customers prefer not to wear a condom and speaking from first person experience working with Chilean outreach organizations Angelina Lina and Margen, agencies which can no longer provide condoms or safe sexual practices education to sex workers, this anti prostitution oath is literally killing the women, children and transgendered they were once able to assist with funding from the United States.
• The termination of funding caused the collapse of sex worker organizations and drop in centers in Cambodia. These drop in centers gave women a place to shower, to rest, to collaborate with each other and find strength in group to work toward whatever goals they wished, whether to assist each other in safety, in identifying dangerous customers, traffickers, education or even in discussion and assistance to each other to get out when they were able and chose to do so.
• As a result of this anti prostitution oath sex workers worldwide are more isolated, more vulnerable and more exposed to harm, which is a traffickers and predators dream come true. It is much easier to harm another person that is isolated and alone than with peer and agency support.
Thus as an expert in the field of prostitution I am dismayed to find that you aren’t aware of this legislation. When you signed your paperwork as a recipient of funding there would be a clause which you agree to use this funding in compliance with federal law thus your lack of knowledge does not change the fact that you agreed to the oath whether deliberately or unknowingly by virtue of not reading the fine print. Had you listened to a wide spectrum of current and former sex workers rather than selecting those most likely to support the end result of your studies you would have known about this anti prostitution oath. However, we are all human beings and each of us makes mistakes, therefore this is a very timely and opportune moment for you to broaden your contact with all in prostitution and all who have gotten out, and to enhance your expertise by listening to the views and work of organizations and activists previously excluded from your worldview. A subject matter expert is someone who knows a subject in it’s entirety to the best of their abilities. Now that you are aware I am confident that you will research this oath, see the global harm it has caused and become more willing to extend the scope of your work and research to ensure that those that want to get out worldwide remain alive until they are able to do so.
Melissa Farley asks “The challenge Melissa Farley offers Desiree Alliance and COYOTE and the Nevada pimps is: do you think that we should listen to the vast majority of women who want to GET OUT of prostitution? “
As a member of Desiree Alliance and Executive Director of SWOP East, I can state unequivocally that we do listen to the women who want to get out. I have personally assisted many women who wanted to get out as an advocate for them in SWOP East. SWOP East, which is a member of Desiree Alliance, has volunteers which are also on our board at a homeless shelter called Cabrini House in Minneapolis, MN, that being Gayle Thomas, and I have worked with her on many occasions on housing assistance for those wanting to leave prostitution. Another SWOP East Board Member, Lucy Spina, provides psychological counseling through a collaboration with Northwest Youth and Family Services in Shoreview, MN to sex workers who want to get out or want any kind of psychological support. I personally have done many speaking presentations with homeless sex workers in shelters discussing how I got out, listening to their wishes, hopes and effort both to get out and whatever else they chose, as I also respected that they were the expert in their lives and was not there to advocate anything to them other than what they chose. I too can be considered an expert in prostitution through actual personal experience as a trafficking victim, as a sex worker, and as an activist. Only I choose to listen to all view points and allow the individual to be the expert in their own lives and work to facilitate their process rather than impose my own upon them. I also remain in contact with exit organizations and have referred many sex workers wanting to get out to them. Any sex worker that wants to get out should have every opportunity to do so and every resource to assist them. I have never met a sex worker rights activist that felt otherwise. It should also be noted that in 2006 a version of my experiences in the sex industry including getting out was published in Gloria Steinem’s Enslaved: True Stories of Modern Day Slavery. Thus I too act as a voice for those harmed in the sex industry and those who wish to get out. Only my scope is not limited to that one topic as all sex workers are human beings and it is imperative to me to support everyone’s human, civil and labor rights. I am certain that now you are aware of Desiree Alliance and SWOP’s commitment to similar goals that it will assist you in working with all organizations and viewpoints to achieve similar goals.
Melissa Farley asks “Carol Leigh of COYOTE said in a public debate with Farley in Berkeley a couple of years ago that “100%” of the women she knows in prostitution want to get out. Farley doesn’t use wild numbers like Leigh’s. Her numbers are more conservative and based on careful research: 89% of women in 9 countries and 81% of women in the Nevada legal brothels - all of whom told Farley they wanted to immediately escape prostitution. Do their voices register at all with Desiree Alliance”
If you read the core values of SWOP East, core values based upon those of IUSW, remembering that SWOP East is a member of Desiree Alliance, the following principles are our core values
• Decriminalization of all aspects of sex work involving consenting adults.
• The right to form and join professional associations or unions.
• The right to work on the same basis as other independent contractors and employers and to receive the same benefits as other self-employed or contracted workers.
• No taxation without such rights and representation.
• Advocating sex worker rights to be free from coercion, violence, sexual abuse, child labor, rape and racism.
• Legal support for sex workers who want to sue those who exploit their labor.
• The right to travel across national boundaries and obtain work permits wherever we live.
• Clean and safe places to work.
• The right to choose whether to work on our own or co-operatively with other sex workers.
• The absolute right to say no.
• Access to health clinics where we do not feel stigmatized.
• Re-training programs for sex workers who want to leave the industry.
• An end to social attitudes which stigmatize those who are or have been sex workers.
• Working to end child sexual tourism
This document and it’s related sex worker human rights statement authored by Ayoola Silvera and I, on the SWOP East website, www.swopeast.org does listen to those who want to get out. We also do more than just listen to their wishes, we advocate for and provide through collaborative efforts resources for them to do just that. We also have a collaborative project based on our own webspace at www.humantraffickinged.org or www.thestormproject.com authored by Makini Chisholm Straker, a med student at Brown University, to assist health care providers in recognizing trafficking victims as well as sex workers that are harmed in the industry offering recognition and assistance education. I personally have presented to many organizations including the University of Minnesota Program in Human Rights in Medicine on this very topic and released a video which was available for four years on this topic until the master copy was damaged beyond recovery. So I can state without question their voices do register with Desiree Alliance and SWOP.

SWOP East has been outspokenly critical of the Nevada Brothel system and opposes legalization instead supporting decriminalization for the very reasons illustrated by the failures of the Nevada brothel system.
Melissa Farley states “ These are the women who don’t have access to a computer or for that matter a safe place to spend the night away from predators

SWOP East has a collaborative project with Chilean agencies Margen and Angelina Lina which is a very short time from launching, this project is called Pledging Action. It is a project which will provide condoms to outreach organizations in Santiago, Chile, who will get the condoms to the sex workers. In meeting with them one of the most dominant concerns they had was that while internet is widely available through internet café’s in Chile at very low prices, the sex workers do not know how to use a computer and need assistance in that very basic skill. But that is unavailable due to the US Aid anti prostitution oath of which you are unaware. There ability to access the internet after learning computer skills could be established by ending TVPRA and the US Anti Prostitution Oath, restoring funding as examples to both Angelina Lina and Margen to provide this service and also to SWOP East to send qualified educators on the internet to Chile and other countries and even in the United States. Only right now we can not provide this service because we work with all sex workers, those wanting to get out and those wanting to remain and refuse to deny services to those choosing or unable to leave sex work. Their lives are as valuable to us as those wanting to leave. Every life is valuable. If they had internet skills they could access information on how to leave prostitution if they choose to and even have access to your work in the event you have it translated at some point into Spanish. SWOP East as an expert translator from English to Spanish or reverse named Beatriz Mercado who works at very reasonable rates because she cares more about the people than about receiving first world rates for her work. Given your funding access I am certain you would want to assist women in Spanish speaking countries in exiting the sex industry and I am happy to refer you to her so that you can begin to offer your expertise to those not literate in English.
Melissa Farley writes: What is Desiree Alliance doing to help women get out? What are the UNLV faculty and their students doing to help women get out of prostitution?
See above for what Desiree Alliance is doing to help women get out. I can not speak for UNLV faculty as I have no contact with them. I can state however that UNLV students are planning a day called International Day of No Prostitution Las Vegas 2007. And while I personally do not endorse or support this event and found it to be woefully counter productive after my own experiences with it in 2002 as a participant, I do however allow the UNLV students to post information about this event on my blog www.myspace.com/jillbrenneman unedited and at their will without fear of censorship or moderation despite my opposition to this event. I’m confident not that you are aware of our efforts that you will support Desiree Alliance and SWOP in the December 17th event International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers and offer reciprocal courtesy on your blog to our event as we are both committed to assisting those who want to leave prostitution and fighting violence against all in the sex industry.

Ms. Farley, thank you for your thoughtful letter and outstanding questions and for affording me the opportunity to answer them and present information that may not have been known to activists outside the sex worker rights movement. I am confident that now we have found common ground that you will be most willing to join us in uniting in the fight for those who want to exit the industry and for the human, civil and labor rights off all sex workers and that you will agree the anti prostitution pledge is lethal legislation and join us in opposing it. I am confident that this opportunity while probably somewhat painful has proven to be an outstanding opportunity for you to broaden your scope of expertise in your work on behalf of those in prostituton.

This blog event provides a prime opportunity for you to broaden your scope of expertise and join a larger group of activists and subject matter experts as we can join together on mutual goals to work toward social justice. It is now up to you to choose or decline this outstanding opportunity.

Jill Brenneman
Executive Director
SWOP East