So I said “No.” But you’re right about women in the Craigslist busts. And busts generally, for that matter. Now, it gets tricky making comparisons in oppression, but it is certainly the case that men and transwomen make significantly, and I mean significantly, less than women in almost all areas of the sex industry: escorting, street work, porn, stripping. The same goes for “White” people making significantly, and I mean significantly, more than other folks in the industry. That’s sexism, racism, homophobia, and transphobia all rolled up into a paycheck.

There’s the great article “The Price of Being Different” by Kevicha Echols in $pread Magazine, Issue 3.1 about price differentials. I think it’s a very important question to discuss.

But I think I’d still answer no to Michel Martin, just cause I could tell it being reduced to Me v. Annie on the question is sex work de facto oppressive. And to that I’ll always answer no.

I do wonder the gender question though, in light of what you’ve posted about male sex workers *not* getting busted as of yet on Craigslist.

What’s up with that? Since when are queer men not marginalized and targeted at least as much as women are? Or is it that we *are* so marginalized that we slip through the holes in the moralists’ nets?

Most likely, it’s just plain old sexism intersecting with plain old homophobia. Women are thought of as in need of protection, thus the law wants to protect them (in the case of sex workers by throwing their asses in jail and ruining their friendships, families, and source of income). Men *aren’t* generally seen as in need of protection, (especially from sexual violence), and in the case of fags suckfucking fags for money, (I’m being facetious), we may not be seen as deserving of moral or legal protection.

I don’t know if it’s quite so simple as all that, but I bet gender matters a lot. I wonder what the law does with trans workers?

Anyhoo, that’s all theoretical. I couldn’t agree with you more that what needs to be done is to listen to sex-workers themselves.

Besides, haven’t you ever had a boss you didn’t like?

There aren’t many state-sponsored initiatives in the United States that don’t depend on this kind of “sweep the streets” violence. The same goes for other populations that are often street-based, such as IDUs.

The question, I think, is: what’s an approach sex workers, all sex workers, can embrace when it comes to street work? One in which street workers are a part: service providers taking on an approach of harm reduction. In the case of IDUs, too, non-judgmental service in needle exchanges and other proven, risk-lessening approaches are needed. Not more jail time or “regulation” for the sake of the neighborhood’s overrated morals. What “zoning law,” after all, applies to johns? Picket fences?

On the other hand, I wouldn’t say enforcement strategies are working “just fine” either. Once again, like open-air drug markets, its resulting in the disproportionate criminalization and institutionalization of the most marginalized parts of the community where these laws are enforced.

In Phoenix during the Super Bowl the media made a big deal about how federal and state agencies were in town to crack down on prostitution associated with the events. But in reality, over one hundred street-based workers were arrested in a part of town nowhere near the event. The whole point was simply to scare people off so that they wouldn’t be ‘visible’ to out-of-towners, then those who wouldn’t be scared away were swept up.

On top of that, AZ has implemented mandatory minimum jail time for any prostitution conviction. Prohibition of sex, just like prohibition of drugs has nothing to do with ending the behavior, it’s about using suspicion of the behavior to oppress some people.