Audacia Ray's Blog, page 58
April 12, 2011
These are the ladies I'm spending my week with at the...
These are the ladies I'm spending my week with at the United Nations.
Check out their action agenda at http://resurj.org and in spanish at http://espanol.resurj.org.
(I made the sites. Working on French for tomorrow and editing a video now)
April 11, 2011
Rabbit holes
Three of them, and this is the only way I can get a handle on the last handful of days.
One: I just spent two and a half days training sex workers to tackle media and public communications in a confident, strategic way. It was beautiful, and I got misty eyed more than once watching everyone in the group support each other and provide feedback for one another. It seemed like everyone got a lot out of the training, which is good because I put all my heart and soul and unsleeping time into this project. I am so proud that Speak Up is now three years old, and that there are requests for more trainings that I'll be doing this year.
Two: There were four more bodies discovered in the Long Island serial killer case last week, and I have done a few hard and heartbreaking interviews about the case. There was a meta moment in this too, in which I had to pause an interview role play during Speak Up to take a real press call. I was misquoted in an enraging way, and though I got it changed online I feel sick thinking about the quote that was printed today.
Three: Today I got up at 5 am so I could make it to a strategy meeting preceding the opening of the Commission on the Population and Development at the United Nations. I knew I'd be providing communications support to the new group RESURJ, but I didn't know I'd end up making a website for them, which is what I did today. It's been fun and interesting to be in this space, but if I think to hard about it, I'm feeling like I'm coming apart at the seams a little.
I feel the crash coming. But I need to get through another three days at this pace.
"RESURJ is an international alliance of feminist activists seeking full implementation of..."
RESURJ is an international alliance of feminist activists seeking full implementation of international commitments to secure all women's and young people's sexual and reproductive rights and health by 2015.
"RESURJ by 2015″ is a 10-point action agenda that places women's and young people's human rights, particularly sexual and reproductive rights, participation in decision-making, and accountability at the center of health programs and development efforts. RESURJ calls on all decision-makers to:
1. Expand decision-making opportunities for women and young people by ensuring their meaningful participation in all stages of design, monitoring and implementation of sexual and reproductive rights policies and programs at national, regional and international levels.
2. Prioritize sexual and reproductive rights in health systems strengthening and development programs so that integrated, high-quality services are available, accessible, and acceptable to all women and young people, particularly those most underserved. These services include comprehensive information on sexuality and contraception, services and supplies (including emergency contraception, post exposure prophylaxis, male and female condoms); pregnancy care (antenatal and post natal care, skilled birth attendance, referral systems, and emergency obstetric care); safe abortion services and post-abortion care; access to assisted reproductive technologies; prevention, treatment, and care of sexually transmitted infections and HIV; prevention, treatment and care of reproductive cancers.
3. Guarantee universal access to this package of essential sexual and reproductive health services by providing sufficient and sustainable financing to achieve the training, deployment, and retention of necessary health workers; ensure equitable access and good quality services; free or subsidized care for those in need; and monitoring of potential disparities through regular collection and analysis of sex- and age- disaggregated data.
4. Protect women's and young people's human rights in sexual and reproductive health programs by guaranteeing that services are designed to respond to individual's health needs and overcome barriers faced by marginalized groups, including through service provision that is free from stigma, coercion, discrimination and violence, based on full and informed consent, and that affirms the right to pleasure. Programs must ensure respect for women's and adolescents' privacy and confidentiality in accessing services, and their capacity to make free and informed choices regarding their sexual and reproductive lives from childhood to old age in all their diversiy; and pay special attention to marginalized groups of women and adolescents, including those with disabilities, living with HIV and AIDS, and of all sexual orientations and gender identities.
5. Create and sustain comprehensive, objective, and accurate sexuality education and information that is accessible and affirming for all children and youth in and out of schools. Comprehensive sexuality education programs promote sexual and reproductive rights, gender equality, self-empowerment, knowledge of the body, bodily integrity and autonomy, and relationship skills development; are free of gender stereotypes, discrimination, and stigma; and are respectful of children's and adolescents' evolving capacities to make choices about their sexual and reproductive lives.
6. Allocate funds targeted to HIV that protect and empower women and young people. In particular, guarantee funding for the provision of comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services that include comprehensive sexuality education; prevention, counseling, voluntary testing, treatment and care of HIV, as well as other sexually transmitted infections and reproductive cancers; and universal access to female and male condoms, microbicides and other women-initiated prevention technologies and vaccines.
7. Ensure that intellectual property agreements support states' obligations to uphold the human rights of women and young people. Governments must make use of all trade-related intellectual property rights (TRIPS) flexibilities to ensure that intellectual property rights rules do not adversely affect individuals' access to medicines, and generic medicines in particular, as well as other prevention technologies.
8. Foster an enabling environment for the realization of women's and young people's sexual and reproductive rights by guaranteeing women's and young people's economic, social, cultural, civil, and political rights; removing all structural, legal, and social barriers to the enjoyment of these rights; guaranteeing other underlying determinants of health (such as good nutrition, and access to clean water and sanitation); and achieving gender equality.
9. Strengthen transparency and ensure the establishment of effective monitoring and accountability mechanisms for health and education programs at the local, national, regional and international levels that are supported politically and financially. Monitoring and accountability mechanisms must adopt a systemic and sustained human rights approach, provide effective remedies and redress to rights holders when sexual and reproductive rights are violated, and lead to the constant improvement of existing programs and policies.
10. Guarantee that financing for development is sustainable and harmonized among donors and multilateral agencies and that sexual and reproductive rights and health programs are prioritized.
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This week I'm at the UN Commission on Population and Development doing communications support for a group of young feminists from around the world who are launching an Action Agenda for their new group, RESURJ - Realizing Sexual and Reproductive Justice.
So far I've been talking through branding with them, and I did their website today.
April 8, 2011
At UN civil society hearing, looking ahead to the High Level...
At UN civil society hearing, looking ahead to the High Level Meeting on HIV that will take place in June. This pic is of the General Assembly hall, where there is a lot of green! Green wall to wall carpet (can't imagine being tasked with vacuuming the GA), green table tops, green marble podiums at the front of the room.
"Sex workers often work in isolation because of the criminalized status of the work, but I don't..."
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Prostitute Disappearances Unnoticed Until Bodies Were Found - NYTimes.com
There's a really good, sensitive article about sex work and violence in the New York Times. I'm pleased with my quotes, and there's a good shout out to the Red Umbrella Project.
Last night, at the Red Umbrella Diaries, I was introduced to the families of two of the performers, and the third performer spoke about her family in her piece. Certainly, not all sex workers have such supportive family in their lives, but many do - or at least have relationships with their families. Which means that people care when we go missing. But "people" don't include the police or the media, unless the body count is more than one.
On the eve of the third annual Speak Up (which I should also note, is the 2nd time in 3 years that a murder story was being reported during the training), it makes me feel my convictions ever deeper. It is essential to amplify the voices of people who have experience in the sex trade to tell our truths. Those truths will help change our circumstances if we keep telling them, while also demanding the end of oppressive policies that criminalize us and make it difficult or impossible for us to access services and live safer lives.
April 7, 2011
rentboyblog:
Interview with RAFAEL ALENCARWinner of the...
Interview with RAFAEL ALENCAR
Winner of the Title
International Escort of the Year 2011
What's the best thing about being a rentboy?
The money is great but I do enjoy meeting people. My clients are my best friends.
Worst thing?
I like the term "prostitute" and think its a compliment, but I don't like when people call me "prostitute" as an insult. And I answer, "I used to fuck for free like you."
What did you do with the HOOKIE AWARD trophy? Where is it now?
Well, my family is my biggest fan, so my sister asked me to display it on her shelf to show off to the rest of the family and friends.
www.rafaelworld.com
www.rentboy.com/brazilianhunk
OK, so, it is catchy: There's pink! And a slogan! And a...
OK, so, it is catchy: There's pink! And a slogan! And a minisite by a Serious Organization!
But here's why this is not as awesome as you think it is:
To get technical and specific - so we need to keep the government out of our uteri? what about our vaginas? or our eyeballs? or our armpits? or myriad other bodyparts, essential to reproduction or not? The uterus is not a symbol of the whole body or of the whole woman, it is a very specific organ. It is shortsighted and very unstrategic (not to mention cissexist and biased against women who do not have a uterus) to focus on this one body part. Focusing on the uterus, even if our opponents are doing that, does not fix the problem.
What we should be fighting for are BODILY RIGHTS. As in - your right to control your environment ends at my skin. Bodily rights are not tied to reproductive abilities, gender, sexuality, or sexual behaviors. This "my uterus is my business" stuff is tied to those things, which means it is limiting and discriminatory.
Think bigger than the little ole uterus.
"The point is that Republicans are always talking about deregulation and big government. But I say their philosophy is small government for the big guy and big government for the little guy. And so, if my wife's uterus was incorporated or my friend's bedroom was incorporated, maybe the Republicans would be talking about deregulating."- Representative Scott Randolph
SO MUCH WIN HERE.
There is NOTHING about this statement, that I do not love.
"I'd really like to bring some of that energy to Providence, a city that frankly could stand to be..."
I'd really like to bring some of that energy to Providence, a city that frankly could stand to be sexed up and booked up a little.
That's where you come in. Are you a writer? A sex worker (past or present) that's always wanted to write? Someone with really interesting things to say about sex? Or maybe just a queer that's good with words? I would like to hear from you, then!
If you're interested, send me an e-mail with your name, a very brief bio, and a sample of something you're proud of. [Links to writing samples are okay, and so are e-mailed text files (.doc or .rtf, please).] You don't necessarily have to have books published (although be sure to let me know, if you do) but you should be someone who writes stories and is comfortable telling those stories out loud. I am open to most kinds of prose, fiction and personal narrative alike, but chances are pretty slim that there will be any poetry. (Sorry–personal bias.)
I'll be looking at entries on a rolling basis between now and the end of April. 11:59 on April 30 is the absolute cutoff, although the earlier you submit the better your chances are.
Preference will be given to not-totally-straight people and to people who have somehow traded their bodies for money at some point. Strippers, porn stars, burlesque performers, escorts, dominatrices and the like are all strongly encouraged to submit.
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Can We Please Just Talk About Sex Now, Please? « Mixtapes for Hookers
I am so very excited that Matthew Lawrence is doing this!
You can listen to the story he told at the Red Umbrella Diaries - My Problem With Television.
April 6, 2011
Tonight I had my brother over for dinner, and he told me that he...
Tonight I had my brother over for dinner, and he told me that he recently was at a friend of a friend's house and he saw The Bi Apple, the porn film I directed and produced, on the dude's shelf. He expressed surprise at seeing it there and told the dude that he did the music for the movie (oh yeah, I totally hired my bro to score my porno). Neither the dude nor any of his friends believed my brother. He spent some time trying to convince them, but they still think he's bullshitting them. Hilarious.
Gay caveman: 5,000-year-old male skeleton 'outed' by way he was buried | Mail Online
Archaeologists are ungendering a trans womaen 5000 years after she died and pretending that "sexual orientation" not only is the same thing as gender, but that the meaning of orientation has remained constant over history and culture.
The words we use for sexuality are created by culture; what we think of today as "orientation" (which not so long ago, and sometimes still today, was called "preference) is not "natural."
