DEMAND ABOLITION AND AUDREY MORRISSEY LETTER
I came across this https://www.demandabolition.org/blog/my-experience-in-the-sex-trade-had-nothing-to-do-with-choice/ today and sent out the below email to Audrey:
This message is to Audrey Morrissey - what a waste of such good energy (the Hackathon) if only you would stop acting like men who can't seem to stop and ask for directions even when lost. THORN has already received millions of dollars and has the top leading computer experts working on tracking down trafficking online.
The problem with outsiders to this issue however trying to combat it is they don't seem to understand that the internet is only a tool of traffickers. Trafficking existed long before the internet and what's happened since this internet war started is they've now retreated to their "non-internet" days. They have set up shop once again in legal brothels, strip clubs, massage parlors, etc., and don't even advertise online anymore. The print publications they are advertising in are using jpg's that can't be spidered by search engines so they can't even be found online. They've gone back to advertising in print publications found on corners. What you're finding on the internet currently are "outlaws" as they used to call them in my day - or men and women who generally are NOT trafficking victims.
Things you'd probably know about if not for falling into this division of us over the issue of "choice". You say you "weren't there by choice" Audrey - but you were. You made that choice to do what you did and you're blaming that man. You're like a drunk who wants to blame what he did the night before on the booze. When we started our program, we heard all the excuses - I did it because he made me, I did it for drugs, I did it because I couldn't find work, and we had to tell our members that's excuse making and to take responsibility for their actions. Now mind you - this is adults we're working with - not children. So please don't confuse the two here. I'm not equating what we do with adults with what is needed to be done to help juveniles.
In putting this emphasis on "choice" - YOU'RE the one making divisions among us that are harming us. Someone calling themselves a "sex worker" does not mean they aren't in just as much need of help as someone who is being pimped and/or trafficked. Yes you may have been pimped Audrey' - but I've been working with rescues for over 30 years now of men and women in ALL kinds of situations.
So I ask you DOES IT MATTER? http://sexworkersanonymousmeeting.blogspot.com/2016/02/does-it-matter-if-theres-pimp-or-not.html Does the fact that this woman does not have a pimp forcing her to prostitute MATTER? Does she not need help also? But I don't see her getting any because she's not fitting into the tight niche definition of "trafficking victim" and that's wrong. Look I know what you're reacting to - and that's these people who have infiltrated SWOP since 2013 who aren't even real sex workers. They're the ones trying to imply trafficking doesn't even exist in their world and in most of their cases IT DOESN'T. The abolitionist movement has now Samoly Mam's which are fake survivors, and now SWOP has their fake sex workers. But like any industry - there are trafficking victims on some levels but not others. But this doesn't alter that there are others who need just as much help FOR OTHER REASONS.
Everyone has an agenda now in this game - including the CIA. www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/10/27/missionaries_aid_workers_used_as_north_korea_spies_by_pentagon_and_kay_hiramine.html It's people with agendas that are trying to divide us and dividing over an issue like "choice" and "language". They're doing it to drive us away from each other, and creating fighting amongst us IDENTICAL to what the pimps do on the corner. Isn't that how pimps exploit us? Get us to fight with each other and not turn around against them?
Audrey - up until the TVRA of 2003 - our group www.sexworkersanonymous.com was making serious headway. We had beat back the legal brothels from expanding into California and Las Vegas. We had achieved federal recognition with the Trafficking Act of 2000 passing. Did you honestly think these men wouldn't fight back? Of course they did with the TVRA of 2003 - designed to drive us apart from each other and destroy what we had built. ANYONE that has you attacking another sister for any reason is letting the pimps win - period. Alcoholics Anonymous is called that because they abstain from alcohol. Narcotics Anonymous is called that because they abstain from narcotics. We are called Sex Workers Anonymous simply and only because we abstain from all forms of sex work for any reason. That's it.
We make no distinctions for any reason - choice not choice - pimp not pimp - drugs not drugs - doesn't matter. All of us are entitled to be treated like human beings and to receive help and protection from all forms of exploitation and HARM. If you want to fight sex trafficking Audrey - how about talking to someone who has been doing it successfully for 30 years? If you cared so much - why not consult with experts who have been doing this work for three decades? Because frankly this whole thing looks more like self-promotion than helping us from where we're sitting.
I assure you all that commotion you did in Boston didn't result in one rescue did it? But I can assure you had you sat down for coffee with me first - I would have offered you some ideas where all those wonderful young volunteers could have reached out and pulled out many victims in that same time frame who would be in recovery now if you'd stopped listening to these people who are trying very cleverly to divide and conquer us for their own agenda which has nothing to do with us.
Our program is the only one in this country that any prostitute arrested in the USA can ask the court to be alternatively sentenced with us instead of jail where she or he will receive help to exit the industry rather than be jailed - which just keeps them trapped. Does it matter what the trap is if the point is to get us out? Whether that trap is drugs, pimps, poverty, disability? Does it matter Audrey? I invite you to contact me any time to open up a dialogue on how we can work together - www.sexworkersanonymous.com
BTW - your smoke screen to have more prostitutes locked up in jail is NOT HELPING THEM LEAVE. You care about helping them LEAVE? Then the Boston courts should be utilizing our program for alternative sentencing. Locking them up, giving them a criminal record, just traps them in the industry just as much as a street pimp does. Then they get paid for each day they're in jail, they get fines and probation fees. From where I"m sitting - a pimp is a pimp whether it's the street corner man with a cane or the Boston Courts.
Freedom is freedom. You want to help us break free? www.sexworkersanonymous.com
This message is to Audrey Morrissey - what a waste of such good energy (the Hackathon) if only you would stop acting like men who can't seem to stop and ask for directions even when lost. THORN has already received millions of dollars and has the top leading computer experts working on tracking down trafficking online.
The problem with outsiders to this issue however trying to combat it is they don't seem to understand that the internet is only a tool of traffickers. Trafficking existed long before the internet and what's happened since this internet war started is they've now retreated to their "non-internet" days. They have set up shop once again in legal brothels, strip clubs, massage parlors, etc., and don't even advertise online anymore. The print publications they are advertising in are using jpg's that can't be spidered by search engines so they can't even be found online. They've gone back to advertising in print publications found on corners. What you're finding on the internet currently are "outlaws" as they used to call them in my day - or men and women who generally are NOT trafficking victims.
Things you'd probably know about if not for falling into this division of us over the issue of "choice". You say you "weren't there by choice" Audrey - but you were. You made that choice to do what you did and you're blaming that man. You're like a drunk who wants to blame what he did the night before on the booze. When we started our program, we heard all the excuses - I did it because he made me, I did it for drugs, I did it because I couldn't find work, and we had to tell our members that's excuse making and to take responsibility for their actions. Now mind you - this is adults we're working with - not children. So please don't confuse the two here. I'm not equating what we do with adults with what is needed to be done to help juveniles.
In putting this emphasis on "choice" - YOU'RE the one making divisions among us that are harming us. Someone calling themselves a "sex worker" does not mean they aren't in just as much need of help as someone who is being pimped and/or trafficked. Yes you may have been pimped Audrey' - but I've been working with rescues for over 30 years now of men and women in ALL kinds of situations.
So I ask you DOES IT MATTER? http://sexworkersanonymousmeeting.blogspot.com/2016/02/does-it-matter-if-theres-pimp-or-not.html Does the fact that this woman does not have a pimp forcing her to prostitute MATTER? Does she not need help also? But I don't see her getting any because she's not fitting into the tight niche definition of "trafficking victim" and that's wrong. Look I know what you're reacting to - and that's these people who have infiltrated SWOP since 2013 who aren't even real sex workers. They're the ones trying to imply trafficking doesn't even exist in their world and in most of their cases IT DOESN'T. The abolitionist movement has now Samoly Mam's which are fake survivors, and now SWOP has their fake sex workers. But like any industry - there are trafficking victims on some levels but not others. But this doesn't alter that there are others who need just as much help FOR OTHER REASONS.
Everyone has an agenda now in this game - including the CIA. www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/10/27/missionaries_aid_workers_used_as_north_korea_spies_by_pentagon_and_kay_hiramine.html It's people with agendas that are trying to divide us and dividing over an issue like "choice" and "language". They're doing it to drive us away from each other, and creating fighting amongst us IDENTICAL to what the pimps do on the corner. Isn't that how pimps exploit us? Get us to fight with each other and not turn around against them?
Audrey - up until the TVRA of 2003 - our group www.sexworkersanonymous.com was making serious headway. We had beat back the legal brothels from expanding into California and Las Vegas. We had achieved federal recognition with the Trafficking Act of 2000 passing. Did you honestly think these men wouldn't fight back? Of course they did with the TVRA of 2003 - designed to drive us apart from each other and destroy what we had built. ANYONE that has you attacking another sister for any reason is letting the pimps win - period. Alcoholics Anonymous is called that because they abstain from alcohol. Narcotics Anonymous is called that because they abstain from narcotics. We are called Sex Workers Anonymous simply and only because we abstain from all forms of sex work for any reason. That's it.
We make no distinctions for any reason - choice not choice - pimp not pimp - drugs not drugs - doesn't matter. All of us are entitled to be treated like human beings and to receive help and protection from all forms of exploitation and HARM. If you want to fight sex trafficking Audrey - how about talking to someone who has been doing it successfully for 30 years? If you cared so much - why not consult with experts who have been doing this work for three decades? Because frankly this whole thing looks more like self-promotion than helping us from where we're sitting.
I assure you all that commotion you did in Boston didn't result in one rescue did it? But I can assure you had you sat down for coffee with me first - I would have offered you some ideas where all those wonderful young volunteers could have reached out and pulled out many victims in that same time frame who would be in recovery now if you'd stopped listening to these people who are trying very cleverly to divide and conquer us for their own agenda which has nothing to do with us.
Our program is the only one in this country that any prostitute arrested in the USA can ask the court to be alternatively sentenced with us instead of jail where she or he will receive help to exit the industry rather than be jailed - which just keeps them trapped. Does it matter what the trap is if the point is to get us out? Whether that trap is drugs, pimps, poverty, disability? Does it matter Audrey? I invite you to contact me any time to open up a dialogue on how we can work together - www.sexworkersanonymous.com
BTW - your smoke screen to have more prostitutes locked up in jail is NOT HELPING THEM LEAVE. You care about helping them LEAVE? Then the Boston courts should be utilizing our program for alternative sentencing. Locking them up, giving them a criminal record, just traps them in the industry just as much as a street pimp does. Then they get paid for each day they're in jail, they get fines and probation fees. From where I"m sitting - a pimp is a pimp whether it's the street corner man with a cane or the Boston Courts.
Freedom is freedom. You want to help us break free? www.sexworkersanonymous.com
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