Fed Bust of Rentboys less serious than Phoenix Temple?

[davephx]

Fed Bust of Rentboys less serious than Phoenix Temple?

While gay escorts have mostly avoided LE issues now they are raging mad. I understand they were no help in the fight to challenge the prostitution laws on constitutional grounds.

Unlike many straight escorts who just want to hide underground (other than a few in the battle for years), the gays may fight like they did after Stonewall. It took many years but perhaps rentboy may be the Stonewall for private consenting adult escorts - led by the gays.

The night after the arrests, a group of lawyers and activists held an emergency "know your rights" workshop for sex workers in response to Rentboy.

The seven were charged under New York lower class prostitution laws and the Federal Transportation Act. The charges appear far less serious than Criminal Enterprise and money laundering Arizona indicts on in many cases.

While rentboys only face a maximum of few years in prison (up to 5 yrs under Fed Transportation Act), the Phoenix Temple 39 wonderful women with no direct connection to any prostitution faced 40-70 years in prison if they didn't take a plea - with FAR LESS evidence of anything illegal. The Phoenix Temple was $33,000 in debt at the time of the SWAT raid 4 years ago and almost all the defendants could not afford private attorneys.

Good example and details:
After Rentboy Crackdown, Angry Sex Worker Condemns "Growing Moral Panic"
http://gothamist.com/2015/08/26/sex_..._crackdown.php

I have read the Federal Complaint and Affidavit In Support of Arrest Warrants (for seven charged) which is 22 pages of details.

It seems to be more blatant and larger than redbook or some of the straight escort busts. Why Homeland Security did the investigation I have no idea. Feds claim the site averaged 500,000 unique visitors a day - about 70% from the U.S. Feds claim gross revenue of over $10 million over 5 years. It seized more than $1.2 million in assets.

[davephx]

SWOP-USA Press Release Comments - Highlights
Dave notes: The Gay community is speaking out in mass with the same argument that should be just as a strong about straight sexwork.

8/26/2015 Press Release:
The rentboy arrests come just two weeks after Amnesty International voted to adopt a policy in favor of decriminalizing consensual adult sex work. Several global and national Human Rights and Harm Reduction organizations including UN AIDS, UN Women, The World Health Organization have also have also advocated for decriminalization of consensual sex work in the past.

Sex workers & the LGBTQ community have been advocating for decades that criminalization and policing of the sex trade and those profiled put communities at risk of violence and exploitation. Laws against the sex trade have always been used to police the bodies of marginalized communities, especially LGBTQ and communities of color. When sex workers are prosecuted under these laws, it can become harder for them to find mainstream work because of their criminal record. The closure of Rentboy is the latest in a long history of abuses of people in the sex trade that puts these communities in more vulnerable and sometimes dangerous positions.

Rentboy was one of few websites male adult workers could use to find clients. Rather than the "worldwide prostitution ring" news articles have called it, Rentboy provided an opportunity for many to find economic security. Rentboy.com also helped form HOOK Online, a resource for men in the adult industry. This resource provides safety tips, an opportunity for a college fund, some legal advice and a way for adult male service providers to exchange ideas and keep each other safe from violence.

Several in the LGBT male sex work community spoke out against the closure of Rentboy.com:
“Rentboy.com is more than just an ad site for adult entertainers. They put a lot of time, effort and resources into harm reduction and learning about rights and resources. I've advertised with them for 7 years. Thanks to rentboy, I've had a roof over my head and food in my belly because of work I consensually chose.”

“As a queer and trans person who is denied job opportunities because of my trans status, this industry has given me the opportunity to feed and help myself. I take several precautions to be safe, but at this point I don’t know how I can move forward in this safely. This community of sex workers is my family.”

"With Rentboy gone, independent sex workers will need to take unacceptable risks to meet basic needs."

As advocates for the human rights of sex workers, SWOP-USA stands against attempts to forcibly eradicate the sex industry and advocate for the health and safety of all people in the sex industry. We condemn this abuse and intimidation by law enforcement, which will make our communities, friends, and families more vulnerable to violence and exploitation

[davephx]

While gun murder is rampant – consenting adults having fun is a serious criminal offense
Good video and discussion “The Gigolo is Up” at https://youtu.be/VqME_jL_vU4
The nation is so much safer now since consenting adults cannot enjoy their sexuality.

[davephx]

Rentboy.com, Sexism, and “End Demand”
by Charlie G. a sexuality educator and coach for over two decades. helping people who struggle with sexuality, ignorance, shame, and fear. "I've also had the honor to witness the incredible transformations that stepping into authentic sexuality can create."

8/27/2015 Blog Highlights
When we compare the way that Rentboy is being talked about compared to how Redbook was, we can see some patterns in how we think of male sex workers versus female sex workers. That shines some important light on our gendered attitudes about sex.

When Redbook (a comparable site for female sex workers) was raided in June, a lot of the publicity around it focused on how the website was supposedly enabling illegal sex trafficking. There was plenty of talk about how the women who advertised sexual services needed to be rescued. Given how the myths around sex trafficking are interwoven into the discourse around female prostitution, this isn’t a surprise. But what is a surprise is that there hasn’t yet been any mention of trafficking when it comes to Rentboy. It’s as if men are magically immune to sex trafficking, while women couldn’t possibly be involved in commercial sex without it.

Female sex workers (especially cisgender women) are portrayed victims, while men aren’t.

One of the things I find most striking about the “end demand” rhetoric against sex work. It assumes that the only demand for sex work comes from clients (assumed to be men). But in a world in which people need money to survive, support their families, get an education, or simply thrive, there’s a demand on the part of sex workers, too. Making sex workers’ lives more difficult by removing their access to the screening mechanisms available online, and by making it harder for them to connect with clients and guard themselves from risk, anti-sex work folks aren’t actually ending that demand. They aren’t putting food on the table, clothes on someone’s kids, or helping them buy books for college. All they’re doing is making people’s lives harder, in the name of “rescuing” them.

This is a personal issue for me. People I know, people I respect and admire, people I love are at far more risk as a result of these raids. People I love have less access to the work they need to do to support themselves. People I love are now less able to protect themselves by screening clients and assessing their choices. Their need for income and their demand for work haven’t gone away, but now, they have to make harder decisions about how to meet them. During the Vietnam war, a major was quoted as saying “It became necessary to destroy the town to save it.” That pretty much sums up the “end demand” approach.

That’s what that I find most scary about the Rentboy raid. Nobody is presenting this as saving male sex workers. The police aren’t even pretending that this is about rescuing anyone. All they want to do is destroy them by taking away their access to work. When we take the thin veneer of “protecting women and children” away, we see what’s really fueling the anti-sex work side. It’s about ending something that some people find distasteful, without any respect for the rights of the folks who feel differently about it and choose to do it.

The irony in all of this is that Rentboy has done far more than any rescue organization to actually help sex workers. They started a scholarship to help sex workers go to school and “think about long-term career paths outside of the sex industry.” They made it easier for individuals to manage their labor and safety, which took pimps out of the equation and increased sex workers’ autonomy. In the words of a man who advertised on the site, “Rentboy…made this a safer business to be in.” That safety has been taken away. What do you suppose will happen now?

The guys who advertised on Rentboy aren’t being portrayed as victims, in the way that the women who advertised on Redbook were. That says a lot about gender roles and expectations. But at the end of the day, they’re all victims of the anti-sex work forces that want to destroy them.

Much more of article at http://charlieglickman.com/2015/08/2...sm-end-demand/

[davephx]

Norma Jean Almodovar (Cop to Call girl book known for)
I am sure it will be as effective as ending the demand for drugs has been- and the cops arrest over a million people a year for drug possession - while the cops manage to arrest perhaps 15,000 men for prostitution. Meanwhile, rapes and sexual assaults go unsolved because cops manage to arrest only about 5% of alleged rapists every year. Shouldn't we end rape and sexual assault by pursuing the predators who actually commit a violence crime against someone who asks for help - BEFORE we pursue men whose only 'crime' is to pay for that which they could otherwise get for free (if they bought someone a drink or offered them a wedding ring)?
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Even coveratge in the U.K.
Key points by the Daily Mail London 8/31/2015
'This has become a City Hall war against gay sex': Activists slam Mayor Bill de Blasio over RentBoy.com raid and his 'harassment of the LGBT community'

Members of the gay community are slamming Mayor Bill de Blasio for his role in the raid of the gay escort service RentBoy.com

The raid came shortly after Amnesty International announced they would be pushing for the decriminalization of consensual sex work around the world having found that sex workers are far less likely to be harmed or put at risk in areas where the trade is legal.

Even The New York Times editorial board attacked the decision, saying the complaint was 'an indictment of gay men as being sexually promiscuous'

Mayor de Blasio and NYPD Commissioner William Bratton both worked closely with federal prosecutors to plan the raid

The LGBT community hasn’t seen such harassment and intimidation since before Stonewall in 1969, one activist told the New York Post,

This has become a City Hall war against gay consensual sex. Some wonder whether this is happening to rid the city of "gay sin" prior to the arrival of de Blasio’s friend, the Pope.

Another activist wondered why de Blasio felt the need to participate in the raid while former mayors never went after the site which had been operating since 1996 and had a database of more than 10,500 men

Even the editorial board of The New York Times said of the raid; 'It’s somewhat baffling, though, that taking down a website that operated in plain sight for nearly two decades suddenly became an investigative priority for the Department of Homeland Security and federal prosecutors in Brooklyn.

The Times editorial board then points out that there are a variety of good reasons gay men turn to sex work, saying authorities should 'consider whether continuing to spend time and money turning the website’s operators into felons is worthwhile, while far more serious crimes, including human trafficking and sexual exploitation, go unpunished.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz3kMGeuQa2
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Some media going wild with the rentboy bust- what is wrong with sex between consenting adults? Issue is getting far more media attention with the bust of rentboy.com than the bust of Redbook or other straight sexwork sites.

No victim industry, no abuse or started at age 14 nonsense that is used against female prostitution with massive funding into the victim industry. None of this when its about prostitution!

Love Me, Want Me, Rent ME getting lots of links and praise by a male escort or works to take care of his disabled partner and is often more a counselor to clients. The Politics of Sex at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzmzBn5nKQw

A YouTube comment:
This story is heart breaking, yet beautiful at the same time. The men that hire need companionship and the escorts provide that and more. Demonizing escorts and making them seem like criminals is horrible. I love that this video proves that theory wrong.
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SEX is my Job - Prostitute from France - Law and Justice - Documentary Full Lenght
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPHyWJdDCbQ
In French with English subtitles
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Why The Rentboy Raid Matters More Than The Ashley Madison Hack

There is legal justification for the Rentboy raid, as prostitution is illegal, but advocates say the investigation and subsequent shuttering the speaks more to law enforcement’s competing priorities, where non-violent crimes take priority in a climate of growing social unrest among marginalized communities.

Recent proposals to decriminalize prostitution as a way to better protect adult sex workers and decongest the judicial system, have given rise to an intense debate over whether such policies would encourage abuse and sex trafficking.

“Nowhere has the government suggested that this business is harming or exploiting anyone…we see old fashioned moralistics,” said Harper Jean Tobin, policy director for the National Center for Transgender Equality and the Board Chair for HIPS, a harm reduction organization for drug users and sex industry workers in Washington, D.C.
But the sex trafficking component has been largely absent in the Rentboy case, an indication, advocates say, that preventing harm isn’t law enforcement’s main goal. “With any female-dominated [escort] website there is a narrative of trafficking, with Rentboy that isn’t there, and points to the gender narrative of trafficking,” said Sex Worker’s Outreach Project’s spokeswoman Katherine Koster. “None of these websites are dominated by trafficking victims, but hopefully going forward, the way Rentboy was understood and processed will also apply to female-dominated websites.”

The arrests come weeks after President Barrack Obama and the DOJ vowed to reduce sentences for non-violent drug crimes, a move that predominantly affects young black and Latino men and would reduce prison populations. But in the case of Rentboy, the prioritization of the bust seems counterintuitive and could do more harm than good.

Regardless of the complaint, the prosecution of these laws — whether they are sex workers, or clients or offering a website to communicate — it only harms people and increases the dangers” experienced in adult sex work, which isn’t all illegal, Tobin said. “Shuttering [escort sites] drives advertising further underground, making it harder for law enforcement to find the real exploiters.

Online escort websites have been regarded for giving adult workers of all varieties — exotic dancers, dominatrices, escorts, etc. — a platform where they can screen clients and escape the predatory third parties who may take their money or physically abuse them. And while the loss of Rentboy reverberates through the adult industry, the case should also remind the LGBT community that the laws need to change.
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2015/0...x-trafficking/