Nevada
Brothel Owners’ Association
Nevada Brothel Panel
Monday, July 10, 12:20pm, Salon B
George Flint is the chief lobbyist for Nevada’s
brothel industry, and is also executive director of the Nevada Brothel
Owners' Association, which represents 18 of Nevada’s 27 legal
brothels. Flint, an
ordained minister, also owns one of
Reno’s wedding chapel businesses.
Among people of faith, Flint is that rare individual who uses the
bible to actually justify prostitution, and he references the biblical
figures Mary Magdalene and Rehab in his arguments regarding the efficacy
of brothels.
Geoff Arnold
Owner, Donna's Ranch
Nevada Brothel Panel
Monday, July 10, 12:20pm, Salon B
Geoff Arnold owns Donna’s
Ranch, which has two Nevada locations—Wells and Battle Mountain.
Donna’s, which has been in continuous operation for the past
130 years, has been awarded a Historic Landmark designation, and is
considered part of the Old West. Arnold
is also president of the Nevada Brothel Owners’ Association and is
considered spokesman for the brothel industry. He takes this position very seriously, perhaps due in part to
his claim that Nevada’s brothels take in $20 to $50 million, annually.
Lorraine
Harper
Manager, Sheri’s Resort
Nevada Brothel Panel
Monday, July 10, 12:20pm, Salon B
Lorraine Harper works as the manager at The
Resort at Sheri’s Ranch. This
brothel, formerly known as Sheri’s
Ranch, recently underwent a $7 million renovation, transforming it
into a full-scale resort. The
owners hope to revolutionize the brothel industry, and compare the
brothel’s renovation to the transformation of seedy topless joints
into upscale pleasure palaces. Facilities
for the employees include a gym, a facial room, a full beauty salon, and
a computer room so they can communicate with potential customers via
e-mail. A spot in the
Sheri's line-up is now a prized position within the industry.
And, as Harper points out, “That's what we're doing here at
Sheri's, raising the bar for the industry.
It's not that you're paying for sex, but you're paying for the
safety and security that come with it.”
Zimmy
Worker, Kit Kat Ranch
Nevada Brothel Panel
Monday, July 10, 12:20pm, Salon B
Zimmy works at the Kit Kat Ranch, a legal, licensed brothel located near Carson City,
in the unincorporated town of Mound House.
The world-famous Kit Kat Ranch has been in existence since the
1950s, and boasts swimming pools, a multi-tiered outdoor patio and deck,
and a 2-bedroom VIP suite. Billing
itself as the “World’s Classiest Cathouse,” the Kit Kat Ranch is
one of the few brothels in Nevada to regularly feature porn stars.
Emily van der Meulen
New York University
"Sex Work, Sex Work Policy and Lessons
Learned: Canadian Experiences"
Monday, July 10, 1:30pm, Salon C
Emily van der Meulen
is affiliated with STAR (Sex Trade Advocacy and Research), an activist
collective of researchers, students, and community partners focusing on
improving the health, safety, and well-being of sex workers through
research, information, programs, and policy.
Fran Shaver
Concordia University
"Sex Work, Sex Work Policy and Lessons
Learned: Canadian Experiences"
Monday, July 10, 1:30pm, Salon C
Fran Shaver
has written and presented extensively on the sex trade, and has been
studying sex work for over 20 years. Her current research is part of the
STAR (Sex Trade Advocacy and Research) project, which is studying
Canadian public policy with a focus on improving the health, safety, and well-being of sex
workers through research, information, programs, and policy.
STAR
is an activist collective of researchers, students, and community
partners.
Yim
Yuet Lin
Ziteng, Hong Kong
"Evaluation
of the 'Free Concern' Policy in Mainland China: The Social, Cultural and
Economic Impacts on Sex Workers"
Monday, July 10, 1:30pm, Salon B
Yim Yuet Lin is a founding member of Ziteng,
a Hong Kong-based sex worker’s interest group fighting for the
destigmatization and decriminalization of sex work.
Ziteng also provides sex workers with health care services and
provides legal advice and other assistance.
Yim has been involved in the labor movement since the 1970s, and
in 1989 helped found the Hong Kong Women Workers’ Association, which
advocates for the rights and protections of women workers. Yim was
nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005.
Dilcia
Molina
"Condiciones
de Riesgo y Vulnerabilidad Ante el VIH/SIDA de las/os Trabajadoras/es
del Sexo Latinas/os en el Area Metropolitana"
Monday, July 10, 1:30pm, Salon B
Dilcia Molina specializes in social psychology,
investigations, and popular education.
Molina has lived in the United States under political asylum
since 2002. Because of her
work as a human rights activist in the LGBT Honduran community, she has
become an information specialist for other LGBT Latina/o asylum seekers. At the Clínica del Pueblo, Molina coordinates support groups
for people living with HIV, and is conducting a study on immigrant
Latinos who are involved in commercial sex in the Washington, D.C.,
Maryland and Virginia area. She
also helps female victims of domestic violence, and along with other
community leaders, plans to create a center that provides support to
domestic violence victims.
Rachel Wotton
Secretary, Touching Base Inc.
International Spokesperson, Scarlet Alliance
"Sex Services Premises Planning
Advisory Panel: The Guidelines"
Monday,
July 10, 1:30pm, Salon B
"Touching Base: Sex Work and Disabled
Clients"
Wednesday, July 12, 3:15pm, Salon C
Rachel Wotton is secretary for Touching Base, Inc., a
not-for-profit organization working to foster connections between people
with disabilities and sex workers, with a focus on access,
discrimination, human rights, and legal issues, and the attitudinal
barriers that these two marginalized communities face.
Wotton is also the International Spokesperson for Scarlet
Alliance, an Australian Sex Worker Association that aims
to achieve social, legal, political, cultural, and economic justice for
both active and retired sex workers.
Allen
Lichtenstein
General
counsel, ACLU Nevada
“Panel:
Know Your Rights! Sex Work and the Law”
Monday, July 10, 1:30pm, Salon D
Allen Lichtenstein
is a general counsel for the ACLU of Nevada.
Holly Pottle
Sex Workers' Rights Advocate
MA Student, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
“Panel:
Know Your Rights! Sex Work and the Law”
Monday, July 10, 1:30pm, Salon D
"Sex
Workers' Rights Movement: Obstacles and Resiliency- Advocating for
Occupational Rigths in the Sex Industry"
Monday, July 10,
3:20pm, Salon B
Holly Pottle holds a master’s degree in sociology and
will begin doctoral work in fall, 2006.
Pottle’s scholarship includes works that examine the sex
workers’ rights movement, such as the paper she presented at the
Mid-South Sociological Association’s 2006 Conference, “Strippers,
Whores, and Advocates: Exploring Resiliency and Persistence in the Sex
Workers’ Rights Movement.”
Alexandra
Lutnick
University of California San Francisco
St. James Infirmary
"SWEAT
(Sex Worker Environmental Assessment Team)"
Monday, July 10,
3:20pm, Salon C
Alexandra Lutnick received her MA in Human
Sexuality Studies from San Francisco State University in the spring of
2004. Lutnick is a
sex worker, a harm reduction counselor for St. James Infirmary, and
Staff Research Associate III for the University of California, San
Francisco. Currently, Lutnick is the coordinator for the SWEAT (Sex
Worker Environmental Assessment Team) project, a multi-level study that
aims to identify the ways in which social capital impacts the health of
female sex workers in San Francisco. This project is conducted by
UCSF in conjunction with St. James Infirmary, a provider of health care
and social services for all sex workers, which also works towards
preventing occupational illnesses and injuries.
Erin Rehel
PhD Candidate, Department
of Sociology
Brandeis University
“Sex Work and Harm
Reduction: A Strategy for Empowerment"
Monday, July 10,
3:20pm, Salon C
Erin Rehel
graduated in 2005 with an M.A. in Religious Studies (Specialization in
Bioethics) from McGill University in Montreal. While at McGill she was
actively involved in the sexual Assault Centre of McGill’s Student
Society, where she had the opportunity to work with the Montreal based
organization Stwlla, a sex workers rights organization. Her academic
interest in sex work stems from her work in sexual ethics, international
aspects of violence against women, health care policy and ethics, and
medical sociology.
Miranda Waggoner
PhD Candidate, Department of
Sociology
Brandeis University
“Sex Work and Harm
Reduction: A Strategy for Empowerment"
Monday, July 10, 3:20pm, Salon C
Miranda Waggoner
has completed previous graduate work in Sociology at the University of
Texas at Austin where she researched young women’s involvement in
feminist politics, including views on the intersection of feminism and
sex work. Her other recent research projects have focused on underground
and alternative political communities, and health related outcomes of
civic engagement. Her interest in sex work focuses on how the work is
treated in communities, in political discourse, and how sex work relates
to public health.
GiGi Thomas
HIPS Client Advocate
“Police
Brutality”
Monday, July 10,
3:20pm, Salon C
"Peer
Based Outreach with Street Based Sex Workers"
Wednesday,
July 12, 4:30pm, Salon D
GiGi
Thomas is a 35-year-old African American woman who has
lived in Washington, DC all her life.
She is currently pursuing a master’s degree in social work at
the University of District of Columbia.
Thomas is the Client Advocate for HIPS (Helping Individual
Prostitutes Survive), where she has worked to assist, support, and
empower male, female, and transgendered sex workers for the last 6
years. As a transgendered woman, Thomas considers herself an
expert in issues of sex work and violence, and is also on the Board for
THE (Transgender Health Empowerment), which is the first supportive
housing for transgender in Washington D.C.
Matthew Brittain, LCSW, DCSW
Diplomates: Clinical Social Work, NASW, American
Board of Sexology, American College of Forensic Examiners
Effective Change
"Classification
of Sex Crime Characteristics: How the Criminalization of Prostitution
Results in More Damage than it is Intended to Prevent"
Monday, July 10:
3:20pm, Salon D
"Sexual Surrogacy"
Wednesday, July 12,
11:45am
Mathew Brittain is a clinical forensic
social worker who works with clientele populations that include couples
who need sexual guidance, individuals with sexual dysfunctions, both
male and female adult victims of sexual assault, and agencies and
businesses who wish to address issues of sexual harassment.
Emily
Luther
Graduate Student
Depts of English, Women’s Studies, and The Writing Program
Syracuse University
“Anti-Discriminatory
Praxis: Teaching Alexa Albert’s Brothel”
Monday, July 10, 3:20pm, Salon D
Emily Luther
is an educator currently completing her MA in Women’s Studies. She
designed a sophomore-level university writing course entitled, “Sex,
Gender, and Labor Issues in the United States,” for which she uses
Alexa Albert’s Brothel as a primary text. As a feminist scholar
she has sex and sexual behavior in literature and critical theory for a
number of years. Most recently Luther has explored in depth the
perceptions of sex and sexual behavior in America by studying legal
prostitution in Nevada, and by studying Hip-Hop lyricism. She is
interested in sexual politics as a potentially anti-imperialist force to
combat sexism, racism, and homophobia in the US, and she is also looking
at how the criminalization of prostitution and the social stigmas
surrounding sex work perpetuate discrimination.
Jill
McCracken
PhD
Candidate, Rhetoric
University
of Arizona
"‘Prostitution’
/ 'Sex Work’ / 'The Exchange of Sex for Money or Drugs’:
Representations, and the Material Conditions of these Workers’
Lives"
Monday,
July 10, 3:20pm, Salon D
Jill McCracken has worked in the sex industry as a dancer
and has done research on the sex industry for the past four years. She
is currently working on her dissertation, which is an analysis of street
sex workers and the material conditions of their lives, and how these
material conditions are reproduced, reflected, and entrenched in policy
surrounding street sex work.
Avaren Ipsen
PhD
Candidate, Graduate Theological Union
Adjunct Lecturer
University
of California, Berkeley
"Contradicting
Religious Arguments Against Prostitution"
Monday, July 10, 3:20pm, Salon D
Avaren Ipsen is a PhD candidate at
the Graduate Theological Union in Biblical Literature and is an adjunct
Lecturer at UC Berkeley in the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies.
A wife, mother and student Avaren is also very involved with local
grassroots activism. She considers herself to be an "organic
intellectual" and a feminist liberation theologian. Her
dissertation work is on the Bible and global prostitution. Ipsen, along
with many other scholars in the field, are using the Bible to show that
Jesus accepted prostitution and that he in fact was nice to prostitutes.
When she is not lecturing on campus
or studying, Avaren and her son Gus spend time protesting nuclear power
or dress up like “Killer Tomatoes” to educate the public about
Genetically Modified Organisms. She was recently appointed to the
Berkeley Commission on the Status of Women, a position she hopes to use
to further the rights of prostitutes in the Bay Area and around
California. "It's very much about the civil rights of women. Should
women be jailed for adult consensual sex?"
Samantha Erskine
Graduate Student, Women's History Program
Sarah Lawrence College
"Erotic Laborers Banished from the Feminist Movement"
Monday, July 10, 3:20pm, Salon B
Samantha Erskine is a graduate student
studying women's history at Sarah Lawrence College, in New York.
She intends to pursue a career in policy, as it relates to race, gender,
sexual politics, and reproductive justice. Samantha has worked
with pregnant and parenting teenagers and at two battered women's
legal clinics, as well as at a reproductive rights organization, an
emergency shelter for homeless women, and at various civil rights
organizations. She also worked as a self-employed web designer and
professional Latin dancer for five years. As an undergraduate,
Samantha received two Bachelors of Arts degrees in Psychology and
Women's Studies. She intends to pursue a PhD in sociology and
social policy.
Danielle Brodnick
M.A., Gender & Cultural Studies
“The Institution of Prostitution: A Woman’s Choice”
Monday, July 10, 3:20pm, Salon B
Danielle Brodnick
holds a Master’s of Arts degree in gender and cultural studies.
Her research focuses on the sex workers’ rights social
movement, women, and shame.
Rachel West
US PROStitutes’ Collective
“Decriminalization in the Making: Implementing a City Resolution
to Protect Sex Workers and Stop Arrests and Prosecutions”
Monday, July 10, 3:20pm, Salon B
Rachel West
was born in Africa and has lived in San Francisco since 1981 where she
is a community organiser at the Crossroads Women's Centre and is
involved in the Global Women's Strike. Rachel also works at Rainbow
Grocery, one of the largest worker-owned health food co-operatives in
the US, and she coordinates the Every Mother is a Working Mother Network
in San Francisco. She is also a spokeswoman for US PROS (the US
PROStitutes Collective) which campaigns for the decriminalization of
prostitution and for economic alternatives for women, so no man, woman
or child is forced into prostitution through poverty.
Sapna Patel, Esq.
Staff Attorney, Sex Workers Project, New York, NY
"Legal and Policy Support to Sex Workers and Sex Workers
Organizing"
Wednesday, July 12, 10:00am, Salon B
Sapna Patel is the Staff Attorney for the Sex Workers
Project (SWP), the first program in New York City, and in the country,
to focus on the provision of legal services, legal training,
documentation, and policy advocacy for sex workers.
Using a harm reduction and human rights model, the SWP protects
the rights and safety of sex workers who by choice, circumstance, or
coercion remain in the industry.
Kristen
Freeland
Outreach Coordinator, Sex Workers Project, New
York, NY
"Legal and Policy Support to Sex Workers and Sex Workers
Organizing"
Wednesday, July 12, 10:00am, Salon B
Kristen Freeland is originally from
California, where she began working for progressive change through her
involvement with San Francisco Women Against Rape, Needle Exchange, and
Food Not Bombs. In 2000, she joined the Exotic Dancers Union and later
assisted with The Lusty Lady Theatre's transition into becoming a
worker-owned co-operative in May 2003.
She joined The Sex Workers Project in New York City as an
outreach worker in June 2005, and is currently pursuing degrees in
Sociology and Dance at Hunter College.
Jennifer Ramirez
Outreach Worker, Sex Workers Project, New York,
NY
"Legal and Policy Support to Sex Workers and Sex Workers
Organizing"
Wednesday, July 12, 10:00am, Salon B
Jennifer Ramirez is the Outreach Worker for the Sex Workers
Project (SWP), the first program in New York City, and in the country,
to focus on the provision of legal services, legal training,
documentation, and policy advocacy for sex workers. Using a harm
reduction and human rights model, the SWP protects the rights and safety
of sex workers who by choice, circumstance, or coercion remain in the
industry.
Gennifer M. Hirano, M.Ed.
asianprincess aka Jenna Jasmine
SWOP-UCLA
"Resisting Victim Labels"
Wednesday, July 12, 11:45am, Salon D
Gennifer M. Hirano uses a variety of
methods to challenge ideas regarding the construction of sexuality,
including work as a writer, model, performance artist, photographer, and
activist. The development
of her fine art career as the "asianprincess character," for
which she is perhaps best known, began informally in college and has
since developed and proliferated in multiple incarnations and mediums,
ranging from photography to video, live performance to installation.
Her work communicates ideas regarding racism, feminism,
sexuality, sex work, sexism, sexual assault awareness, and homophobia.
Robyn
Few
Sex Workers' Outreach Project, USA
“Building a Local
Network”
Wednesday, July 12, 11:45am, Salon B
Robyn Few is the Director of SWOP-USA (Sex Workers Outreach
Project-USA), an organization she founded in 2003. Few was motivated to create SWOP following a 2002 federal
arrest and conviction that was based on trumped up charges that equated
terrorism with prostitution. The
group, whose goal is to decriminalize prostitution and to protect women
from violence, has a sister organization in Australia, SWOP-AU.
Few’s work has taken her across the globe, including to New Zealand, where she filmed a documentary that features the New Zealand activists
and parliamentary members who were instrumental in the decriminalization
of prostitution. In
addition to her work to decriminalize prostitution, Few has worked tirelessly as an
advocate and caregiver for medical marijuana and AIDS patients.
Lam Yee Ling
Zi Teng, Hong Kong
"Lobbying and Public
Education Work"
Wednesday, July 12, 11:45am, Salon C
Lam Yee Ling is an advocate with Zi Teng, a sex workers’
rights organization in Hong Kong, that believes that sex work is work
and that sex workers should enjoy labor and human rights. Zi Teng fights
for decriminalization of sex work, and has developed a wide network
throughout Mainland China, Australia, Cambodia and Japan, and they work
hand-in-hand with academics, legislators, HIV/AIDS concerns, sex worker
organizations, and sex workers to provide different services and support
for both local and migrant female and male sex workers.
Barb
Brents, PhD
Professor,
Department of Sociology
University of Las Vegas, Nevada
“Sex Work and the Academy:
Challenging Assumptions and Practice”
Wednesday, July 12, 12:45pm, Salon B
Barbara Brents
received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Missouri.
Her research and teaching areas of specialization include political and
comparative historical sociology, social policy, gender, and the sex
industry. She has published articles in American Sociological
Review, Critical Sociology, Journal of Contemporary
Ethnography, and Social Science and Medicine; and she has
served as president of the Nevada ACLU. She is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology and is a faculty
affiliate with the Women's Studies Department at the University of
Nevada Las Vegas. She is co-founder of the SABIR (Sex and Body Industry
Research) Project with Kate Hausbeck. The two have published on the sex
industry and are currently writing a book on Nevada's legal brothel
system. In addition to her work on sexuality and the commercial sex
industry, she also does research on social movements and politics.
Priscilla
Alexander
COYOTE, North American Task
Force on Prostitution
“Sex Work and the Academy:
Challenging Assumptions and Practice”
Wednesday, July 12, 12:45pm,
Salon B
Priscilla Alexander
is a published expert on prostitution, having done extensive research as
a member of COYOTE- the oldest sex workers' rights movement- established
in 1976. In 1979, with Margo St. James, Alexander founded the North
American Task Force on Prostitution (formerly known as the National Task
Force on Prostitution), a loose coalition of sex workers' rights
organizations in the United States and Canada. From 1985 to 1990,
Alexander worked with Project AWARE, one of the first studies to examine
the epidemiology of HIV/AIDS among female prostitutes and other women.
In 1987, she was a founding member of the California Prostitutes
Education Project (CAL-PEP), one of the first sex worker-organized
HIV/AIDS prevention projects in the world, and the only such project in
the United States organized by sex workers on their own behalf. In 1987,
she co-edited the book Sex Work: Writings by Women in the Sex
Industry, published by Cleis Press. From 1989 to 1993 she was a
consultant with the World Health Organization's Global Programme on
AIDS, serving as the focal person on sex work and HIV/AIDS, and
developing a strategy for responding to the problem of HIV/AIDS among
women. Her publications include articles on a variety of issues related
to sex work, including HIV/AIDS epidemiology, scapegoating, HIV/AIDS
prevention, occupational safety and health, and human rights. She also
studied at Columbia University's School of Public Health.
Carol
Leigh
Aka Scarlot Harlot, Unrepentant
Whore
Director, BAYSWAN
“Sex Work and the Academy:
Challenging Assumptions and Practice”
Wednesday, July 12, 12:45pm,
Salon B
Carol Leigh, also known as Scarlot Harlot, is an activist, performer, and author who has been
part of the sex workers' rights movement since the 1970s; Leigh coined
the term “sex work” in. She
has participated in numerous organizations, including founding the Bay
Area Sex Workers' Advocacy Network, participating as an active member of
the Sex Workers' Outreach Project, and performing as a spokesperson for
Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics (COYOTE).
Leigh coordinated a street outreach project, volunteered at
Needle Exchange, curates the Sex Worker! Film and Arts Festival,
administers Prostitutes Education Network Website, and represented San
Francisco's Commission on the Status of Women on the Board of
Supervisor's Task Force on Prostitution.
She has also published extensively, participating in numerous
anthologies about sex work. Leigh
is a performer and filmmaker and most recently toured the US with the
Sex Workers' Art Show.
Kate Hausbeck
Professor,
Department of Sociology
University of Las Vegas, Nevada
“Sex Work and the Academy:
Challenging Assumptions and Practice”
Wednesday, July 12, 12:45pm, Salon B
Kate Hausbeck
is an Associate Professor of Sociology and a faculty affiliate in the
Women's Studies Department at the University of Nevada Las Vegas where
she is co-founder of the SABIR (Sex and Body Industry Research) Project
with Barb Brents. The two have published on the sex industry and are
currently writing a book on Nevada's legal brothel system. Dr. Hausbeck
does research on gender, sexualities, visual culture, theory and, of
course, the commercial sex industry. Hausbeck
received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the State University of New York at
Buffalo. Her research addresses classical, contemporary, and
feminist theory, including gender environment and sociological praxis in
China. She is an ACLU Nevada Board member. She also teaches
in the Women's Studies Department at UNLV.
Susan M. Lopez-Embury, MSc
Desiree Alliance
SWOP-LV
“Sex Work and the Academy:
Challenging Assumptions and Practice”
Wednesday, July 12, 12:45pm, Salon B
Susan Lopez-Embury
received her BA in Peace and Conflict Studies from the University of
California at Berkeley, where her concentration was on human rights and
conflict resolution. She received her MSc. with merit from London School
of Economics in Social Policy and Planning in Developing Countries. Her
dissertation on sex workers’ organizing in developing countries
received distinction at LSE, and she hopes to eventually publish similar
work. Having spent 14 years
of her life as a sex worker, Susan has decided to pursue further
research as well as advocation for sex workers’ rights. Towards this
end, she is involved as a founding member of Desiree Alliance, and is
currently in the process of setting up a Sex Workers’ Organizing
Project (SWOP) in Las Vegas for which she is in collaboration with the
Sex Workers’ Outreach Project (SWOP) in the San Francisco Bay.
Veronica Monet
Desiree Alliance, SWOP-USA
Media Outreach, Sex Educator
Author
"Sex Work
and the Media"
Wednesday, July 12, 2:00 pm, Salon B
Veronica Monet
graduated as an honor student from Oregon State University in 1982, with
a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and a minor in Business
Administration. After working in corporate settings for seven years, she
spent the next 14 years acquiring experience with the practical and
political aspects of sex work as an erotic model, porn actress,
prostitute, escort, and courtesan. Ms. Monet has become very popular
with the media and the public as her list of credits for television,
radio, magazine, newspaper, book credits and lecture venues has grown
quite extensive. She offers classes, workshops, and lectures on the
topics of gender and sexuality, in addition to her services as an
international escort. Her
political activism has included memberships with Bay Area Bisexual
Network, COYOTE San Francisco, and Sex Worker Outreach Project.
Chris Heinisch
Professional Web Designer
“Websites for Workers: How
to Build Your Own Website”
Wednesday, July 12, 2:00 pm, SWOP Ste
Chris Heinisch
is senior Web site developer. Heinisch specializes in HTML and other
design languages.
Stacey
S.
Desiree Alliance
"Organizational Outreach: Building
Alliances Outside of the Sex Worker's Rights Movement"
Wednesday, July 12, 2:00 pm, Salon D
Stacey
is the acting director and a founding member of the Desiree Alliance.
Swimme is a founding member of the Sex Workers’ Outreach Project USA,
working to promote health, dignity and safety for those working in the
sex industry. She is a sex worker, activist and student continuing her
education in public health.
Erika
Smith
Different Avenues, Washington, DC
"Dancers are Special"
Wednesday, July 12, 2:00 pm, Salon D
"Getting Off On-line:
Creating an Effective Peer Support Program for sex workers via the
Internet”
Wednesday, July 12, 4:30 pm, SWOP Ste
Erica Smith is the Drop-In Center Coordinator for Different
Avenues, a Washington, DC non-profit organization that provides services to youth and young adults,
ages 12 to 30, who are homeless or living in insecure housing.
Many of the organization’s clients are transgendered, gay,
lesbian, or bisexual. Different
Avenues works with people who engage in street survival strategies,
including sex for favors.
Momo
Douglas
Peer Educator
Different Avenues, Washington, DC
"Dancers are Special"
Wednesday, July 12, 2:00 pm, Salon D
"Getting Funding for Sex Worker Rights
Work (Yes, Get Money!)"
Wednesday, July 12, 3:14, Salon B
Momo Douglas works as a Peer Educator for Different Avenues, a
Washington, DC non-profit organization that provides services
to youth and young adults, ages 12 to 30, who are homeless or living in
insecure housing. Many of
the organization’s clients are transgendered, gay, lesbian, or
bisexual. Different Avenues
also helps youth who themselves are parents, as well as parents of
youth, and works with people who engage in street survival strategies,
including sex for favors.
Holly Richardson
Arise for Social Justice
"Decriminalization of our Lives: Working With Diverse
Communities to Support Decriminalization"
Wednesday, July 12, 2:00 pm, Salon C
Holly Richardson is a community organizer
who works with the Springfield, Massachusetts-based, multi-issue,
low-income-rights organization Arise
for Social Justice. Richardson,
who is involved with a variety
of activist organizations, connects the criminalization of prostitution
with high rates of incarceration and the ensuing proliferation of
jails, and argues for the decriminalization of sex work.
Solobia
Hutchins
Arise for Social Justice
"Decriminalization of our Lives: Working With Diverse
Communities to Support Decriminalization"
Wednesday, July 12, 2:00 pm, Salon C
Solobia Hutchins works with Arise
for Social Justice, a
Springfield, Massachusetts-based, multi-issue, low-income-rights
organization.
Hutchins is passionate about the issues that surround
incarcerated women and argues that “Women should get
the services they need while incarcerated, but the truth is that I
don’t want women to be imprisoned in the first place.”
She is critical of the lack of low-income housing in
Massachusetts, and points out that drug treatment facilities are
shrinking, and real living-wage jobs are absurdly scarce.
The fall-out of these combined factors is that the number of poor
women and women of color who are incarcerated is exploding, which
Hutchins finds unacceptable and deplorable.
Caty
Simon
Arise for Social Justice
"Decriminalization of our Lives: Working With Diverse
Communities to Support Decriminalization"
Wednesday, July 12, 2:00 pm, Salon C
Caty Simon is a 23 year old escort and activist
living in Western Massachusetts, and a board member of Arise for Social Justice, a multi-issue, low-income-rights
organization based in Springfield.
Simon also works with the WISE committee, which was formed to
address the concerns of criminalized women.
WISE focuses on decriminalizing prostitution and
legalizing/starting needle exchange programs in the city of Springfield,
as well as promoting other harm reduction projects.
Simon was recently featured as one of Curve magazine's "10
Activists Under 25."
Natasha Sommers
Adult Entertainer, Transgender Advocate
"Decriminalization of our Lives: Working With Diverse
Communities to Support Decriminalization"
Wednesday, July 12, 2:00 pm, Salon C
Natasha Sommers is an activist
who advocates for transgender rights.
She has worked with various public school districts to collect
stories from transgender youth, and hopes to collect those histories in
a book entitled “From Our Own Mouths.”
Sommers is also involved with a transgender prisoner support
group and works with the Sex Worker’s Outreach Project (SWOP-USA).
Sommers, who was a key collaborator in ensuring inclusivity and
diversity among attendees of this conference, also devotes time to
advocating for transgender sex workers in San Francisco’s Tenderloin
district.
Jill
Brenneman
STORM (Sex Trade Opportunities for Risk
Minimization)
"Not Ready to Make Nice" in
"Decriminalization of our Lives: Working With Diverse Communities
to Support Decriminalization"
Wednesday, July 12, 2:00 pm, Salon C
Jill Brenneman is a national speaker, trainer, and
outreach educator working to create awareness on issues related to sex
work, such as violence against sex workers, discrimination,
stigmatization, and classism. Brenneman
is the Executive Director of STORM (Sex Trade Opportunities for Risk
Minimization), a non-profit organization that incorporates a harm
reduction-based educational and counseling program with a specific focus
on issues related to sex work, sex workers, and the sex industry.
Having been a prostitute herself, Brenneman offers a first
person, pragmatic, practical perspective, drawing from her own personal
background, harm reduction training, and nine years of activism and
outreach crisis counseling experience.
