Activism that does not hurt sex workers

In 2006 Illinois adopted the Predator Accountability Act, which allows victims of the sex trade to sue those people who perpetuate and profit from the exploitation of women, men and children. Under the Predator Accountability Act, victims of the sex trade are granted the right to sue pimps, brothels and customers. People who can sue include adults and children who have been solicited, threatened or forced to act as a prostitute, persons who have been sexually exploited and those who have appeared in obscene materials or materials constituting child pornography, and people who have been trafficked. The remedies available to these victims include compensatory damages (money), punitive damages and attorneys’ fees. This law gives the sex workers rights under civil law which the existing current criminal code does not provide. The new law provides that the person being sued may not raise as a defense the fact that the victim consented to the conduct, that the victim was paid for the conduct, that the victim did not flee, that the conduct was not violent, or the fact that the conduct only happened one time -- thus recognizing how victims will behave to protect themselves or others. The victim has ten years after the last act involving the sex trade to bring a lawsuit in the civil courts. Unlike many well-intentioned projects undertaken by social activists, this law may help rather than hurt sex workers.

It is not an exaggeration to say that the reason why this bill was passed in Illinois was due to the lobbying efforts by sex workers. One of the most effective messages in the lobbying campaign was a documentary entitled Turning A Corner produced by Beyondmedia Education, which tells the stories of people involved in Chicago's sex trade by recounting their survival and triumph over homelessness, violence and discrimination. Created in a media activism workshop with over a dozen members of Prostitution Alternatives Round Table (PART), Turning a Corner is a powerful film in which Lucretia Clay, a prostitute for 26 years, describes how she was kidnapped and raped while her pimp sat in a car, watched, and did nothing. Brenda Myers-Powell, a former prostitute turned activist who was stabbed and shot five times, describes how she was ignored by police after she was attacked by a serial killer who was targeting prostitutes in Chicago's impoverished Englewood community.

According to Salome Chasnoff, executive director of Beyondmedia, "Prostitution seems to be the nexus of a number of intersecting human rights issues, from domestic violence to health to criminalization to labor rights. Women in prostitution are on the lowest rung of the hierarchy in this society, the object of so many kinds of discrimination."

Beyondmedia Education's mission is to

...collaborate with under-served and under-represented women, youth and communities to tell their stories, connect their stories to the world around us, and organize for social justice through the creation and distribution of alternative media and arts. Beyondmedia Education works with communities most in need of media education and services because of economic and/or social exclusion. Since 1996, we have partnered with over 100 community-based organizations and schools to produce media arts on subjects ranging from girls' activism to women's incarceration.

True to its mission, Beyondmedia has a stunning list of accomplishments:

Through Beyondmedia's Women and Prison program, incarcerated women and girls, former prisoners and their families use media arts to voice their stories, promoting public dialogue, healing and community organizing. Since 1997, Beyondmedia has collaborated extensively with women and girls in prison and after their incarceration to create interdisciplinary, multimedia educational forums on women and prison. I would also recommend that you read The Sex Trade and Feminism, An Interview with Ann Russo, director of Women and Gender Studies at Depaul University. Russo provides a balanced and informative recap of the emergence of different views on the sex industry within the feminist movement. Russo also serves on the board of the Young Women's Empowerment Project, a harm reduction organization which provides a safe, non-judgmental space for young women and girls involved in street prostitution in Chicago.

The mission of Q’d In Media is to support queer and allied youth organizing and community building, combat homophobia in the many communities where queer youth live, learn and struggle, and make the real and complicated lives of queer youth visible to a larger public.

Another video production is Doin' It: Sex, Disability, And Videotape. The Empowered Fe Fes, a peer group of young women aged 16 to 24 with different disabilities provide an insightful investigation into the truths about sex and disability. In the video, the Fe Fes educate themselves about sex from many angles by talking with activists and scholars. The viewer tags along on a date between a woman with a disability and her able-bodied boyfriend, exploring relationship issues of dating with a disability over a candle-lit dinner.

Beyondmedia Education and the production of Turning a Corner is just one of the many organizations and projects funded by the Chicago Foundation for Women (CFW) . Since 1986, CFW has granted over $13 million to over 2,300 organizations that serve women and children. I mention this because IMO this is what feminism is about. Not long discussions about what does or does not hurt women or men or children, but giving people the support and resources to change their lives.

Note: When I referred to "long discussion about what does or does not hurt women or men or children" I am not suggesting that discussions examining our beliefs about sex are not valuable. I would not be posting here if I did not consider such analysis valuable. But to be a viable movement, IMO, feminism cannot exist solely as an academic exercise. It must result in action.