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Year End Report 2021

In our traditional spirit of transparency and accountability, we’d like to share with you the highlights from the Erotic Service Providers Legal Education and Research Project (ESPLERP) activities in 2021.

By the way, our apologies for this Year End Report only appearing in March, but over the last 6 months  we were very involved in the StopTheRaids effort (see https://stoptheraids.org/) organizing against law enforcement raids against sex workers and our clients around the Super Bowl (see below). So in some cases, this Report reflects the status of events as of January and February…

Please do ask if you would like more information on any item below or you are interested in joining in – at info(at)esplerp(dot)org

A Word About The Opposition  

Equality Model US (https://www.equalitymodelus.org/) is yet another well funded ‘anti trafficking’ (translation: anti sex work) organization. They clearly realize they are losing the argument about decriminalization. But they have now co-opted our language and are now promoting their perverted version of decriminalization. This is really the ‘Nordic Model’ re-branded – where they want to criminalize our customers, while claiming that it saves us. This despite Amnesty International’s report in 2016 (https://www.amnesty.org/en/policy-on-state-obligations-to-respect-protect-and-fulfil-the-human-rights-of-sex-workers/) clearly shows that the Nordic Model approach does not change the way in which the State criminalizes sex workers at all.

But all that funding means they can lobby for anti sex work bills in multiple states. See the Policy summary below.

Celebration of Life for Margo St. James

In May we caught up on the Celebration of Life for Margo St. James YouTube video. And here is Maxine talking about Margo St. James and the important foundation she laid for our decriminalization movement – .https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHBNAvCYqKE.

International Whore’s Day was a blast!

On June 2nd (International Whore’s Day) we hung banners across California’s major roadways in Los Angeles, San Francisco Bay Area, and Sacramento. It was very successful in that we got great visibility with commuters (cue lots of honking!), plus we built coalitions with other groups and individuals who came out to help. Distributing materials in 7 different languages. A big Thank You to SWOP Sacramento (https://sacramentoswop.com/) and the Sidewalk Project (https://www.thesidewalkproject.org/) for all their help.

GAO report on FOSTA

In June, the General Accounting Office (GAO) produced a report which summarized some of the effects of FOSTA since 2018 – https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-21-385

The report is very carefully written – presumably because they do not want to admit that FOSTA has been a flop. And they do not even try to address the harms to sex workers. But they do admit that prosecutors have only used FOSTA once, and that they’ve had success using existing laws to prosecute platforms. For example the shutdown of Backpage.com, and the seizure of its funds, was prosecuted under pre-FOSTA legislation.

This is useful ammunition for our friends in State and Federal legislatures when the “anti’s” lobby for even more “anti trafficking” legislation – like the EARN IT Act (see below).

Folsom Street Events

Folsom Street Events (FSE) re-calibrated their events during 2021.

  • Up Your Alley became Folsom Street Market – and happened July 25th.
  • Folsom Street Fair became MEGAHOOD2021 – and happened September 26th. The first Folsom Street Fair all the way back in 1984 was called MEGAHOOD – so the renaming was a way of  It was a stand against gentrification and insistence on a place for the community

Because there was no fair in 2020, FSE is still building back its financial reserves. As a result, there were no beneficiary grants in 2021. But as we provided volunteers for both events this year, we will receive extra credit toward a grant next year.

Surveillance

We received a grant to identify which law enforcement entities are using surveillance technologies against us.  If you would like to help out with sourcing databases, text Maxine at 1-883-433-2546 ext 2.

Reading suggestions

Our friend and ally Jerry Mosley published a book – “Sex Workers and Their Clients: In Their Own Words” (Palgrave Macmillan). You can get it on Amazon (buy it at https://smile.amazon.com/Sex-Workers-Their-Clients-Words-ebook/dp/B08QRXW3N2/ to benefit ESPLERP) or direct from the publisher (https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-61552-9).

Check out Professor Barb Brents’ new book – called Paying for Sex in the Digital Age by Teela Sanders, Barbara G. Brents and Chris Wakefield. NY: Routlege 2020  ISBN-13: 978-1138318731 (https://brents.faculty.unlv.edu/books/paying-for-sex-2/).
Barb Brents is a long time researcher of the sex trade at the University of Las Vegas, and we’re excited to read her book on our often unduly over looked clients. You can purchase it at https://bookshop.org/books/paying-for-sex-in-a-digital-age-us-and-uk-perspectives

“Their data proves conclusively that clients are not the chief source of the exploitation and violence that characterizes some segments of the sex industry. In a fully decriminalized context, where they feel free to report abuses to the authorities, clients can be a key part of the solution.”
Thomas K. Hubbard, William A. Percy Foundation for Social and Historical Studies

In Loving memory – Leahallurah

We were saddened to learn that Leahallurah, 35, passed away unexpectedly in late September 2021.

Although she most recently moved from Sacramento to the Sierra Nevada foothills, her career began in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2014 and extended into the NorthWest including Alaska and Texas.

She was a member of the Erotic Service Providers Union and helped out with volunteering at events for the Erotic Service Providers Legal, Education and Research Project.

Leahallurah was and always will be loved. We are left with memories of her quick wit. And her inspirational life philosophy will live forever with those of  us who were lucky enough to have known and loved her.

Leahallurah is survived by her mother, aunts, grandmother, uncles, cousins and nephews.

International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers

On December 17th, we joined with Sex Workers Outreach Project (SWOP) Sacramento and SANE (Safer Alternatives Through Networking and Education (SANE) to honor the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers.

Super Bowl LVI and StopTheRaids – https://stoptheraids.org/

We spent much of the last quarter of 2021, and January and February 2022, organizing with other sex worker activist groups in the StopTheRaids group (https://stoptheraids.org/), trying to raise visibility and awareness of how law enforcement and the media promote a fake panic about “sex trafficking” to justify harmful, dangerous raids on sex workers and our clients.
Year after year, these Super Bowl raids have failed to identify few, if any actual trafficking victims. Instead, they disrupt and destroy the lives of sex workers and our clients, who are subsequently forced through the criminal justice system for a law enforcement publicity stunt / fund raising scam.

For example, a report from the USC Gould School of Law’s International Human Rights Clinic strongly advocates against these raids, calls them “ineffective” against trafficking and “traumatizing” to sex workers, predominantly women of color. 

As part of the StopTheRaids effort, we created and disseminated a Media Kit (https://stoptheraids.org/media-kit/) to media organizations – coaching them on what law enforcement says and what they actually do – and encouraging them to ask pointed questions about charges and arrests when law enforcement do press announcements about their (imagined) “success” in stopping “trafficking”.

Some of that hit home. For example the LA Times ran an Editorial on “The dangerously fake link between the Super Bowl and human trafficking” (https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2022-02-06/super-bowl-trafficking-link) where they said

“It’s a myth. It has been debunked many times over, including by some leading organizations that fight trafficking.

…

Yes, the public should be reminded of the persistent problem of trafficking. But we should not allow people and institutions in positions of authority to either lie to us about Super Bowl trafficking or put forth fake stories about other supposed crimes and dangers.”

We also ran a Webinar – “Stop The Raids, Stand With Sex Worker Rights During Super Bowl LVI 2022” – which streamed live on February 9th, 2022, with a distinguished expert panel and nearly 100 attendees talking about how law enforcement uses large sporting events (like the Super Bowl) to target sex workers and their clients under the guise of anti-trafficking. You can see a recording of the webinar at https://youtu.be/xZayaA528Kc

Despite everything, LA Sheriff Villanueva (a notoriously non-progressive old school cop) clearly wasn’t listening – because post Super Bowl he trotted out a slew of misleading claims about his department’s (imagined) “success” in stopping “trafficking” – https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/02/16/super-bowl-179-prostitution-related-arrests-made-leading-up-to-the-game/.

Those claims were promptly debunked by Elizabeth Brown in Reason – https://reason.com/2022/02/16/214-sex-workers-arrested-in-super-bowl-human-trafficking-mission/ – who pointed out that the arrests were state wide, rather than just in LA, and that most – 445 out of 494 – were for misdemeanors; only 49 were charged as felonies.

And they had to really reach for these numbers. Many arrests were miles away in Santa Barbara and San Bernardino, or at the other end of California in San Francisco or Fresno – absolutely nothing to do with the Super Bowl.

Media Coverage

Policy Changes

Policy Agenda 2022

We find that our Policy Agenda is an invaluable tool when talking to legislators – especially in educating them about protections our community is going to need regardless of our status. The criminalization of consensual sex creates a system with multiple levels of social and institutional discrimination – which need to be addressed with or without decriminalization.

You can view the 2022 draft at – https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yWrH2xZimznJw3xvKjfrrXthHsgdor2xwUuSmu5onYY

​

New Board Members

We need new Board Members! So if you have the time and energy to help, and particularly if you have legal, media or fund-raising skills, please do contact Claire at claire.alwyne(at)gmail(dot)com.

Finance

Despite everybody facing substantial economic pressure during 2021, we raised $50,000 from grants and individual donors.

We need to raise funds to move forward on additional policy and legal fronts – such as educating legislators and the potential California state court case. Your donations continue to make the difference in having our voices at the table.

We so appreciate your support – both financially and in spreading the message that sex workers and clients have a right to sexual privacy. This is a bottom-up activist movement and we appreciate any feedback you might have for us. Thank you.

Wishing You All A Happy 2022,

Maxine, Reada, Claire, Elle and Phil

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The Erotic Service Providers Legal, Education and Research Project (ESPLERP) is a diverse community-based coalition advancing sexual privacy rights through litigation, education, and research.

Erotic Service Providers Legal, Education and Research Project (ESPLERP)

2261 Market St. #548, San Francisco, CA 94114

esplerp.org, decriminalizesexwork.com

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