POINTS TO CONSIDER ABOUT THE VALUE OF SEX WORKERS ANONYMOUS

Sex Workers Anonymous was founded in 1987. One has to consider what the world was like back then in order to properly analyze what differences there are between then and now. What's changed and what's the same?

Back then prostitutes fell into only one of two categories. Non-sex workers fall into the “Madonna or Whore” categories. With sex workers – it's either the street walking junkie with the pimp standing behind her or we had icons back then like Xaviera Hollender (the Happy Hooker) who was smart, sexy, and “independent” both financially and from having a pimp.

The third category of the trafficking victim who could be any type of person being forced into the sex industry was considered an “urban myth” back then. They existed – but they were considered on the same level as if you tried to tell people aliens existed. No one believed you and if you tried talking about this they'd lock you up for observation.

I know because I tried to speak about it to my therapist back then I hired because of anxiety attacks I was having. When I told them what was causing my attacks – they promptly started to order me locked up for 72 hour observation. I was witnessing women being kidnapped right off the street by men like the Hillside Stranglers as they were dubbed – only to then force these women into prostitution. http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-hillside-stranglers    Once they'd then become a “prostitute” the police would then refuse to even listen to their accusations, let alone arrest these guys. So yeah I was afraid to even walk down the street back in the 1980's because of what I saw happening around me. It was like having a target painted on my back as a prostitute – and it caused me to have anxiety attacks.

When I asked why the therapist wanted to lock me up after I explained this to him – he said it was because I “clearly was hallucinating because things like this just don't exist”. However, when I offered to let him meet one of these women, or look at the news clippings, he didn't know how to respond other than to at least not lock me up then in the psych ward.

There used to be weekly round-ups of us. Police would get big “paddy wagons” and go out to places such as the Sunset Strip and load the street prostitutes into them. They'd make them bail out and it was just normal “routine” to everyone. Since these raids were on the news all the time – people began to associate street prostitution with sex work. People like me didn't consider them sex workers however. Rather we considered them to be junkies more than anything who used prostitution to supply their drug habit.

The problem of public perception was huge. How are we going to go about changing the system to help us when it doesn't even know who we are? To raise awareness on this issue – I turned to COYOTE. A group I belonged to who was pretty much the same as SWOP is today. If they asked to give presentations to the police, probation, judges, or even the press even about who and what sex workers are – they would be laughed at. That or they wouldn't believe us because they figured that we either were doped up, crazy, or trying to “market” ourselves. This would be the same as if bank robbers were to ask to give a presentation to these people so they'd be “better understood” in their minds. But they would be interested in listening to one given by a 12 step group designed to help people exit the industry. In other words, we were able to get us into places that groups like COYOTE couldn't in order to get our message heard.

So I set up an “open house” where I invited just these people – police, probation, judges, social workers, therapists, and even the press. As people walked into the meeting room – I was sitting in the audience with everyone else. Over coffee I discussed with these people their ideas of what an “ex-madam and ex-prostitute” was going to be like. I heard some pretty tough things to hear.

After everyone was seated – I stood up and introduced myself. I watched everyone's mouth fall open as they realized that in “reality” I was not anything like their pre-conceived notions. I then confronted that head on – that maybe, just maybe, their perceptions of who we are isn't based in reality either. If I wasn't who they “thought” I'd be – maybe the rest of us were different also. Once their minds then were open – I was able to show them who we are.

Do we have junkie prostitutes standing on corners turning cheap tricks for dope? Sure we do. But we are also women like Suzy Favor-Hamilton who is making millions of dollars in endorsement deals, married to a wealthy businessman, a mother, a celebrity and athlete – who flies to Vegas once in a while to turn $600 an hour appointments.  http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/suzy-favor-hamilton-136952    She's not doing this for the money or the drugs clearly.

As we began to change people's perceptions of who we were – we were able to change things. Back then we had an HIV epidemic brewing. The only way to get tested was to go to health department locations who were only open from 9 to 5 pm staffed by non-sex workers making minimum wage. To prevent catching the disease one needed to use condoms and spermicide. Only if you were caught with these in your purse, or in your home even – the police would call them “evidence of prostitution”. Evidence the prosecuting attorney and judge would allow. If one were found positive – then all that happened then was if you were arrested for prostitution after having received that news then you'd be charged with a felony for “attempted murder”.

No smart sex worker wants to set themselves up for problems – so to protect themselves they were not having condoms or spermicide anywhere near them. They were also not getting the test so they didn't have to worry about being charged with a felony down the road. Why not just quit? If I tell you to walk off your job today – what's going to happen? Your rent is going to come due isn't it? The same with us – so the question after being told one was positive was how was one going to pay the rent or pay for medications which back then ran about $10,000 a month.

So the mayor back then, Tom Bradley allowed us to put together a special “commission”. This commission consisted of someone from the police, probation, health department, social services, etc. As for sex workers – I was elected as the “representative”. Now was I there as a COYOTE member? There's no way a currently active sex worker would have been allowed on that board. But while there representing our 12 step group – we were able to set up not only the first “alternative to sentencing” program in southern California but also to change the way HIV was addressed also.

We were able to get a budget to hire ex-sex workers. Not current sex workers – but “ex” sex-workers. They were trained to do outreach for testing, education, prevention, etc. We were able to hire sex workers who had found out they were HIV positive – and now offer them jobs as outreach workers to find others who were sick and help with prevention.

Special test sites were set up for us also staffed by ex-sex workers. They were open night hours and allowed for completely anonymous free testing. Transgenders were also hired so that other transgenders would feel comfortable coming out for testing. Special offices were selected so that if a person had a pimp they wanted to leave – we could walk the pimp out one door and them out the other to safety.

If one were to either want to leave their pimp, or if they were found positive – we had a program in place that gave them immediate housing, food, medical insurance, vocational rehabilitation, and even an advocate was assigned to help them wade through applying for all the services they'd need to start a new life. People were sought out who would offer us scholarships, help with housing, and employers were found who would hire us for jobs with criminal records. We even found sources where we could get investments to open our business – even if we had felony convictions. Because we were a 12 step group – we were able to find these resources in ways that a currently active sex work or sex work rights' group couldn't.

The issue of past criminal records came up. How were we supposed to get someone a new job if they had a string of past prostitution arrests? Our 12 step program became useful for more than just being an “alternative” to sentencing. We were also able to help prepare a presentation for the court to consider expunging one's records for past mistakes. Again, could COYOTE, a great organization mind you, have accomplished these goals? The judge wouldn't have even been allowed to hear them without that being a complete public relations nightmare.

While in some large urban cities there are some young attorney's who donate time to help some of us with things like this – there is no system set up nationally to accomplish things like helping one of us petition the court for record expungment, or even to shorten our probation, or offer alternatives to jail, even community service hours in the way we can as a 12 step program. We can even offer help to those who live in teeny tiny little towns where the nearest attorney is 100 miles away.

As women found out they were in fact positive for the virus they of course wanted to leave sex work. However, in some cases this didn't make their husbands very happy. When dropping the news some were even physically attacked. So now we're seeing women who are victims of domestic violence – only the domestic violence shelters were refusing to admit them. Not only fear of some pimp with a gun coming after the residents and the staff – but also fear of the virus. The other women would chase a prostitute right out of the house – fearing they'd catch some “filthy disease from the whore” or saying they didn't want their children to be “anywhere near that slut”.

Quitting sex work also meant sometimes getting drug treatment. Even though the state was now paying for their treatment through this project we'd set up – many weren't accepting them. Some were afraid of the virus. Others knew the complications that would arise from the residents and even the staff all seeing the woman as “fair game”. There were many stories of staff members raping prostitutes at night in these programs. The residents were raping them in the kitchens or the sheds in the back. What were their chances of pressing charges when telling stories of being raped while going through detox? Basically nil. I mean look at the problems women accusing Bill Cosby are having – can you imagine if they were in detox or treatment when this happened? So the legal departments of many of these programs were refusing to even admit us for treatment in fear of the lawsuits and the bad press.

What about the other drug treatment centers? How would we find out if they were in fact accepting them so they could get this woman off alone somewhere and sexually abuse, or even rape her? The men also. There were rumors for 10 years one program run by a priest was sexually violating all of the male prostitutes in their program. Because that was another issue we found common. Programs would actually offer scholarships and welcome prostitutes – only to hear it was because someone upstairs liked having access to a prostitute, male or female, who couldn't press charges for rape easily in their total control.

So we found drug treatment centers that would let us have 12 step meetings of ours within their program. By coming into their program weekly to hold our meetings – we were able to check up on how well prostitutes were being treated. If there were any complaints – it would be much easier for us to go and speak to the program director than the prostitute. Especially if they needed us in order to keep their lights on and their grants coming. Especially when to silence one of their clients – all they would to do would be threaten to throw them out. With us doing the talking – they can't do this.

Because many programs found they could get extra funding if they took in prostitutes long before they were labeled “trafficking victims”. However, to get this extra funding to work with prostitutes one has to have then a 12 step group coming in as part of that program. Without our meetings, no funding. No funding - no program. This gave us a distinct advantage when negotiating for them with management.

I'll give you a recent example. A woman had an accidental overdose so she was taken to the hospital. They realized it was due to drug abuse so they offered to pay to put her into drug treatment. She had been supporting herself, and her habit, with prostitution. So when she got out of the hospital, the county offered to pay for her an apartment, food, counseling, etc. until they could get her a bed in a drug treatment program. Her counselor had referred her to us.

To be in this program – she had to be at her apartment at 9:00 in the morning to get psychiatric medications. Then again at 7:00 at night. Only life goes on and she also needed to be looking for work, thinking about school, and also going to Narcotics Anonymous meetings. At 9:00 in the morning – we needed to have her out looking for work. At 7:00 at night – this is when the NA meetings were going on. There also was frankly no need the medications she was on – they were giving her side effects. If she said anything to the program directors – she could risk being kicked out. This could mean she'd even lose her place to stay.

So a member of SWA went to speak to the program director on her behalf. Again, is this something a member of COYOTE or an active sex worker could have done for her? Could have tried – but I don't think they would have even agreed to a meeting. When going to meet with the program director – we found them extremely resistant to the idea of taking her off the medications. They didn't even want to discuss changing the hours of the dosages either.

When pushed as to why – it turned out this was an experiment this woman had been placed in so as to test the effects of experimental medications. In other words, she had been selected to be used as a guinea pig lab rat for some doctors to test out psychiatric medications on a prostitute who was self-destructive anyway in their minds. When she was first released from the hospital – this woman was too “hazy” to even think these people might be putting her into a an experimental drug research program. All she saw was a free apartment, free food, TV, free counseling, free medical care, and the promise of drug treatment. Yeah drug treatment to straighten her out after they messed her up doing research. http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/las-vegas-psychiatric-clinic-closes-under-federal-pressure

Realizing that this horrific use of people as lab rats without even properly informing them they were in fact being used for research purposes was now “out of the bag” - the people who were behind this promptly shut down the whole Rawson Neal Mental Health facility. To cover their tracks they tried just throwing these patients out of their subsidized apartments without even a proper eviction notice right into the street. Our SWA member was able to say “not so fast” and negotiated this prostitute financial assistance, housing vouchers, etc. to support her for six months until she could put her life back together after what these people had done to her.

Why am I explaining all of this to you? To try and explain some of the reasons why Margo St. James and I used to have lunch together and talk often when she was running COYOTE and I was running our 12 step program. Our end goals were the same. We both wanted to see sex work decriminalized. We both wanted to see it treated just like any other industry – meaning things like workers compensation, disability, even pension plans offered to us. Because of the way we were targeted, for things like even medical research, we needed “advocates” who could follow us into drug treatment, hospitals, jails, etc. - all to keep on eye on us and make sure we were treated properly and humanely.

Any industry has an element of trafficking. I don't care if you're running a restaurant where there might be cooks or bus boys who are trafficking victims. I don't care if you're in the fashion industry where there might be sweat shops doing cheap sewing using trafficking victims. Leona Helmsley was found guilty of trafficking in the 1990's women to be maids at her luxury hotels. Private homes even are found with trafficking victims doing the household cleaning and even gardening. Which meant if sex work is going to be recognized as being the same as any industry – then programs to address trafficking also needed to be created and maintained.

All things not easy to do when the public's perception again is either that of the street walking junkie or the high flying escorts dating wealthy businessmen. While these people exist – they're not the industry as a whole. Nor are these images going to help us produce change within the very structures of our society and legal system.

Why? Because no one feels “sorry” for an adult who is using drugs and letting herself be exploited by a pimp. Is that accurate? No – but that's what the reaction is of the public to that perception. As for the upper level sex industry – people think they don't need any help either. It doesn't enter their minds that a well paid escort could also be suffering from things like drug addiction, depression, mental illness or even domestic violence back at home where she's just like anyone else coming home from work to face issues in their personal lives.

It's not easy to transition out of sex work.  Those still in the business don't understand that - let alone help us go through the process easier.  We saw something like this following Jenna Jameson in the news. After she announced she was quitting the industry (where the AVN audience “boo'd” in response), she's now been divorced, arrested, and even lost custody of her kids.  She didn't have these issues until she "retired".  http://www.tmz.com/2013/04/14/jenna-jameson-tito-ortiz-arrest-moves-out/    A program likes ours can offer her emotional support from other women who have been in exactly her shoes.

Nor did we agree with the fact that financial assistance with things like medical care, housing, scholarships, etc., were only given to men and women who were “victims of violence” yet if that same victim was a “prostitute” they were excluded. Nor do we think that only a “victim of trafficking” should be receiving assistance to transition out of sex work.

While groups like COYOTE focused on changing the laws and situations around us while we are active in the industry – our program focused on helping us find transition out of the industry as well as our circumstances after we retired, like “after-care”. Things like counseling, treatment, housing, etc. for us simply because we wanted to leave sex work. Not to have to be a “victim” of anything to find help.

This is why we worked to set up relationships we have right now with people who can offer anyone who wants to leave sex work, for any reason, things like scholarships, housing, even food and medical. Like a company we work with who has a branch on both the east and west coast. They'll take anyone wanting to leave sex work and put them up in apartments they own for employees. They'll get food vouchers, medical insurance, and free job training. While they work for them – they get credits for college. They don't care about a past in prostitution – in fact they consider them as very “good with the public” and will hire them for jobs like customer service for those reasons.

Now is this company going to broadcast that they have this relationship with us? What a public relations nightmare that would be “large corporation catering to families has a policy of hiring ex-prostitutes and ex-pimps and ex-madams and ex-porn stars to work for them”. I don't think so. So our program allows companies to offer us such assistance – without having to make a public announcement about their willingness to assist us to transition out of the industry. Something if they partnered with groups like COYOTE would be a public relations nightmare. However, they can offer us transitional help in an “off the books” kind of relationship by SWA acting as a “go between”.

We got a very big education during 1988. Joe Conforte put up $1,000,000 into a PR firm to help him get prostitution legalized in California. At that time, the FCC had a rule in place that any views on things involving legislation had to have a “counter-opinion”. So I stepped up not just to “counter” Joe's pitch – but to push for decriminalization. In other words, I wasn't just trying to defeat Joe but instead I was trying to use the press and momentum to get sex work decriminalized.

It was a valuable lesson in politics and fund-raising. Groups like COYOTE stepped up to use the press to further push for decriminalization. So did some other sex work rights' groups. We learned some very valuable things back then such as who votes in this country. Honestly, if sex workers were all registered voters – we would have easily had sex work decriminalized by now.

But they don't vote. Which left us with appealing to people who do. People who we found generally had to first understand who we were, as well as our problems, before they'd step up to help us with supporting decriminalization. Because even now – the people who vote in this country are not interested in decriminalization.

The religious right has been pounding the media, and voters, with images of sex workers as “victims” for a reason. They want people to think that arresting us is considered “outreach” to “help” and “rescue” us. They want the public to think that the point where we're being arrested is the point where we're then going to access help. They are not going to want people to think these men and women can just call us for help before a badge is flashed at them. The reason is because the courts, jails, prisons, and legal system make HUGE amounts of money off arresting us. So if anything, their media is going to further cement the idea of sex work being considered a crime in the minds of voters.

Their push to have us all considered as “victims” is so strong they formed their own hotline in 2002. Why? Because the existing hotline for adults to call for help when wanting to leave the sex industry, for any reason, made a distinction between trafficking victims and not trafficking victims. When Polaris opened in 2002 – a war was being declared on prostitutes. One that has a lot of money and a lot of political power behind it. Something we didn't even have in 1987.

Which is why they had to set about to try and chase us right off the playing field. One of the ways they did this was to attack as many groups being run by actual sex workers, or ex-sex workers. Try and get as many of them shut down as possible. Out of those that were left – they had to turn them all on each other. Make them all scramble for their piece of the pie and view each other as opponents and adversaries.

A classic technique any slave owner or pimps knows. Everyone knows for example the slaves outnumbered the slave owners, and the Jews outnumbered the Nazi's. So how do a small handful of people control a large handful so they don't turn on them? Some of the techniques include getting them to fight against each other instead of the one controlling them. So you'd see the “house slaves” at odds with the ones in the fields. Another is economic control – giving money out to those who become part of the problem. Then the last is fear. Public lynchings so people are scared to oppose those in power.

Let's analyze just for a moment what Sex Workers Anonymous is in the overall field of the sex industry, and the anti-trafficking world. First divide programs for adults and children and you'll see that we're set up for male, female and transgender as well as LGBT adults. We are also not restricted to only Christians as we are “non-denominational”.

Then divide us into a group set up to help anyone exit the industry for any reason. They could be trafficking victims needing help to escape, or they could just be a woman who is pregnant and not wanting to do sex work to protect her baby. Then scope. We're not limited to a few women in our city – we're a program that can reach across the USA, into Canada, and even other countries.

Then ask yourself who has hotlines in this country besides Polaris? There's the one for Children of the Night for teen prostitutes and victims as well as the Runaway Hotline. Then of course Polaris. But as far as national hotlines for adults to call when wanting to leave the industry no matter if that's porn, prostitution, stripping, etc. - I don't know much in the way of competition for us there.

Then ask yourself which programs can be used as an “alternative to sentencing”, as well as to shorten probation, and even expunge records, without having to have the expense of an attorney to help one achieve these things.  Can SWOP, Red Umbrella, Desiree Alliance, etc. go in and ask a judge to expunge someone's criminal records so they can find gainful employment? They can try but I already know the court would balk. However, every request we'd made so far for things like expungement, shortening probation, offering an alternative to jail, has been answered positively by the court.

Now factor in which groups that do all of this is a system built in to defend a sex worker in cases where their pimp, or trafficker, or even an abusive ex-husband is in law enforcement? Setting trafficking aside – I want you to consider the case of Chadd Link. http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/vegas-wedding-gets-lynnwood-undercover-cop-fired/

Here you have a man who is married to a woman who runs an escort service. Only the man is a cop. Now if any of you have ever been married, let alone go through a divorce, you know that sometimes people's emotions get the best of them. Especially when there's children involved. I also think any of us would agree that if a couple like this would battle it out in court over custody of those kids – I'm willing to bet her career choice is going to be thrown into the mix.

Now groups like SWOP can come in and argue that this is a “viable profession” that is being “made of her own free will” all they want. They can turn that divorce into a platform to advance the “cause”. However, if she wants to keep her kids I doubt this would be the way to do it. Another way we've been useful is the fact we can go in and explain to the judge that while that may have been her “past career” that she's completely out of that life now and thus providing a “safe home” for her children. I don't know many people who will step up in a court room to “vouch” for anyone whose been in our industry BUT Sex Workers Anonymous. Not when they aren't being paid for it in some way that's for sure.

Decriminalization of prostitution will do nothing to change this. Take the case of Aubrey. Aubrey is a woman who worked at the legal brothels of Nevada that we had testify in front of the Nevada legislature. http://www.blogtalkradio.com/stopsextrafficktalk/2013/07/08/hear-from-a-nevada-brothel-prostitute    When she found out she was pregnant – she didn't want to work any more in the industry. She 24 years old, had two kids already, and she'd been hooking since she was 12 years old. So she went to her pimp/husband and made the announcement she was retiring. He responded by beating the life out of her. The police were called and she was the one arrested.

Why? In Nevada law enforcement tends to favor the pimps. That's just the way it is. So after she got beat up – she was put into domestic violence counseling and the mental health court. When she filed for divorce – she was the one who had the license of working as a prostitute while he had a job as a school coach. The court awarded him custody of the kids. Kids he promptly told her he was going to use in child pornography if she didn't “get back to work”.

We checked with the court about him being charged with sex trafficking thinking if we could get him arrested – then she'd have custody. This would be extremely hard to prove “force” when she was working in a legal brothel and had even taken out a license stating she was “acting of her own free will”. The fact he was waiting right outside the office for her didn't reflect on that form.

So what are Aubrey's options? If she runs with the kids then he'll file kidnapping charges. With her in the mental health court and the domestic violence charge – if she were to run and they found the kids she'd probably never be able to see them again. With his friends on the police force – it'd be a piece of cake for him to find her anywhere she'd run anyway. She was dependent upon SSI disability for an income. If she became a fugitive – then she'd lose that financial assistance. One of her kids was six years old and in school. The minute she enrolled that kid in school – they'd be able to find her.

With him being a pimp, whose father was also a pimp, anywhere she'd run within the sex industry would probably sell her out for a bribe. If they were arrested for anything – they'd probably “rat” her out in exchange for a deal. Could she go to any other program that you can think of that would help her in this situation? Salvation Army? Cupcake Girls? Polaris?

We have an outreach RV in Nevada we use to go and pick women up who want to leave the brothels there. The brothels are a 9 hour drive from Las Vegas and sometimes about the same if coming from northern Nevada depending upon the brothel. We were able to put her and her kids into the RV to take a trip. The husband thought we were just going on an “outing”. From Carson City, we were able to drive straight up across the border into Canada where we have a SWA chapter up there. One SWA member had a house with a lot of land and hook-ups for the RV. Once we got there - we were able to go back home and she was left in a country that doesn't extradite over things like child custody in a divorce case. From there, social services got her hooked up with housing, an income, insurance, etc. where her and her kids are now safe and sound far away from the reach of this pimp, or his “family”.

Now show me a program like that - one where someone like Aubrey is now safe and sound in Canada with her kids safe also.  I got baby pictures recently and couldn't feel happier.  Men in power aren't too happy we can do things like this. So we've been under a tremendous amount of attack and smear campaigns since. Especially when they came at us with papers demanding we turn over what we knew about this woman to the authorities.

Now you know why we also don't have our members being vocal about who they are – and everything is directed back to me. As an ordained minister, I can legally withstand a warrant or a subpoena and refuse to release files, or information, as to where this woman fled to. If this same thing were to have happened within a sex workers' rights group where the members are active sex workers – the police would bound to be starting to arrest people, or threatening to at least, to find out where Aubrey went.

Does someone like him retaliate? Sure they do. They try to attack our funding sources – only we don't apply for any grants nor hold any fund raisers. They try and find out who our members and supporters are so they can harass them and chase them off – only we are an “anonymous” program and I caution everyone connected to us to remain so for these reasons.

People trying to block us from what we do send in people who make up little cartoons about us and poke jokes about us “doing paperwork”. Paperwork like helping women who can't afford attorney's to file for divorce, fight for custody, apply for financial aid, stay evictions, etc. All things many of us need when trying to escape or simply just retire. They have to keep the attacks personal because they can't attack what we do. We are a powerful tool for the sex workers to have in their tool kit. One so powerful that's why they're doing things like planting false articles where we supposedly have “called to outlaw the industry” or the one where it said we supposedly called “sex work a disease” was pretty extreme.

The media lies. Celebrities joke all the time about reading about their own weddings to people they don't even know. Brian Williams has been caught lying repeatedly. I brought up Roswell to show that our government has been lying to us using false media clear back to the 1940's. Obama even admitted that the strike against bin Laden was timed to happen during the Royal wedding so that people would be “distracted”. I can also show you entirely faked news articles, chapters in books, so called “research reports” and even so called “reality shows” that were staged – all to try and control what people think about the sex industry, as well as our program.

Here's one of those "fake" articles -   http://www.thefix.com/content/addicted-to-prostitution-60072?page=all  Despite it appearing that I was living in Los Angeles and taking chicken soup to male members in 1996 - I was living in Nevada with my husband in 1996.  I've asked the publisher to remove this article - but they refuse.  In fact, they printed a SECOND article from THE SAME WRITER.   After informing the publisher that this whole article was completely false - not only did they refuse to remove this article but they TOOK A SECOND ONE FROM THE SAME AUTHOR!  So at some point you have to accept the media is DELIBERATELY lying.  Why?  Well by putting me in Los Angeles in 1996 - kind of makes it hard to explain I was in Nevada then.  Also, who on earth would ask someone to make up an "amends list" of their "johns"?  I mean how crazy is that?  Makes me sound like I'm nuts.  This article wasn't just faked - it was fake with specific goals in mind. 

Did you see these types of attacks against fakes like Samoly Mam? Nope. She wasn't really helping anyone either was she? The money she raised went back to take care of some children in another country. She wasn't a threat to anyone here in the states. Her program wasn't getting women and their children out from under pimps – or cops for that matter like Chris Butler. Her program wasn't getting prostitutes out of jail. Nor was her work generating federal recognition for American victims of trafficking as our work is either. We're talking a lot of money here people. If people are killed over a $50 rock – you think they won't try and take us out when we have things going on right now like 1.5 BILLION dollars being kicked about to be used to “fund trafficking programs”?   http://www.corker.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2015/4/corker-statement-on-the-justice-for-victims-of-trafficking-act  Because you want to see how else the media lies?  This says this bill had "no objection".  Oh there was objections.   

What about the strippers in that club back east owned by DEA agents? http://rt.com/usa/260621-dea-agents-owned-strip-club/  If they were lying about owning the club - do you think they want some of the strippers shooting off their mouths?   Let's say you want to quit – how well do you think it's going to go over when one of those strippers wants to retire? What if she saw something one night that makes these men “nervous” about what she might say to a prosecutor? Now I ask you – can she get help by calling Polaris as a trafficking victim? Probably not. Do you think she wants to be offered a bed in a homeless shelter? I think not – especially if she's got kids. If she stays with women who are still in the sex industry – she can be found in a few phone calls.

But back east we have a network of ex-sex workers who can help them relocate, find work, go back to school, maybe even get financing to start their own business. Many of our members have started their own companies – so we have members who can offer them jobs even. Even better is if someone comes looking for her – our records can't be forced out of us about where she went nor can I be forced to release that information either.

We used to have a good working relationship with those who were in the sex industry, as well as within groups like COYOTE, SWOP, and other harm reduction or sex workers' rights groups. The ones who have been tearing this apart are not people we haven't helped – but those who know we can.

So please keep in mind there are many ways that SWA can be of help to a sex worker or the movement to decriminalize. If you're not sure how we can be of help to you – please just call and let's talk. Unlike others, you won't find any phone calls, emails, or text messages from us posted anywhere online. We don't do things like that. We've been accused of it sure – but you won't find proof of it because the reality is that we haven't. This goes to show you in black and white who you can trust. Yes you can call us without your call winding up online – as has been done to us by Dominaelle posting as Kamylla. We say that because Kamylla tells us she doesn't even have internet and didn't make those posts against us.

I know that women like Dominaelle mean well when they want to help Kamylla. However, it's been a month and all I've heard being done to help this woman is cash being raised, and some food being delivered. However, Kamylla needs more than this. Her and her husband need a job that will allow her to stay in the country and show that she's providing for her children. We have a member of SWA living in Houston who owns a call center who has been out of the industry for 30 years now. Since he's an ex-pimp he could care less about her prostitution arrest. We have another member who owns a car lot who can get her into a car, and another who owns a thrift store who can get her a kitchen table. We have attorney's who are also ex-sex workers who can help her with her legal issues that aren't going to list this history on their CV or online. These are things that need to be offered to Kamylla now – before her husband gets arrested for pimping her, and her children are removed from the home because it appears she can't take care of them from what's being said online in this fund raiser. All statements that could be used against her in a court proceeding.

Dominaelle has not been helping women like Kamylla for 30 years. She doesn't have our experience, our resources, or our connections. Her experience is not in helping people exit the industry, as well as fight possible deportation whereas ours is. She even asks for help with her own school goals on her facebook page. Dominaelle – we have a list of sources where you can not only get that scholarship, but we can get your housing, books and even food covered while you're in school. Am I going to list this school online and advertise that they are helping hookers? Not a chance. But if you're interested – we can help you too.

I think there's been such a flood of groups like Pink Cross – that the sex industry is feeling under attack by these group's. I see how Shelley seeks out trouble women in the porn industry so she can use them to exploit to raise money for things like the new home she's looking for. However, my income isn't related at all to this industry. I'm not out lobbying for grants or trying to lure people into a fund raiser.

The people who don't want sex workers to know about the resources we do offer are many. This is why if you think about it when “8 Minutes” was staging their “fake outreach” they also failed to mention groups like ours existed. They're still trying to not let you know we are an exit door out with things like having Dominaelle, who has no track record in this area, trying to help Kamylla with very complex issues that involve jail, deportation, child protective services, and possible incarceration. It's why in that “list” even they handed out to women who appeared on the show they still didn't even mention our name in that list of people who don't help either.

So maybe the sex industry, and the sex workers rights groups, can put down their arms for a moment and consider that I'm not the enemy here. I tell you what does need to be focused on – Kevin Brown and what's behind this campaign. People don't spend all that money, and put all that energy into creating a “staged rescue show” when it's cheaper and easier to just film the reality. Because from what I'm hearing from sex workers – the corruption within the Orange County police is legend. I point you to this article as evidence - http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/05/29/1388819/-Judge-disqualifies-all-250-prosecutors-in-Orange-County-CA-because-of-widespread-corruption

Kevin Brown didn't start his “outreach” two years ago when he “found God”. The church was incorporated in 1994. He's been lying for two years now about having an outreach, and supposedly running a program. I know because I got one of those calls. I was told he was doing outreach to get women out to a program he was running where he was helping women out of sex work. I was pointed to the “success stories” he was prompting on TV as evidence of his work. But when I asked to see evidence of this program – he ran. So there was no program, there are no success stories.

The man is running around with cop cars behind him, and cameras on him, knocking on prostitutes' motel room doors – only he's not telling them about Children of the Night or Sex Workers Anonymous – two programs that have existed in southern California for over 30 years now each. Why is that? Why are there fake groups being promoted? Our sources say these groups are being used to gather intelligence. Prostitutes are legendary for not being “snitches” so these people have found another way to gather information. Whether it's for a prosecution of a criminal – or if it's to flush out someone who is thinking about ratting out one of them in law enforcement.

Men like Chris Butler were using active duty police as part of their trafficking from at least 2005 until February of 2012 when he was finally arrested. The ring itself however has continued on. The only way Chris was arrested was we got the media to print the story about him. It's only logical that these people would then back up to get control over the media, regroup, and I find it interesting that Kevin Brown then started knocking on doors in October of 2012 – just a few months after Chris was arrested. If his interest was in getting these women “out” - then he'd be handing out the phone number to SWA and/or Children of the Night – all programs with a proven track record. You can pick on my personal defects for weeks – they're many. But no one can argue with our effectiveness. Nor with the fact I've checked out Ms. Miller's so called “program” only to find nothing is there also of substance either. Well someone had to apply for the grant money right?  http://www.egovlink.com/ochumantrafficking/faq.asp

That's what we need to start getting sex workers to be talking about. Not my weight a few years ago after my stroke, my divorce, my mother died and my daughter was hit by a car and sexually assaulted. I gained weight. Shoot me.

Now can get get back to the plot please?

Www.sexworkersanonymous.com