Help Keep Sex Worker Media Alive

The nation's premier magazine by and about sex workers, maintained by an all-volunteer staff, is in serious financial trouble. I'm going to help them in whatever ways I'm able and hope you will too. Here's a recent communication from outgoing editor-in-chief Rachel Aimee, including some special premium offers to loosen you generosity:

Help Us Keep the Hustle Up–And Get Cute $pread Stuff!

Back in August, I sent an email to the $pread staff list saying I thought we were going to have to stop publishing. Within the space of a year, most of our core staff members had left, and I was feeling burned out to the point where I had to accept that it was time for me to leave too. When we started this magazine, we optimistically figured it would only be a couple of years before we were able to start paying our staff. Turns out the publishing industry is a brutal place for an independent magazine like $pread, and four and a half years on this ass-kicking project is still completely dependent on an all-volunteer staff, many of whom put in 20 plus hours a week on top of their day—or night—jobs.

Fortunately the new team of $preadsters are still enthusiastic enough to see our daily struggles as challenges instead of defeats. (2008 has certainly brought its fair share of challenges: On top of our collective mass burnout, we’ve had to move offices twice in the past six months and are now operating our of a six by six foot closet packed from wall to wall with boxes of magazines.) The problem is that $pread is not going to be able to carry on like this forever. Eventually even our most devoted volunteers will burn out, and it’s really difficult to keep morale up—and the magazine going—with such a high staff turnover. We’ve talked about cutting our Outreach Program to move toward financial stability, but we don’t want to have to stop sending free magazines to low income sex workers. That’s why we need your support.

To inspire you to support $pread this holiday season we have two new cute giveaway items to tempt you with, both available until January 31st.

DONATE $50 or more to get the cute $pread tote bag, pictured above!

Or, DONATE $25 or more to get your very own $pread magnet.

You can also get your hands on either of these items by becoming a Member or Lifetime Member, and of course, you can always support us the old-fashioned way by subscribing!

The holiday season is upon us! A subscription to $pread, t-shirt, tank top, tote bag, back issues, and art posters are the perfect way to give to your friends while supporting an organization you love. Please help us keep the hustle up—and your favorite magazine in print—by buying, donating, and supporting. Thank you!

Eric Hamell

Can a girl sexually abuse herself?

That's the question asked by Tracy Clark-Flory in column for salon.com (at http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/2008/10/11/child_porn/index.html) She writes:

This is unbelievable: A 15-year-old Ohio girl currently faces juvenile child pornography charges for allegedly taking and distributing nude photos of herself.

After Licking Valley High School officials discovered the photos on the girl's phone and tipped off police last Friday, she was arrested, held in jail over the weekend and charged with possession of criminal tools and illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material, ABC reports. If convicted, she could spend several years in juvenile detention and be forced to register as a sex offender for the next 20 years of her life (although, since she is a first-time offender and a minor, the judge could decide against making her register).

What's more, charges might still be filed against the students who received the photos, regardless of whether they received them unwillingly. State law holds that "anyone possessing material that shows a minor in a state of nudity is guilty of a fifth-degree felony," according to the Newark Advocate. If convicted, they could face registration as a sex offender for 10 years....

[C]alling this girl a sex offender for distributing pornographic images of herself is crazy-talk. We have to acknowledge that, however unprepared she was to make the decision, she does have ownership over her own body; her sexual choice is not the same as an adult making a sexual choice for her.

I'm as outraged as Clark-Flory is, and I've written the prosecutor. His name is Kenneth Oswalt and he can be contacted at:

Licking County Prosecutor's Office

20 S. Second St, Newark, Ohio 43055

Hours of Operation (M-F, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.)

General Telephone number: (740) 670-5255 - Fax 740-670-5241

Eric Hamell

Put Children's Needs Before Adults' Bigotry -- Stop Arkansas's Initiated Act 1

I just received the message below from BiUnity of Philadelphia's listserv. I've made a donation and hope you will too. --Eric Hamell


Hello,

This is Laura Bellows, Field Coordinator from Arkansas Families First, the campaign against Initiated Act 1 in Arkansas. Initiated Act 1, which Arkansas voters will decide on this November, would prohibit unmarried co-habitating couples from adopting or fostering children. Although this act is intended as an attack on the LGBT community, it also would prevent unmarried opposite-sex couples from adopting or fostering.

I am asking for your help and contributions because, although Act 1 has not received a lot of national attention, we believe that our campaign is very important. This is the first ballot initiative to threaten adoption/foster care rights of unmarried couples. If it passes, right-wing groups across the country may try to replicate its success.

Luckily, the campaign against Initiated Act 1 is working. Arkansas press coverage of the issue has been overwhelmingly positive, partially thanks to our extensive coalition of child welfare organizations, such as Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families and Arkansas Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

I am asking for your contribution because we still need an extra push. To do that, we need your organization's help. At this point, all of the money we raise will go directly to advertising.

Please share information about the campaign in Arkansas with your members. I am pasting a message below that you can email to your listserv, post to your blog, or use in a publication.

I would be happy to answer any questions you may have. You may reach me at laura@arkansasfamiliesfirst.org or on my cell phone at 832-489-6465. Our website is www.arkansasfamiliesfirst.org. Thank you for your time and for your assistance!

Laura Bellows
Field Coordinator
Arkansas Families First
---
www.arkansasfamiliesfirst.org

DONATE

____________ _________ _________ __
Arkansas Initiated Act 1 is the first ballot measure of its kind: if it were to pass, it would bar unmarried couples from adopting or fostering children. The only other state to have such a restrictive law is Utah. Arkansas Family Council, an offshoot of Focus on the Family, would rather deny loving homes to needy children than have committed unmarried couples raise children.

Luckily, Arkansas Families First, a coalition group made up of a variety of child welfare groups and progressive organizations, has been working to defeat this ban. Last week, the Arkansas Department of Human Services overturned a previous policy that barred unmarried couples in favor of case-by-case foster care: read more here. Governor Mike Beebe, who enjoys very high approval ratings in Arkansas, has stated that he opposes Initiated Act 1 and supports case-by-case adoption and foster care.

This week, Arkansas Families First released a video asking voters to vote NO on Act 1. This short video features adult former foster children and experts in the fields of child protection, psychology, psychiatry, pediatrics, and clergy who explain the negative consequences if the initiative were to pass. Watch the video here: http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=iVg8Y49OmMM.

We need to get this information out to more people in Arkansas; our research shows that voters are very likely to vote NO on Act 1 once they hear our message. Please help us defeat this ballot measure: go to our webpage at www.arkansasfamiliesfirst.org and make a donation.

To defeat this measure, Arkansas Families First needs your help: go to the website now.

De-List Kink from the DSM

Kinky is NOT a Diagnosis!
DSM Revision Petition

A joint Project of NCSF and ITCR: The Foundation of NCSF

The DSM Revision Petition is gathering signatures from individuals
and organizations calling on the American Psychiatric Association
(APA) to adhere to empirical research when revising the diagnoses in
the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).

Statements currently within the DSM Paraphilias criteria are
contradicted by scientific evidence therefore NCSF must conclude that
the interpretation of the Paraphilias criteria has been politically
not scientifically b based. This politically motivated
interpretation subjects BDSM practitioners, fetishists and cross-
dressers to bias, discrimination and social sanctions without any
scientific basis.

Petition:
"We, the undersigned, support the American Psychiatric
Association's (APA) own goal of making its Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual (DSM) a scientific document, based on empirical research and
devoid of cultural bias. A diagnosis of a mental disorder can
have a severe adverse impact on employment opportunities, child
custody determinations, an individual's well-being, and other areas
of functioning. Therefore we urge the APA to remove all diagnoses
that are not based upon peer-reviewed, empirical research,
demonstrating distress or dysfunction, from the DSM. The APA
specifically should not promote current social norms or values as a
basis for clinical judgments."

To sign, go to: www.thepetitionsite.com/1/DSMrevisionpetition
(You can make your signature anonymous on this secure petition site
so it doesn't appear on the Internet)

To find out more about the DSM and the Paraphilias section, read the
NCSF & ITCR: The Foundation for NCSF's "White Paper on the DSM
Revision" at www.ncsfreedom.org

For more information, email: DSMrevisionpetition@yahoo.com

Please distribute to organizations and individuals and ask them to
sign on!

###

A joint Project of NCSF and ITCR: The Foundation of NCSF

The National Coalition for Sexual Freedom is a national organization
committed to creating a political, legal, and social environment in
the United States that advances equal rights of consenting adults who
practice forms of alternative sexual expression.

NCSF is primarily focused on the rights of consenting adults in the
SM-leather-fetish, swing, and polyamory communities, who often face
discrimination because of their sexual expression.

National Coalition for Sexual Freedom
822 Guilford Avenue, Box 127
Baltimore, MD 21202-3707
917-848-6544
media@ncsfreedom.org
www.ncsfreedom.org

NPR Commentator Discovers That Self-Esteem Can't Be Built on Shame

For a refreshing change, here's something to applaud: a schoolteacher gave a commentary on National Public Radio in which she described how her experience with one of her students last year taught her that making an issue of how she dressed only had the effect of making that, rather than educational goals, the focus of their relationship.

I've sent NPR a message applauding this insight and encourage others to do likewise. You can read or listen to the commentary at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94288145.

Eric Hamell

Tell the Times: You Don't Prevent Coercion by Practicing It

The Woodhull Freedom Foundation's newslist has forwarded an editorial from the New York Times which makes the Orwellian argument that in order to stop sexual slavery, we should criminalize consensual employment of prostitutes by "traffickers." Here's the letter I just sent them:

Your editorial "Taking On the Traffickers" is represented as being about concern for women and children "smuggled" into the country as "sex slaves." That is, it appeals to our revulsion at coercion. Yet, later you call for coercion to be removed from the definition of trafficking for purposes of the law. What sense does this make? Clearly if the government prosecutes people for a consensual activity, then it is the government itself that is practicing coercion, not preventing it.

As for some traffickers' taking advantage of prostitutes' fear of police, the solution is plain even though you don't mention it: take away the reasons for that fear by abolishing legal restrictions both on prostitution and on immigration.

Eric Hamell
Philadelphia, PA

You can write the Times at letters@nytimes.com.

Support Release of Records in the Death of Deborah Jeane Palfrey

Citizens for Legitimate Government has reported that the attorney for the late "DC madam," Deborah Jeane Palfrey, is requesting the release of records relating to her death, which was described as an apparent suicide. Her attorney, Montgomery Blair Sibley, says Palfrey specifically asked that he do so in the event that she were to die of an apparent suicide.

The request is addressed to the police department of Tarpon Springs, Florida. Obtaining fulfillment of this request may be non-trivial because Palfrey's mother has sued to have the records withheld.

Although this may superficially appear not to be a sexual freedom issue, I believe it is related because whoever killed her may have believed they could get away with it because the public would not care about a sex worker's death, or be concerned about respecting her posthumous wishes. A public demonstration of support would prove otherwise and thereby set a beneficial precedent.

The Tarpon Springs police chief is named Mark LeCouris. The address is:

City of Tarpon Springs Police Department
444 S. Huey Ave
Tarpon Springs, FL 34689

The non-emergency number is (727) 938-2849 and the email address is cityclerk1@ci.tarpon-springs.fl.us. (Note: "Under Florida law, e-mail addresses are public records. If you do not want your e-mail address released in response to a public-records request, do not send electronic mail to this entity. Instead contact this office by phone or in writing.")

Eric Hamell