One of the most disheartening shifts I’ve seen in the political battles around sex work is the growing trend for various jurisdictions to shift towards a version of the Nordic Model, in which buying sexual services is illegal. While it’s a minor improvement over arresting sex workers, it’s an incredibly flawed and overly simplistic approach. […]

I recently participated in a facebook thread about this tumblr post on the topic of sex work, which in turn, was sparked by this tumblr post. The discussion I was in included a back-and-forth between me and someone who wants to abolish sex work by criminalizing the purchasing of sex, but not the selling of […]

I recently sat in on Audacia Ray’s presentation at Momentum, Why the Sex Positive Movement is Bad for Sex Workers’ Rights. She’s also posted her essay from the conference anthology on her site, so you can read her thoughts on the topic. You might also want to check out this analysis of her post. My […]

Last week, Fetlife (the kinky social networking site) went offline, as can happen. And the folks running the site decided it would be funny to tweet about it: http://twitter.com/#!/FetLife/status/105135991261642752 Predictably enough, a mini twitter-storm ensued, as various folks called Fetlife out for it. And a few days later, a post by Rayne on Eden Cafe […]

I’ve been an advocate for sex workers’ rights for a long time. Unlike many people, I think it’s possible to create a world in which people have the freedom to engage in commercial sex AND the freedom from having it imposed upon them. I’ve known too many people who paid their way through college or […]

Debates about sex work and trafficking aren’t new, but they sure are heating up these days. As someone who has known many different sex workers of all different genders and sexual orientations in pretty much every branch of the business, while also not having ever been a sex worker myself, I find that I have […]

As if being a sex worker isn’t hard enough, you can also be blamed if someone kills you. To catch you up if you’ve missed the story, a serial killer targeting sex workers and killed at least ten of them, burying their bodies  along Ocean Parkway in Long Island. This is hardly the first time […]