Posts Tagged trafficking

By Katie Halper • 11 years ago

Can you figure out what this police x-ray captured?

At first it looks like a piece of abstract art. Then you start to make out human shapes. And it looks like a bunch of people wearing bathing suits and swim caps, maybe? But it’s not. This is a police X-ray image of a trailer truck containing 94 trafficking victims from Central America, Nepal and Bengladesh. The truck, which had started its trip in Guatemala and was headed towards towards the U.S. border, but was stopped at a checkpoint outside of Tixtla Gutierrez, the capital of Chiapas State.

According to the Mexican National Migration Institute, or INM, 78 women and 16 men 78 men and 16 women were found in the truck. Of the 94, there were nine ...

At first it looks like a piece of abstract art. Then you start to make out human shapes. And it looks like a bunch of people wearing bathing suits and swim caps, maybe? But it’s not. ...
By Lori Adelman • 12 years ago

Quick hit: By conflating sex work with trafficking, CA’s newly passed Prop 35 does more harm than good

“Under Prop 35, anyone involved in the sex trade could potentially be viewed as being involved in trafficking, and could face all of the criminal penalties associated with this redefinition of who is involved in “trafficking,” which include fines of between $500,000 and $1 million and prison sentences ranging from five years to life. This is in addition to having to register as a sex offender, and surrender to lifelong internet monitoring: that is, turning over all of one’s “internet identifiers,” which includes “any electronic mail address, user name, screen name, or similar identifier used for the purpose of Internet forum discussions, Internet chat room discussion, instant messaging, social networking, or similar Internet communication….

Advocates say Prop 35’s conflation of the ...

“Under Prop 35, anyone involved in the sex trade could potentially be viewed as being involved in trafficking, and could face all of the criminal penalties associated with this redefinition of who is involved in “trafficking,” which ...
By Lori Adelman • 13 years ago

If You Can’t Accept Facts, You Can’t Be An Ally


Photo courtesy AtlanticWire.

The following piece by Charlotte Shane originally appeared on the Tits and Sass blog and is republished here with the permission of the author. Charlotte, also known at Nightmare Brunette, has been working in the sex industry for seven years and writing about it for just as long. More of her writing can be found at www.nightmarebrunette.com.

A lot of sex workers and sex worker activists had trouble enjoying their July 4th weekend thanks to Ashton Kutcher, who has been waging war against The Village Voice for airing its concerns about his anti-trafficking efforts and misinformation campaign. On almost every non-sex worker helmed website that covered this story, comments consisted ...


Photo courtesy AtlanticWire.

The following piece by Charlotte Shane originally appeared on the Tits and Sass blog and is republished here with the permission of the author. Charlotte, also known at Nightmare Brunette, ...
By Courtney • 13 years ago

Not Oprah’s Book Club: Girls Like Us

There is a long, beautiful tradition of women writing about their lives as an act of personal liberation and political transformation. I remember slipping Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings off of my grandmother’s shelf as a young teenager and swallowing whole the story of Maya and her rediscovered voice. Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison broke me open. Maxine Hong Kingston, Amy Tan, Isabelle Allende, Audre Lorde, bell hooks, Caroline Knapp…the list goes on. And another critical volume just got added: Rachel Lloyd’s Girls Like Us: Fighting for a World Where Girls are Not for Sale, an Activists Finds her Calling and Heals Herself (out next month).

In this powerful new memoir, Lloyd, who founded ...

There is a long, beautiful tradition of women writing about their lives as an act of personal liberation and political transformation. I remember slipping Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings off of my grandmother’s ...

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By Lori Adelman • 14 years ago

5 Things You Need to Know About The Craigslist Adult Services Censor

This weekend, Craigslist censored the Adult Services section of their site.

The move comes after immense and growing public pressure from a number of critics and opponents, including some law enforcement officials, anti-trafficking groups, and most notably (and perhaps threateningly) Connecticut state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal. It also comes in the wake of the highly publicized so-called “Craigslist killer” case, in which a Boston University medical student allegedly hired a prostitute via the site and went on a murderous crime and gambling spree, later committing suicide in jail.

Lots of people are offering their opinions on this latest event, and- surprise, surprise- there’s a ton of misinformation floating around regarding adult services, what they are, why they were censored, and who it will ...

This weekend, Craigslist censored the Adult Services section of their site.

The move comes after immense and growing public pressure from a number of critics and opponents, including some law enforcement officials, anti-trafficking groups, and most notably (and ...