Audacia Ray's Blog, page 57

Embarking on book organizing and packing in earnest. These six...

Embarking on book organizing and packing in earnest. These six stacks of books are all about sexuality. Other thematic piles include history of science, poetry, NYC history, graphic novels, media studies, memoir & biography, fiction. I think I'm going to lump everything else into "cultural studies & social history," otherwise there will be too many tiny and overly specific sections. Then they'll be alphabetized by author in each section - I think that's probably best.

Packing for the move. Most of my possessions are books. On the...

Packing for the move. Most of my possessions are books. On the left, boxes of $pread magazine back issues and my book Naked on the Internet. On the right, my fiction collection. The five piles on the right represent about one sixth of my total book collection. Most of it is nonfiction, cultural studies and social history type stuff, plus books about sexuality.

apt4e:Black chandelier! To go with our soon-to-be lavender...

apt4e:

Black chandelier! To go with our soon-to-be lavender dining room/foyer.

Today I made my gothy dreams come true, and I bought a glittery black chandelier for my new apartment. Check out those tear drop crystals! It's going to be raining gothy femme glamour! In this photo we were deciding between black and white candle holders. Went with black.

There will be three chandeliers in the apartment (50% of the rooms): dining room/foyer, master bedroom, and bathroom.

Met with the contractor last night and it looks like it'll only be another two weeks until the renovation is done. Then we'll be ready to paint and move. We're thinking tentative move date of mid-May. Soooo… one month to do a hell of a lot of packing. Doable, I think.

Limits and revived energy

Yesterday I wrote this in an email to the NYC sex worker activist email listserv:

As we continue to get a flood of media requests, I just wanted to put this out there - I am feeling physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted, not to mention triggered by answering questions like "how does it feel to know no one cares when prostitutes go missing?", plus "what can sex workers do to prevent violence?" and "are you afraid?". I haven't had a day off in almost three weeks and have taught intensive trainings over the past two weekends.

I don't want to do any reactive television interviews until next week, and I only want to do limited print interviews for bigger papers at the moment. I wrote yesterday about the messages I've been repeating over and over that aren't getting enough play.

I want to concentrate on getting some play for the amnesty campaign and would do interviews about that. I am also working on an op ed and an article and would like to spend my time focusing on producing media in which I'm controlling the message. So that's where I'm at.

So. worn. down.

This morning I woke up a little before 6 am (which over the past few months has become my normal waking time so I can work on various projects before I go to work at IWHC) and wrote like a motherfucker. It felt good, the rage flowed through me and into my words. I love when that happens. Hopefully I'll have a few pieces to show for it next week.

This weekend I will hopefully be posting less about dead colleagues and more about things like my new apartment and the black chandelier I am hoping to buy tomorrow. I need to see and do something that inspires hope and joy about the (or at least my) future. Also sleep.

Protect, Don't Prosecute: Asking for Amnesty for Long Island sex workers

Last night I launched a campaign to ask for amnesty for all prostitution related offenses in Suffolk County, Long Island while the search for the serial killer is ongoing. Here's who you can contact and some sample language for the ask. I got in touch with the Police Commissioner initially because he's been calling for sex workers to come forward with info, but as per below - the DA has the ultimate authority to grant amnesty. So it's important to get in touch with both of them.

Here's what my correspondence so far looks like:

Dear Commissioner Dormer,

I am a former sex worker who lives in Brooklyn and I am writing to express concerns my community has about the lack of protection police are offering to sex workers. I was actively advertising escorting services, which included working in Suffolk county, on Craigslist during the time that some of the murder victims went missing, so this issue is especially dear to my heart. Despite my precautions, those remains could have been mine. During this time of extreme anxiety following the discovery of the remains of at least 10 people, it is important for you to extend goodwill to our community.

We appreciate that you have invited sex workers to come forward with information that may help in the investigation of these crimes, but we are requesting that you formally establish amnesty for prostitution related offenses until the killer has been apprehended. Declaring amnesty would go a long way in demonstrating that the police are serious about prioritizing the lives of sex workers.

Sincerely,

Audacia Ray
Brooklyn, NY 11218

First thing this morning I got this:

Ms. Ray:

Thank you for contacting the Suffolk County Police Department regarding this investigation.   The information you have provided has been forwarded to our Homicide Section, which is tasked with this investigation.  I have also forwarded it to Commissioner Dormer's attention. Please feel free to contact me if I can be of further assistance.

Christopher M. Bergold, Deputy Chief
Office of the Police Commissioner Suffolk County Police Department

And then a bit later, a blackberry message from Police Commissioner Dormer:

Audacia. I received your message re amnesty for sex workers. You should be aware that that is under the authority of the DA
Also know that our primary goal is to catch the person responsible for these crimes. We are not looking to make arrests for prostitution when a sex worker comes forward with information
I have stated cleary that the occupation of the victims has no bearing on how we conduct this investigation

Richard Dormer SCPD

So now I've sent an email to the DA. You should too. I'll update this post as I learn more.

In the week leading up to December 17, 2010 – the International...

In the week leading up to December 17, 2010 – the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers – the remains of four women who were killed while doing sex work were discovered on a beach in Long Island. Over the past two weeks, the remains of six more bodies have been found in the same area. Suffolk County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer has requested that anyone involved in the sex industry who may have information about the disappearance of colleagues come forward and share this information with the police. But there remains a rather large barrier: prostitution is criminalized, and sex workers have no guarantee that we will be protected from prosecution if we step forward. Therefore, we are calling for amnesty for all prostitution related offenses in Suffolk County until the killer is apprehended.

If you are a sex worker or an ally of sex workers, please contact the office of the Suffolk County Police Commissioner and make this request. We especially need people who live in the New York City / Long Island area, especially Suffolk county, to make calls and send emails.

FULL INFO AND SAMPLE LANGUAGE HERE.

The precedent: In 2006, when the "Suffolk Strangler" case was developing in Ipswich, England, the police department responded positively for a demand for amnesty put forth by the English Collective of Prostitutes. While the homicide investigations were underway, British police didn't arrest sex workers. Here is a piece about the request, and a follow up piece in which Assistant Chief Constable Jacqui Cheer is quoted saying, "The welfare of the prostitutes working in Suffolk is my priority at this time." Let's put pressure on the nearer Suffolk county to respond similarly.

Red Umbrella Diaries Podcast Episode 40 - Love & (Pocket) Rockets: Rebecca Alvarez

Red Umbrella Diaries Podcast Episode 40 - Love & (Pocket) Rockets: Rebecca Alvarez:

Screw Smarty Rebecca Alvarez tells a tale about the complications of falling in love with a coworker at a feminist sex toy shop where canoodling with coworkers is forbidden. The audio carries a lot of her enthusiasm, but you'll miss the visual of the sock puppets. Yes, there were sock puppets at my story telling series. It was pretty great.

Also: woo! Episode 40!

I kind of want to do something special for episode 50. What should it be?

melissa:It's actually fortunate that Demi & Ashton's "Real...

melissa:

It's actually fortunate that Demi & Ashton's "Real Men Don't Buy Girls" video PSA's are so terrible, they may turn people against the campaign itself — which does nothing to improve the lives of people involved in the sex trade, no matter how or why they sell sex. Real men aren't self-aggrandizing charity hogs. Real men understand that patriarchy is part of the problem. Real men don't mistake wealth for wisdom. Real men don't save anyone. Real men shut up and listen.

(Also? WTF Robert Scoble?!)

(via)

There are so many things to hate about this - the tone, the framing… but I REALLY hate the use of the word "real." I know that rhetoric isn't going away, but appealing to people through the concept of living up to being "real" is essentialism and all around ridiculous. Not to mention, in this case (and many cases) racist, cissexist, and not actually capable of doing laundry. Do they mean that if you don't fit this profile you're not a real mean? Yeesh.

melissa:REAL GIRLS* AREN'T BUYING THIS.A video PSA, starring...

melissa:

REAL GIRLS* AREN'T BUYING THIS.

A video PSA, starring Ashton Kutcher, defender of real girls everywhere, meeting his match: an actual real girl.

Want to stop celebrities from using people in the sex trade to get publicity for themselves?

Support these organizations so we can speak for ourselves:

Desiree Alliance
Different Avenues
Global Network of Sex Work Projects
INCITE
Red Umbrella Project
Sex Workers' Project
St. James Infirmary
Streetwise & Safe
SWOP-USA
Women With a Vision
Young Women's Empowerment Project

* Girls being the target of their campaign should not distract us from the reality that people of every gender are involved in the sex trade.

Thanks for the Red Umbrella Project shout-out!

"What can sex workers do to prevent violence?"

Is one of the lovely victim-blaming questions I was asked in one of the interviews I did this week.

This week I have been tangling with the ugliness that is the news cycle around the discovery of bodies that belong to people who were engaged in sex work when they were killed. 

Some of my messages have been getting through, and I've been pleased with some of my quotes. But the messages that I repeat over and over in every interview but haven't been getting through include:

The criminalized status of sex work makes it impossible for us to stay safe
The actual act of telling other sex workers how to stay safe is criminalized as "promoting prostitution"
If Police Commissioner Richard Dormer really wants sex workers to come forward with information, he should grant amnesty on prostitution related offenses
Sex workers are women and men, cisgender and transgender, as well as gender non-conforming - not just "women"

I'm strategizing other ways to get these messages out and about, struggling with that balance between the desire to reach the masses through mainstream media and actual get accurate and nuanced information across. The gulf between those things is ever growing.