Transgender Day of Remembrance

“They celebrate that in Berlin, too?” asked Tumeka after I showed her the poster from the Berlin demo.  Later, I asked her where she thought it should go in the clinic…on the front door!

There is a march happening in San Francisco, as I type.   That sickness I managed to keep at arms length the entire time I was traveling, hit me full force as soon as I got home…therefore I am not out there marching in  person, but in spirit.

So many dear people in my life are trans.   Today, I am also remembering the transgender friends I have lost, and can’t help but believe that their deaths may have been prevented if their hadn’t been a huge stigma weighing against them day after day.

I feel like its kind of cold to quote numbers from research, but sometimes it helps get a point across.   According to research from the St. James Infirmary, transgender sex workers are the most at risk for violence against them from both clients and police.   They are also the most at risk for arrest. And you know, I have seen the harassment of street based workers who are transgender, and I can’t imagine how I would feel having to put up with that day after day.

And you know, the other groups working with sex workers in the Balkans said the same thing – people who are transgender are the most at risk for all of these things.

It is just clear that we need to work hard to deal with this stigma, and fight for transgender rights…

But speaking of Remembrance…I was just remembering that it is just about the two year anniversary since my dear friend Rebis died.

I met Rebis at the St. James Infirmary.  This was a long time ago, before either of us worked there.  We were both there for services.  I remember it being one of those instant connections – we both kept giving each other funny looks, and laughing.  It was only later, maybe not even that night that we first learned each other’s names.

A little while later, strangely enough, (ok, laugh at me if you want for this) we ran into each other at Burning Man.   Bree, as they were called then, gave me Reiki for a cold I was recovering from.   I remember the Reiki really working well.  And then, we ended up spending the entire night together – climbing on weird burning man art, or falling over onto our backs in the middle of the desert, and the middle of nowhere, in order to laugh at the full moon….until some strange comedians came upon us,  preaching in fake southern accents, and making us laugh until we cried.   I remember discovering how well we danced together – we were both performers, and really enjoyed dancing in weird care-free ways….Many of the moments I treasure most about Rebis involved dancing and laughing.  This night we stayed up until the sun rose – the night that we became friends is one of the most amazing nights of my life.

Later, we did a trade, where I trained them to be a pro-domme, and they gave met my second reiki attunement.

And I remember the day Rebis introduced himself as such and told me he had begun transitioning. I was actually at the Sex Worker Film and Art show, curated by the fabulous Scarlot Harlot.  My friend Qilo was performing their amazing typewriter dance piece, and there were several performances by different Debbys- an activist sex worker performance art group from Australia.  Rebis was there selling the Debby’s sex worker schwag – stickers and tee-shirts and more… (I bought one of the tee-shirts – it is one of my favoirtes still because it has “Outlaw Whore’ silk-screened on it, and a tiny patch in the corner that says ‘whore lover’)

Rebis actually was the person who told me about the outreach job opening at St. James.  At the time, I was looking for some ’straight-work.’  He also told me that sometimes they are hiring for people to do Reiki – and I have been doing both at St. James for several years, and now I am the coordinator for outreach, and  doing reiki, is one of my favorite parts about working at the clinic.

I remember when he came back from this trip to Asia.  His voice had dropped significantly, and I almost did not recognize it was him on the phone.  He  told me he had been having a hard time, that his family was having a hard time with his transition.   Rebis was looking for work, and so we ended up sharing this one gig, where we worked the door for Mondo Porno.  We had to dress up – maybe not just for the event’s aesthetic, but for ourselves as well.  He borrowed this amazing blue suit from Naomi – it had been her grandfathers…and again I remember when our shift was finally over, dancing to the last set of music before taking off to get food at Orphan Andy’s.

The last time I saw Rebis was actually at St. James, as well.  We were both getting ear acupuncture, and he would giggle every time he felt energy from the needles move.  He was extremely sensitive to it, maybe from being a reiki master?  I don’t know, I know I got more sensitive after I was attuned…anyway he would close his eyes, giggle and point his finger and say, “zoom!”   We both laughed so hard, that I think everyone in the community room was infected with a good mood.

Rebis was an amazing spirit in the world.  I think everybody loved him.  He also really had a major affect on my life that I still feel today.  I miss him….

Interviews, Bertolt Brecht, and Club Mate

Tomorrow, I am presenting at the Bethanien with a couple of other sex workers/activists.  I am excited, for what I think may be the most in-depth presentation I have done yet on this trip, including a more complicated discussion on sex work versus human trafficking.

I also have another interview to transcribe – this one with Simone from Hydra…but I have not had enough computer/internet time to finish transcribing even the first one, so those interviews may not make it up until after I return to the U.S.

In the meantime, I have been spending time with the lovely queers and activists of Berlin, as well as meeting up with a dear old friend from days as an exchange student here. Marko and I have also braved the increasing cold in order to visit the graves of my favorite German playwrigts, Bertolt Brecht and Heiner Mueller.  These two have inspired me immensely, both politically and artistically…so they got flowers, and even a ritualistic pouring of the Club Mate I had been drinking.  (Club Mate is kinda like the german version of red bull – its a soda made from yerba mate.  Since I have been traveling, all my healthy habits have been replaced with bad ones. )  If anything would awaken Bertolt Brecht for a conversation, I figured it would be Club Mate.

The Opposing Extremes in the Trafficking Dialogue

Today I interviewed someone who has been working for some time on human trafficking for sexual exploitation issues.

I am in the midst of transcribing the interview, but am only half-way through side A of tape that was filled completely.  My interviewee friend was kind enough to do the interview in English.  I speak German, but it would have taken me much longer to transcribe, and her English is better than my German.  Even so, I think some of the deeper things being expressed were difficult with this language.

In the end, we talked a great deal about what she sees as two extremes in the trafficking dialogue, both of which are problematic.  On one end, is this extremely moral view that includes the argument that everyone doing sex work is trafficked, (and this view often excludes trafficking for reasons other than sexual exploitation, and other genders being trafficked).   On the other end is the reactionary response amongst some in the sex worker rights community who say that trafficking is not real.

I would say that few people totally believe that there is no trafficking, but sex workers get tired of being told that they are victims, and they could not possibly choose to do sex work. In fact, the community chosen term, sex work is often ignored by people with this other, moralistic view of trafficking.  However, sex workers often get tired of hearing ambiguous statements and generalizations about trafficking which are used, sometimes, as arguments against things like the decriminalization of sex work.

Anyway, we discussed these extremes, and that the reality lies somewhere in between the two views – that trafficking includes for sexual exploitation, and that ambiguous numbers and statements are used, and that people choose to migrate but complicated power dynamics facilliate all sorts of exploitation.

It was a good conversation, though the topic difficult and heavy, and I feel like even in our hour’s worth of tape which I am working to transcribe, we barely opened a pretty huge can of worms.

Rainy Autumn days in Berlin

Berlin…I love it here.

Even though every day I have been here, it has been grey, and sometimes raining, I feel at home in this city.  I have met so many wonderful people – queers and activists and artists and sex workers…I once thought I would find a way to live here again, but I also fell in love with San Francisco, and the Berlin dream slipped away from the front of my consciousness.

But being back here, and seeing some of the amazing house projects, and enjoying that way in which political and critical conversation happens over breakfast with very new friends, has renewed that dream.

Yesterday, I did a shorter presentation at the Morgenrot in Prenzlauerberg (Thank you to Abolishing Borders from Below!)…and there will be a more in depth presentation this Sunday at the Bethanien in Kreuzberg.

http://stressfaktor.squat.net/termine.php?tag=16112008

Today I met some of the lovely folks from HYDRA ( http://www.hydra-ev.org/ ), who have been working since 1980 on sex workers issues.   I will be interviewing some of them on their work, and on the very interesting situation here in Germany, where sex work is currently legal.

And tomorrow, I will also be interviewing someone who has been working on trafficking and exploitation issues with Roma people.

So…stay tuned!

New Erotic Services Policy on Craigslist

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2008/11/06/BUVO13VQUM.DTL

This is infuriating.

Craigslist, intentionally or not, provided for some harm reduction for those working in the sex industry.  Especially for those sex workers who previously worked in the streets, and were the most visible, and therefore most at risk for violence, harassment and more.

The free internet advertising allowed for those sex workers with internet skills to more anonymously connect with clients.  Craigslist and police think that they are cracking down on prostitution by asking for credit card information for those posting on the site.  Prostitution is not going to stop.  Workers are simply going to have to return to less safe means of advertising – such as working in the streets.

At least on the internet, sex workers could protect themselves from the harassment and violence that the street facillitates.

This makes me sad and angry.

What´s next?

‘Wendy, Obama hat gewonnen!´ yelled my host mother to me from the kitchen where the radio was on.  It was 5:30 in the morning, and time for me to get up, so that I could get a ride partway to Dresden.

It seems that everyone I know here hoped that this would happen.  Over a bad cup of espresso, I discussed with my friend, Andrea more critically…and I was also glad to hear that everyone did not blindly think that everything would be better with Obama.  I think this is a step, but that he is like most other politicians, he is not strong enough on most issues.  I am really glad that there is not another Republican in office. 

But I also wanted to know what happened with the propositions in San Francisco.   Through a series of text messages I got the news.  No affordable housing, No on gay marriage.  No Prop K.

I can´t believe it.  Well, I can, but it makes me really sad that so few care about affordable housing.  It really reflects the gentrification of San Francisco. 

I am not personally interested in marriage.  As an institution, it excludes many people.  But the fact that California banned gay marriage means that there is still a lot of work to be done for GLBT rights, and in my little San Francisco queer bubble, I somehow thought that society had come further than that – that the right to marry whom you wish would not really be a question.  I really did not think the ban would pass.

And as for Prop K.  Well, it was close.  It got more support than I thought, and this is thanks to the hard work of many people in San Francisco.  I was overjoyed by the alliances that were built or that surfaced as a result of this campaign. 

I also knew there were a lot of organizations against it – some that surprised me.  For instance, the GLBT newspaper the Bay times refused to endorse the proposition. They fell for this argument that it would promote trafficking.

A friend informed me that a certain union – I think it was the Longshoremen´s union decided not to endorse prop k because someone did a presentation there about the legislation being written by someone who managed sex workers.   This made me upset because, if so many sex workers are saying for themselves, decriminalization is better, then the union should respect that.  Decriminalization allows for unionization.

Clearly however, we did get a lot of support for the proposition.  We are getting closer to decriminalization.  Now, it is our job to use the momentum from the campaign to continue our work.  To closely examine how we lost and to not make the same mistakes again.

Especially clear is how the question of trafficking defeated the proposition.  We as sex workers need to strengthen our analysis of the issues of trafficking.  We need to do more work to raise awareness around the complexities of this issue and how it affects people.

Also, we need to work more closely with other political movements.  Sex workers are affected, for example, by issues of immigration, gentrification and affordable housing.  More of us to need to work directly on these issues and broaden our scope of activism.  We need to build coalitions with these groups.

The systemic racism and classism also means that the majority of sex worker activists are white and more privileged.  We all need to work harder to include the voices of sex workers from other communities and backgrounds.  We need to make this a priority. 

Its always important to remember the intersections of social justice movements, and that it is all related – issues that I already mentioned of immigrant rights, gentrification and affordable housing, issues of homophobia, and transphobia…This and more are all related, and we need to all work together to fight these things. 

And we need not wait until the next election to do so.  We need to do this now.

Wandering on, and yes on k, please

There were a couple days of trains….I love trains.  I can sit quitely and look out the window for hours.   Riding on a train is some of my favorite decompression time…or space out time.  

As I left the Balkans, I noticed how the landscape subtly changed, as I moved towards places which had not quite as recently been touched by war.   I also noticed that there was less poverty, and therefore also fewer abandoned houses with roofs caving in, fewer dirt roads, and fewer stray dogs. 

The closer the train got to Dresden, the closer I felt to ‘Deutscher Ordnung,’ laughing as I could almost hear my German host father echoing those words through memories ten years old…from that year when I had been an exchange student.

And suddenly there they were waiting for me at the train station.  Its funny to get off a train and feel like you have actually gotten off at stop ten years back in time.   That´s how it has felt, as suddenly I am speaking a language again that I used to speak fluently – words being unpacked from some dusty drunk in the back of my memory and flying unexpectedly out of my mouth.

All of a sudden I have left the world of being able to be completely out as a sex worker – left a world where I experienced for a very short time, a little bit of what it is like to be famous (WEIRD! I still can’t believe what happened in Serbia).  And entered the quite simplicity of German small-town life, where things are much simpler…and where i am getting more sleep, more down time, more time to just sit there and drink an espresso and watch strangers walk by.

American election day is all over the German media.  Its funny to hear it discussed in another language, from another vantage point.  ‘Obama, right?’ said my host mother, smiling at me…

And today is the November 4th.  As I write this, the polls are just opening in California. 

A couple of hours ago, I was riding in the car with my host father.  The radio was talking about the election, and they were taking, were the other things that would be decided on, other than the president.  I held my breath, as they first mentioned California, and the fact that it was voting on whether or not to uphold the recent CA supreme court decision to allow for gay marriage. They talked about a few other things before moving on to another state…

And I casually mentioned to my host father another interesting thing that was going to happen in San Francisco – the vote on whether or not to decriminalize prostitution.

Wahlkampf – is German for election.   And it literally translates as choice fight.  Sometimes German really has a funny way of cutting right through and telling it as it is.   This word speaks to the compromises and careful strategizing that needs to happen in politics.  Election sounds like a euphemism next to Wahlkampf.  It really is a fight, or even a war. 

Even though I don’t personally find him to be strong enough on issues I care about, I do hope that Obama wins.  And I really hope that California upholds the right to gay marry.  And if prostitution gets decriminalized in San Francisco, I will be ecstatic.

Now, I feel a little like I did as a little girl, trying to go to sleep before Christmas Day.   Nine hours ahead of the San Francisco elections, I will not know until I wake up in the morning what the outcome is.   My votes have already been cast.  My absentee ballot arrived the day before I left San Francisco.

And please, San Francisco, please vote yes on K.  Especially if you are concerned about the harms of trafficking, please vote yes on k.   and while you are at it, vote for things like affordable housing, and the right to gay marry.  vote to address poverty and override predjudice…because these are the actual oppressive forces at work….and after election day is over, please continue to address oppression, because it does not end with election day.

Interview with Elena Drezga of JAZAS, an NGO working with sex workers in Belgrade, Serbia

WV: Can you tell us about the work of JAZAS?

Elena Drezga: JAZAS is the oldest NGO in the former Yugoslavia with the aim to prevent HIV/ AIDS among women and the population in general for the last five years. The most important programs that we conduct is the sex worker program, which means HIV and STI prevention among that population. So we started in Belgrade, and then trained people all over Serbia, and we made outreach teams to go on the field to go work with street based sex workers. We also created a mobile medical unit, which is formed of several doctors, specialists, gynecologists, psychiatrists, general practitioners and counselors.

WV: And what is the HIV prevalence among sex workers? Is it high?

ED: No, absolutely not. We have done several research projects for the public health institute, and we are always doing testing on the field. All of our data shows that there is very low prevalence of HIV among sex workers.

WV: Of the sex worker population, who tends to be most at risk of things such as violence?

Absolutely the transgender group of sex workers is exposed to a high level of violence, and all street based sex workers are exposed to several types of violence in all parts of their life. So in their private life, domestic violence, pimps, police, everybody.

WV: What is the trafficking situation like here in Belgrade?

ED: We only have partner organizations dealing with trafficking, so we don’t approach that subject on a professional basis. Only if we see that someone who is obviously not on the field of their own will, then we refer them to the organizations. So, we do not have official data on that.

There was a major change in the sex worker scene after the murder of the premier in 2003. At that point, all of the sex workers from the Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, were practically expelled from the country, and we don’t meet them anymore on the streets of Belgrade, or in the strip clubs. They are not present anywhere. It was typical that those girls could be victims of trafficking in this area.

We do have a lot of refugees from Kosovo. They escaped from Kosovo during the 90’s and then established themselves in Belgrade.

WV: And if sex work were to be decriminalized, how would that effect the issue of trafficking?

ED: It would bring the subject into the open. The sex workers will be more visible, and that will be helpful for accessing all kinds of services. In that position, they will be able to reach the services that they need, and the services could reach them.

It would reduce the risk of trafficking. When you have invisible people working in invisible places, all kinds of manipulation and abuse can be present. If it is criminalized, then it is harder to see if there is violence and abuse of the individual.

WV: Thank you. Is there anything else you would like to say about the situation for sex workers?

ED: I want to thank you for coming. You caused such huge changes in the media. Now everybody is reporting on it. So, now, they will continue to report on the issues of sex work, from the different perspectives. It is important.

We were not able to achieve that before- nobody paid attentions to those issues before.

Sex Workers in the Serbian Media Frenzy

These past few days have been crazy.  One day blends into the next, and I can hardly believe what has happened.

First I was to give a couple of presentations on sex work, the clinic, and sex worker issues.  There was at first just one journalist who was interested this in a serious way.

But then after my first presentation (which went really well- the crowd was overall amazing. They were engaged and supportive)  came the Serbian tabloid’s horrible article which was filled with lies.

For two days I was on the front page of the tabloid.  Crazy!  I still don’t believe it, but I have the copies to prove it.   It was offensive and degrading, and I was worried suddenly that there was more harm done then good.

The dean of the University forbade the second presentation, and suddenly, everybody wanted to do an interview.  In the past few days, I have done interviews with five different journalists.  From progressive newspapers, to student journalists, to the the journal which is the reminds me of something between  the U.S.’s Time Magazine and National Geographic.

And there are still more.

And the sex worker activists here are excited, because never before has the issue of sex work gotten so much media attention.  There was one bad article, and the rest of been good.  I am told that they have been trying for years to get the media to talk about the real issues facing sex workers, and the journalism has been very poor, and very degrading.

But now the conversation has really been opened.  And this is an amazing thing.

And I got together with the different people who had been in some way invovled, and we together came up with a huge statement in response to the original media attention.  (The person who typed it up wrote it first in Serbian, it is not yet been translated into english.)

Marianne Jonker, sex worker activist from the Netherlands, was the person I was supposed to present with at Belgrade University.  She facilitated a workshop for sex workers during which we had a chance to discuss the negative article, and I got a list of responses and demands from some street-based sex workers here in Belgrade.

This is what those sex workers have to say:

1) This type of negative media attention absolutely contributes to the violence against them from other people, and clients.

2) They feel that if such an article printed such lies, then the newspaper should be prosecuted

3) It is unacceptable to use this term ‘kurva’ or whore.  They are called sex workers (because sex work is labor just like anything else).

4) Sex Workers are people, and they should not be discriminated against

5) There was an organization for transgender folk which was going to attend to the presentation at Belgrade University, and they were really sad they could not go.

I shared these statements with every journalist I talked to since.  I hope they get printed in the Serbian Media.

An Interview with the Anti Trafficking Center, Belrade

Many people believe that decriminalizing sex work would lead to further human trafficking. In Belgrade, Serbia, where many say that human trafficking is a huge problem, there is an advocacy group with experience on both issues.

The Anti Trafficking Center (ATC) has been working on issues of human trafficking since 1999. However, over the course of time, experience changed their perceptions about trafficking, and how the issue affects sex workers.

“We stopped working with trafficking, because we saw that trafficking became an excuse for NGO’s and police to restrain women,” said Jelena Dordevic, the Deputy Director of the Anti Trafficking Center, “The whole idea of trafficking turned against us and the people we were trying to support.”

In its simplest terms, trafficking for the sex trade is defined as use of force. If an individual willingly chooses to do sex work, or to migrate to another country for sex work, then it is not trafficking.

However, the issues is complicated when many people choose to pay enormous fees in order to be smuggled across borders with the intention of doing sex work, but then are manipulated by the traffickers while they are working off their fee. Because of attitudes around sex work, it is difficult for these individuals to get assistance.

“There is this perception that there are the right victims and the wrong victims,” said Dordevic, “Sex Workers did not agree to get raped, to not be paid.”

According to Dordevic, many NGO’s do not see individuals who choose to do sex work as qualifying for their services. The Anti Trafficking center sees this as a major problem, thus their focus has turned more towards those who are excluded from trafficking arguments, but are still at risk for rape and other forms of violence.

In fact, from their position as an NGO, they see decriminalization of sex work as crucial.

“Operating in an environment where sex work is penalized, it is very difficult to connect people with services,” said Dordevic.

Thus, the center works on policy level to educate the major decision makers, the media, and the public on the issues of sex workers. The current policies only lead to more violence. And it is not just supposed traffickers who are using their power to manipulate individuals involved in sex work.

Sex Workers have reported to the ATC of manipulation coming from some members of the police force. “There have been instances of brutal forms of violence, torture, rape, and blackmail,” said Dordevic. “Sometimes they will take her money, but it depends on the police officer. Not all are violent.”

Regardless, it is clear to the ATC that penalizing sex work is harmful. “Criminalization of sex work makes it difficult for people to advance their rights. It adds to stigmatization which leads to violence,” said Dordevic.