Are you going to read it or dismiss it because it's too long?
I already spent an hour this morning rebutting a stupid article in The National written by a feminist against normalizing sex work.Stand with SWOP-Chicago in Supporting Amnesty International’s Proposal on Decriminalization of Sex Work
by Serpent
April 3, 2014
For Immediate Release
The Sex Workers Outreach Project (SWOP)-Chicago supports the proposal put forth by Amnesty International to decriminalize prostitution. We believe that the criminalization of actors participating in the sex trade contributes to a host of negative effects for both sellers and buyers of sexual services: it alienates them from communities that support their health and human rights, precludes the development of social services that can help them address issues of concern, undermines their ability to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS and other STIs, and eliminates the agency of individual sex workers. In countries where sex work is decriminalized, violence against sex workers is reduced and access to health and human services is increased.
The removal of punitive laws and policies targeting sex workers is crucial. SWOP-Chicago is not alone in this belief. International agencies such as The Global Commission on HIV and the Law, UNAIDS , the World Health Organization, the Global Alliance Against the Trafficking in Women (GAATW) and the Human Rights Watch have called for or support the decriminalization of sex work. Contrary to what some may have you believe, decriminalization is NOT an attempt to legalize ‘pimps’, nor does it increase exploitation of sex workers. Such arguments are made with a limited understanding of the sex trade, a limited understanding of global capitalism, and undermines the struggle for sex workers to live healthy, safe, stigma-free lives.
Decriminalization will help sex workers address all forms of exploitation, including abusive or sub-standard working conditions instituted by both state and non-state actors. In countries such as the United States where sex work is criminalized, sex workers are often afraid to come forth Criminalization of buyers of sex will not eliminate this concern, but would instead drive the industry further underground. Clients will be more likely to withhold personal information that sex workers need to keep them safe in order to prevent the police from using this information.
Finally, SWOP-Chicago is committed to ending human trafficking within the sex trade. Criminalization of prostitution hampers the anti-trafficking efforts of organizations working with people in the sex trade and makes it easier for sex workers to be wrongly categorized as trafficked persons. Moreover, under criminalization, there is a reduced chance that those who are trafficked into the sex trade will come forward against their traffickers. Criminalizing the buyers of sex is tantamount to eliminating the agency of individual sex workers, and creates an environment conducive to the proliferation of human trafficking.
SWOP-Chicago and other members of the sex worker rights movement are in agreement with with other human rights movements in condemning the abuse and violation of the rights of all individuals, including sex workers. Thus, we stand in solidarity with Amnesty International in calling for the full decriminalization of prostitution.
Please join us in posting this statement and spreading the word via social media using the hashtags on Friday, April 4 in support of Amnesty International's consultation of the decriminalization of sex work.
#YESamnestyDECRIM #Amnesty2014
#NotYourRescueProject #Amnesty2014
#StandWithYouthWhoTrade #Amnesty2014
Tumblr- http://endcriminalizationnow.tumblr.com/
Members of SWOP-Chicago
www.swop-chicago.org
@swopchicago
https://www.facebook.com/SwopChicago
Unless you can prove otherwise.
How is supporting SWOP "not" a waste of time, in regard to decriminalizing sex work?
Tell me something, as I'm not sure what I was supposed to take away from this post.
OP ... Convince me to buy/support SWOP.
because with supporters like you, we'd have to work double hard to make our point and then try to disregard yours.
Just stick to going with the flow...we'll get this.
You did not answer the question. SWOP needs to show me how they are going to get the job done.
How do you expect people to support a cause, which is the equivalent to pissing in the wind?
Just stick to going with the flow...we'll get this.
I believe by the fact that they are fighting for an activity you enjoy enough to break the law means they should have your attention.
SWOP needs to show me how they are going to get the job done. That's all I ask, how do they plan on accomplishing their goal ?
Sell me on SWOP
Are you going to read it or dismiss it because it's too long?
I already spent an hour this morning rebutting a stupid article in The National written by a feminist against normalizing sex work.
Show me how SWOP is going to compete with the makers of Durex condoms. When I read the local prostitution arrests. The articles are often sponsored Reckitt Benckiser.
http://www.rb.com/media-investors/category-performance/pharmaceutical
Show me why I should invest my resources in SWOP, and not RB Pharmaceutical
That was funny!! Might add AF and meinsache to that list too.
..can figure out how to regulate and tax every single monetary exchange between sex worker and customer it ain't going to happen in the United States. Too quote a long ago 'alias' on these discussion boards known as 'Cynicalman'. "IT'S ALL ABOUT THE MONEY!"