A man is suing a gay porn site after he received “a barrage” of junk mail because he said it sold his information without written consent and violated his privacy rights.
Dennis Chiamulera is also seeking class action status on behalf of other subscribers to the site who he thinks are in a similar situation.ADVERTISING
He said his privacy rights were violated by the site, owned by TLA Entertainment Group, under the Video Privacy Protection Act and the New York Video Consumer Privacy Act
According to Out, the New York plaintiff is asking for $5 million for “wrongful disclosure of video tape rental or sales records”, including $2,500 in damages for every other plaintiff in the case if it gets class action status.
The lawsuit read: “Despite the sensitive nature of its videos, TLA sold, rented, exchanged, and/or otherwise disclosed personal information about Plaintiff’s video purchases and/or rentals to data aggregators, data appenders, data cooperatives, and list brokers, among others, which in turn disclosed his information to aggressive advertisers, nonprofit organisations, and other third-party companies.”
Chiamulera claims that the gay porn site’s “disclosure of Personal Viewing Information, and other personal, demographic, and lifestyle information is not only unlawful, but also dangerous because it allows for the targeting of particularly vulnerable members of society, including members of the LGBTQ community”.
The Manhattan Federal Court lawsuit alleges, according to the New York Post, that TLA Entertainment Group breaks down its subscribers by sexual orientation and which films they rent or buy.
The lawsuit stated: “In fact, almost any organisation could rent a list with the names and addresses of all gay TLA consumers who live in Texas; such a list would cost approximately $135 per thousand names listed.”
The court papers claimed that TLA “profits handsomely” from selling information, “at the expense of its consumers’ privacy and statutory rights.”
A proposed conversion therapy ban in Utah is in danger of being derailed after The Church of Jesus of Christ of Latter-day Saints came out in opposition, just months after it said it wouldn’t stand in the way of a similar measure under consideration. The church said in a statement that the regulatory rule prohibiting Utah psychologists from engaging in LGBTQ conversion therapy with minors would fail to safeguard religious beliefs and doesn’t account for “important realities of gender identity in the development of children.”
State regulators crafted the rule at the request of Republican Gov. Gary Herbert, a member of the church, who in June asked for a set of rules after a similar bill died in the Legislature despite the church not taking a position. The church’s statement strikes a blow to the hopes of LGBTQ advocates hoping Utah could join 18 states that have enacted laws banning or restricting conversion therapy that’s opposed by the American Psychological Association.
At least 25 Illinois prison employees participated in online conversations that mocked, demeaned or disclosed personal and medical information about transgender inmates, an investigation has found.
A report by Injustice Watch andBuzzFeed News revealed that extreme transphobic comments were posted by a range of corrections staff in two private Facebook groups, each with more than 4,000 members.
The degrading posts were written by low-level officers, sergeants, lieutenants, and other correctional staffers — including a counsellor and a parole officer — from across the state.
Members of the group also outed LGBT+ inmates and openly discussed private information about them, including alleged sexual acts and medical treatments they received.
Hampton was repeatedly misgendered in the Facebook groups, but we have corrected this in the following comments so as not to cause offence.
“I’ve seen this motherfucker with a beard. The state is stupid I’d chop [her] pecker off for [her] then [she] can be ‘female,’” wrote correctional officer James Schaefer.
Another correctional officer, Kenneth Mottershaw, added: “Know [sic] matter way you look at it, it’s a freak’n male inmate. Transgenders are a fucking joke in my view.”
“O hope this ‘it’ is paying all legal fees!” wrote another officer, Richard Glazik.
“Hell, give [her] clemency….then the state can stop paying for the dumb bastard’s hormones and psych meds,” wrote a further correctional officer.
The comments emerged amid a series of lawsuits against the Illinois Department of Corrections, including a class-action claim brought by six transgender women.
Among them is Strawberry Hampton, who filed two lawsuits alleging abuse and mistreatment. She accuses prison officials of consistently refusing to acknowledge her gender and repeatedly and deliberately placing her in environments detrimental to her physical, mental and emotional health.
The offensive posts continued even after three correctional officers were put on leave following a September Injustice Watch report about ‘homophobic’ posts on public Facebook pages.
Department of Corrections, Cook County, Chicago, IL (Joe Sohm/Visions of America/Universal Images Group/Getty)
When this report was shared in one of the private Facebook groups, correctional food service supervisor Scott Evans replied: “So I can’t say I’m anti-transgender????? Well guess what… I am very much so!”
Both groups are named “Behind the Walls,” but with different spellings of “Illinois Department of Corrections”. In one, members are warned that “snitches will be permanently banned from the group. No warnings, no second chances: zero tolerance.”
After a Buzzfeed reporter confronted the department on the Facebook posts, officials said they do not tolerate bigotry.
In a statement, Illinois Department of Corrections Acting Director Rob Jeffreys said the department is “firmly dedicated to fostering a culture of tolerance, inclusion, and respect in our correctional facilities.”
None of the named Facebook commenters responded to Buzzfeed News’ requests for comment.
The death of a comedian who was recently referenced in Dave Chapelle’s Netflix special “Sticks and Stones” has underscored the disproportionately high suicidality rate among transgender people.
“I love you all. I’m sorry,” trans comedian Daphne Dorman wrote on Facebook on Oct. 11. “Please help my daughter, Naia, understand that none of this is her fault. Please remind her that I loved her with every fiber of my being.”
Her sister Becky Kugler confirmed Dorman’s death in the comment section of the post. “I so wish we could all have helped you through your darkness,” Kugler wrote. “We’ll always love you, fly high sweet angel.”
Clair Farley, who is a senior adviser to San Francisco Mayor London Breed and who leads the city’s Office of Transgender Initiatives, said that Daphne was a fixture in the city’s LGBTQ community and taught coding classes through the office’s Trans Code program.
“Daphne was one of the kindest and funniest people in the world. She never let anything get to her and she was always giving back,” Farley wrote in an emailed statement. “She was also an incredible mom to her daughter, she will be missed by many.”
The U.S. suicide rate increased 33 percent between 1999 and 2017, despite falling in many other developed countries, including most of Western Europe, according to CDC data. And while this national trend is worrisome, the suicide rates for transgender and gender-nonconforming people are much higher than the national averages. According to the National Center for Transgender Equality’s 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey, 40 percent of adult respondents reported having attempted suicide in their lifetime — almost nine times the attempted suicide rate in the general U.S. population.
A 2018 study from the American Academy of Pediatrics shows that the risks are equally as fraught for trans youth. More than half of transgender male teens who participated in the survey reported attempting suicide in their lifetime, while almost 30 percent of transgender female teens said they attempted suicide. Among nonbinary youth, more than 40 percent stated that they had attempted suicide at some point in their lives.
“We have to make sure Daphne’s story is told with the broader context of how trans people are at a greater risk of dying by suicide,” Bri Barnett, the director of development and communications at Trans Lifeline, a hotline and nonprofit organization offering support to trans people in crisis, told NBC News. “At the same time, her experience is unique, too, and her own experiences in the world contributed to this.”
Barnett added that trans suicide is “not a personal failing,” but rather “the product of a transphobic society that isolates trans people from support and resources and surrounds them with constant messages in the news, movies and sometimes comedy that they are freakish, wrong and unlovable.”
Gillian Branstetter, the media relations manager for the National Center for Transgender Equality, concurred, stating that while the risks of suicide are “complex and varied,” there are common experiences that can amplify the risk for trans people. She said these include alienation and marginalization, lack of systems of support, lack of access to adequate and affirming mental health care and the inaccessibility of information about what it’s like to be trans.
Both Branstetter and Barnett noted there are a number of misconceptions surrounding the disproportionately high transgender suicide rate.
“A lot of the focus has rightfully been on family acceptance, but acceptance at school, extracurricular activities and work also make a difference,” Branstetter said. “Research has shown that doing something as simple as referring to trans people by their chosen name can lower the risks of them attempting suicide. Constantly being misgendered takes a toll on people.”
Barnett said that’s there’s a “failure” to contextualize the material conditions that affect trans people’s mental health, including the fact that trans individuals are more susceptible to experiencing homelessness, harassment and violence.
Approximately 30 percent of the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey respondents reported that they had experienced homelessness at some point in their lifetime, and almost half of respondents reported having been verbally harassed or physically attacked in the year prior to the survey.
The current political environment has also negatively impacted trans people’s mental health, according to Barnett. She said calls to Trans Lifeline have increased by 20 to 30 percent every year for the last five years. She attributes this increase both to trans people feeling more comfortable with coming out and trans rights being viewed as a “wedge issue.” The day after a leaked memo from President Donald Trump’s administration announced it would push to define gender solely as male or female, Barnett said the hotline received four times the amount of calls it usually does.
Maceo Persson, the civic engagement and operations manager for the Office of Transgender Initiatives, said the trans community in San Francisco was paying close attention to the Supreme Court as it heard oral arguments last week regarding whether “sex” discrimination includes anti-LGBTQ bias under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
“It’s difficult to watch people discuss whether we’re entitled to our rights and humanity,” Persson said. “It’s a difficult time right now in the community and can trigger a lot of responses in folks, so we want to emphasize that there are resources and support for those who need it.”
Some of those resources include the Office of Transgender Initiatives, which launched the first city-funded program in the United States to find trans people work in 2007. Others include Trans Lifeline and The Trevor Project.
“Suicide is the most commonly shared experience in the trans community, and we continue to work to reduce the cost that any one person should have to pay for being themselves,” Branstetter said. “There are no easy solutions, but the complexity is not an excuse for inaction.”
If you or someone you know is in crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255, text HOME to 741741 or visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for additional resources.
Rumors started circulating around the fire station in Byron, Georgia, within a year after the medical treatments began. The fire chief’s once-crewcut hair was growing longer, and other physical changes were becoming noticeable. Keeping quiet was no longer an option.
The chief said that once members of the tiny Fire Department were told, word spread “faster than a nuclear explosion” through Byron — a city of about 4,500 in a farming region outside Macon known for growing Georgia’s famous peaches. The fire chief was undergoing a gender transition and would continue to run the department as Rachel Mosby. A City Hall staffer told Mosby many were stunned because “I was the manliest man anyone had met in their lives.”
“They initially took it very well, much to my surprise,” Mosby said. “I heard a lot of comments like, ‘Chief, you don’t have anything to worry about. We’ve got your back.'”
It didn’t last. As a man, Mosby served as Byron’s fire chief for a decade until the beginning of 2018. Then Mosby started coming to work as a woman, and the city fired her less than 18 months later. Her June 4 termination letter cited “lack of performance.” Mosby insists the only thing that changed was her gender.
“They didn’t want somebody like me in that position,” she said, “or any position with the city.”
It’s not illegal under Georgia state law to fire someone for being gay or transgender. Twenty-eight U.S. states have adopted no laws that prohibit workplace discrimination targeting LGBTQ employees. Only a small percentage of cities and counties offer protection at the local level. So Mosby, like thousands of other LGBTQ Americans, has sought recourse under the federal law that makes sex discrimination illegal at work.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has treated LGBTQ-based job discrimination cases as sex discrimination since 2013. But that could soon end, depending on how the U.S. Supreme Court rules in cases it heard Oct. 8 that deal with the firings of gay men in Georgia and New York state and a transgender woman in Michigan.
The key question: Do firings and harassment based on a worker’s sexual orientation or gender identity qualify as sex discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act?
A ruling that says the federal law doesn’t protect workers targeted because they’re gay or transgender could leave millions vulnerable in more than half of U.S. states, an Associated Press analysis found.
Only 21 states have their own laws prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Wisconsin outlaws discrimination because of sexual orientation but doesn’t protect transgender workers. And fewer than 300 cities and counties have local ordinances protecting LGBT workers, according to an advocacy group.
That patchwork of state and local laws leaves large gaps where LGBTQ workers have no job protection beyond federal claims under Title VII. About half of the nation’s estimated 8.1 million LGBTQ employees live in states where job discrimination laws don’t cover them, according to the UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute.
“If the Supreme Court sides against LGBT employees, it means they have to be really cautious and careful about living their lives openly and proudly,” said Jillian Weiss, a New York attorney who focuses on LGBT discrimination cases. “They may encounter a lot of discrimination, and there may not be anything they can do about it.”
The AP found workers are particularly vulnerable in the South, home to an estimated 35 percent of LGBTQ adults. Out of 16 states the U.S. Census Bureau defines as the South, only Maryland and Delaware prohibit discrimination against gay and transgender workers. Protection at the local level is sparse, with most Southern states having five or fewer cities or counties that shield private-sector LGBTQ workers.
South Carolina offers no protection at the state or local level. And Arkansas, North Carolina and Tennessee each passed laws blocking local governments from having their own anti-discrimination ordinances that cover LGBTQ workers.
Those large gaps mean only about 18 percent of adults in the South are protected against LGBTQ-based job discrimination, compared with about 89 percent in the Northeast, according to Naomi Goldberg of the Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ-rights think tank that tracks anti-discrimination laws.
The Supreme Court’s upcoming decision, not expected until next year, could make or break Lonnie Billard’s discrimination lawsuit in North Carolina against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte and an affiliated high school. A federal judge put Billard’s case on hold until the high court rules.
Billard, a substitute teacher and longtime employee at Charlotte Catholic High School, was fired after announcing on Facebook in 2014 that he was marrying his male partner.
Attorneys for the diocese said Billard was let go for “advocacy in favor of same-sex marriage in violation of the Catholic Church’s fundamental beliefs.” They said the school could legally fire him in part because of its religious affiliation.
Billard’s case illustrates a dilemma that advocates say more gay couples could face if the Supreme Court, which declared same-sex marriage legal in 2015, decides federal law doesn’t protect them from harassment at work for being openly married.
“You get married on Saturday and fired on Monday, and there’s no protection,” said Luke Largess, one of Billard’s attorneys.
Advocates say the EEOC’s involvement is making a difference. The commission reports it received more than 8,600 LGBTQ-based discrimination complaints in the six-year period through September 2018. More than 1,300 cases ended with the workers who filed claims receiving some benefit.
Brandi Branson, a transgender woman who was fired by a Florida eye clinic in 2011, got a $150,000 settlement from her former employer after the EEOC sued on her behalf.
“It meant a lot. It meant somebody heard me,” Branson said. “I felt validated in myself as a person and also in my claims that I was wronged.”
Critics say the EEOC overreached by extending Title VII protections to LGBTQ workers. The federal law doesn’t mention sexual orientation or gender identity. While it prohibits job discrimination based on sex, Congress didn’t consider that to include LGBTQ discrimination when the law was passed in 1964, said attorney John Bursch of the Alliance Defending Freedom.
Bursch represents a Michigan funeral home that fired transgender woman Aimee Stephens in 2013 in one of the cases before the Supreme Court. Bursch argues Congress would need to change the law for it to cover LGBTQ discrimination.
“No matter what you feel about the substantive issue of LGBT employment protections, everyone should be upset that a government agency … could punish someone based on a change in law they could not have anticipated based on its plain text and its interpretation for 50 years,” Bursch said.
In Georgia, Mosby is still waiting to hear whether the EEOC will pursue her case against the city of Byron — and whether the Supreme Court’s ruling might upend it.
After making her transition public last year, Mosby said, she was ordered to start wearing a uniform the first day she came to work in a skirt. Previously, Mosby often wore suits and ties. When Mosby fired a reserve firefighter who called the chief a slur to her face, the firefighter appealed and was reinstated by the city.
Meanwhile, Byron’s City Council in January changed its personnel policy to eliminate appeals for any department heads the city fires. Still, Mosby said she was surprised when Derick Hayes, Byron’s city administrator, fired her months later.
Hayes cited three reasons for Mosby’s firing in her termination letter: that she was responsible for a backlog of business licenses awaiting approval; that she attended only five classes at a recent fire chief’s conference, wasting the city’s money; and that she failed to maintain certification as an arson investigator.
Hayes didn’t return a phone message seeking comment. Byron Mayor Lawrence Collins denied Mosby was fired because she’s transgender.
“The quick answer on that is no. I think the records reflect that,” Collins said, declining to comment further.
Mosby said being jobless left her in financial straits. The public humiliation of her firing further strained relationships with her family, already stressed following her transition.
“I’ve lost my family, I’ve lost my house,” Mosby said. “Now I’m living with friends that keep a roof over my head and food in my stomach, so I’m not having to live in my car. It’s been utterly devastating.”
A transgender man was attacked by two assailants Sunday night inside a Philadelphia 7-Eleven, according to his family.
The man stopped in the store around 9 p.m. after OutFest, an annual block party celebrating the city’s LGBTQ community.
Video surveillance footage from inside the gas station shows the 30-year-old being repeatedly punched and thrown onto the ground. Two of the victim’s sisters, who did not want to be identified, told WCAU, NBC’s local Philadelphia affiliate, that their brother was kicked in the head multiple times.
The victim was wearing a “Trans Lives Matter” sweatshirt, which his family believes may have caused the ambush.
“I’m very hurt that my brother is sitting very hurt with a broken jaw, eyes messed up and nobody helped him,” one sister said. “I just want the people to get caught.”
One worker who claimed he was at the store at the time of the incident told WCAU that he wasn’t sure how the altercation began.
The family said they reported the incident to the police, however the Philadelphia Police Department denied NBC News’ request for information regarding whether it planned to open an investigation into the incident.
Since 2014, the total number of hate crimes motivated by anti-LGBTQ bias has increased every year, rising 3 percent in 2017, according to the FBI. A separate survey from Gallup found that almost 17 percent of all reported hate crime victims are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.
Trans people of color remain an especially vulnerable population. Since the beginning of 2019, at least 19 trans people have been killed, according to the Human Rights Campaign.
“What hope do we have to be ourselves if we can’t be out here and be ourselves?” the victim’s other sister told WCAU.
The U.S. isn’t the only country plagued by anti-trans attacks. According to a Home Office report released Tuesday, over the past year hate crimes against transgender people in England and Wales have risen by 37 percent. From April 2018 to March 2019, there were 2,333 reported hate crimes against transgender people, up from 1,703 the previous year.
A black transgender woman has described a confrontation in the ladies bathroom of an In-N-Out restaurant that left her feeling “demoralised, devalued and powerless”.
The encounter happened at an In-N-Out restaurant in the Bay Area, San Francisco. Mitchell was alone in the ladies loos when a manager approached her stall.
The woman reportedly misgendered Mitchell, telling her: “Sir, sir – you’re not supposed to be in here.” Mitchell responded: “Ma’am, it’s just me in here.”
Unfortunately, Mitchell says that wasn’t enough for the manager. “I thought she would leave and that would be it. But I’m a black transgender woman, and people don’t just let us live our lives,” she said.
The manager allegedly came up to the stall door and started looking through the cracks, and appeared to be scanning Mitchell’s body up and down.
(Tim Mossholder/Pexels)
“I got very scared. I clenched my purse to cover myself. I felt she was trying to look at my genitals, attempting to determine my gender. I asked her to leave while she continued to ask whether I was a man,” she said.
Eventually, the manager gave up and left Mitchell in peace. When Mitchell left the toilets she approached the woman and reminded her that she is “a human that deserves privacy in the bathroom”.
But the In-N-Out manager refused to explain her behaviour and just dismissed Mitchell: “I don’t have time for this.”
It was a crushing blow to her confidence. “I drove home to Oakland in a fog. I told my partner what happened and broke down crying angrily,” she recalled.
The “demoralising” encounter exacerbated her anxiety, stress and paranoia, and she grew increasingly depressed at a time when she was trying to focus on her career.
Afterwards she didn’t leave the house as she feared being harassed. When she felt able to go out again, she waited until she got home to use the bathroom as felt like “the safest thing to do”.
“I had regressed and had to rebuild my strength just to walk in and use a bathroom,” she said. “The smell of In-N-Out still bothers me.”
Mitchell filed a discrimination complaint against In-N-Out, as California’s laws clearly state that people can use bathrooms that match their gender identity.
But In-N-Out’s lawyers “made it clear that they do not feel the company did anything wrong”. A spokesperson told The Guardian that In-N-Out did not harass or discriminate against Mitchell and that the manager was not aware she was transgender.
A company report stated that a customer repeatedly raised the concern of a man in the women’s restroom. The manager claims she went to investigate, called out “Sir?” and when Mitchell answered “Excuse me?” she exited the bathroom after saying: “I’m sorry – we had a customer let us know there was a gentleman in here so I was just checking.”
Mitchell rejects this explanation, saying: “It felt as if they told me I was worth nothing. They offered me a settlement that I found offensive. I said no.”
She was encouraged to speak out ahead of an upcoming Supreme Court case that will decide if anti-LGBT+ employment discrimination qualifies as discrimination.
“I won’t be silent,” she insisted. “When it comes to black and brown trans folks, it feels like we don’t matter.
“Why can’t we exist in peace and have the same rights other people have? Why should somebody else’s opinion of what I should be get to dictate what my existence is?
“I’m asking that we are able to go about our lives and use the bathroom, without you kicking open the door and dragging us out.”
For the first time, hundreds of sex workers marched through the streets of Stockholm calling for sex workers’ rights and the decriminalisation of the sex industry.
The sex workers’ rights protestors demanded that the government end the “harmful”, “unjust” and “stigmatising” criminalisation of sex work.
At the September 29 protest, activists urged the government to listen to their condemnation of the Swedish model – the sex-work law that criminalises sex workers’ clients and is broadly opposed by sex-worker organisations globally.
rans sex workers told PinkNews how the lethal combination of transphobic discrimination and the criminalisation of sex work puts their safety and survival on the line.
“Transgender people and queer people in general in Norway are still stigmatised and discriminated against to begin with,” says Lilith, from Norwegian sex workers organisation PION. “So we are as a community are often overrepresented in the sex industry.”
We are seen as the parasites, the monsters that the world needs to abolish.
“When the Swedish law criminalises our clients, it also creates this notion that we are a criminal enterprise. Yes, it only criminalises clients, but it creates this illusion that the whole sex industry is criminal. As such, we are seen as the parasites, the monsters that the world needs to abolish,” she says.
Placard at the march in Stockholm. (Twitter/SWARM)
Sex worker rights are human rights.
The Swedish – also called Nordic – model, which makes it illegal to buy sex, was hailed as progressive by feminist organisations when it was introduced in 1999. Versions of the law have since been introduced in other countries including Norway, Iceland, Ireland and Canada.
In 2016, Amnesty International said sex work has to be decriminalised worldwide, because the current models of partial criminalisation prevent the “realisation of the human rights of sex workers“.
Criminalisation impacts trans sex workers twofold, Dinah, from Trans United Netherlands, told PinkNews.
“Decriminalisation for trans sex workers is very important because we are already discriminated [against] and actually criminalised as trans people, we are very much on the forefront of being visible in society and then the only way that we can do work, many times, is sex work,” she says.
There is a double criminalisation – one on being LGBTIQ and one on being a sex worker.
“Criminalisation of sex work means that there is a double criminalisation, in fact. One on being LGBTIQ and one on being a sex worker.”
The protest in Stockholm was organised by sex-worker organisation Fuckförbundet. (Twitter/SWARM)
Trans sex workers vital to gay rights movement.
Red Canary Song is a New York-based, migrant sex-worker grassroots organisation that fights for justice and police accountability, after the death of Chinese massage worker, Yang Song, during a police raid in Flushing in November 2017.
The organisation’s director, Kate Zen, says that US anti-trafficking laws similar to the Swedish model increase policing of sex workers and “primarily harm migrants, trans, and street-based sex workers, while doing little to actually reduce the factors driving trafficking: poverty, migration laws, lack of adequate and accessible housing and healthcare”.
“Migrant, black, brown, and trans sex workers are overrepresented in police arrests, and report rampant police violence, including sexual violence,” she says. “Ironically, these are also the groups of people that pro-police/anti-prostitution organisations say they want to help. Their help is clearly misdirected, and actually harming the very people who are most vulnerable in society.”
The leaders of LGBTQ movements in NYC during the Stonewall Rebellion were trans sex workers of colour.
“More than 50% of sex workers in the US say that they have turned to sex work in order to survive, pay for medical procedures, due to employment discrimination in other jobs. LGBTQ people are overrepresented in the sex industry, and the leaders of LGBTQ movements in NYC during the Stonewall Rebellion were trans sex workers of colour – Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P Johnson,” Kate says.
Dozens of sex worker organisations went to the protest in Stockholm on Sunday.
Henna, from sex-worker led activist organisation FTS Finland, says that Finnish sex workers went to the protest in solidarity with their Swedish colleagues “as well as any other colleague who is affected by the Swedish model”.
Listen to us, please!
“Be that trans sex workers or cis, both are affected by this model which doesn’t hear what the sex workers are saying. Listen to us, please!” she says.
Only one country in the world has listened to sex workers and decriminalised sex work – New Zealand.
The New Zealand model aims to uphold the human rights of sex workers and to decriminalise sex work. It was introduced in 2003.
While New Zealand’s approach appears to be moving towards ensuring safety for sex workers, other countries appear to be moving backwards.
Mimi, a trans migrant sex worker from French sex-work union STRASS, told PinkNews that laws criminalising clients – introduced in France in 2016 – are negatively affecting many trans sex workers.
“Especially those who are trans migrant sex workers, who face a lot of discrimination, especially when they are undocumented and working on the streets. Many of them face more insecurity, especially more aggression and more violence.
“More physical violence and any kind of attack, because right now, trans migrant sex workers need to isolate themselves in order to hide their clients from the police, and this is the reason, this is why they are more exposed to violence than before, because they are afraid that their clients will be arrested.
“This, and the fact that there are fewer clients, is a direct result of the criminalisation of the clients.”
Red umbrellas – the worldwide symbol of the sex workers’ rights movement – at the Stockholm march. (Twitter/SWARM)
Criminalisation increases police violence against sex workers.
Police violence as a result of the criminalisation of clients is also being experienced by sex workers in Ireland, according to Adi, from the Sex Workers Alliance Ireland.
Ireland brought in laws making it illegal to buy sex in 2017, but has only seen two clients prosecuted since then – while in that time “we’ve seen a 92 percent increase in violent crime against sex workers”, she says.
“In Ireland, and elsewhere, it’s impossible to find employment in any other field other than sex work – I’ve tried, over and over again, to find other types of work, but nobody’s willing to hire you,” Adi says. “And then in sex work, you’re constantly facing Gardaí harassment, which in my case resulted in my eviction from the premises in which I was working.”
LGBT+ people are overrepresented in the sex-work industry.
The widespread impacts of the criminalisation of sex work have catalysed the sex workers’ rights movement around the world. Luca Stevenson, coordinator at the International Committee on the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe (ICRSE), says ICSRE also joined the Stockholm protest “in support of decriminalisation of sex work”.
Many LGBTI people sell sexual services to survive.
“Most LGBTI organisations around the world – Transgender Europe, ILGA Europe, ILGA World – are supporting the decriminalisation of sex work. We know that many LGBTI people sell sexual services to live, to survive,” he says.
Greater Fort Lauderdale is proud to be the host destination for the first-ever Pride of the Americas on April 21-26, 2020. This historic and transformational event brings two continents and 35 countries together, welcoming everyone under the sun. Pride of the Americas will be hosted by Pride Fort Lauderdale with the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau serving as the presenting sponsor.
“Greater Fort Lauderdale/Broward County is the perfect launch destination for Pride of the Americas 2020 because we are world renowned for our open embrace to the LGBT+ community and to all visitors from across the globe,” said Stacy Ritter, CEO and president of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau. “We are excited for Pride of the Americas attendees to experience our cosmopolitan destination, as well as our beautiful melting pot of cultures.”
Six days of events will begin with opening ceremonies on Tuesday, April 21 in downtown Fort Lauderdale, and culminate on Sunday, April 26, with an epic beach festival and fireworks display. Pride of the Americas will include social events throughout the destination, a parade, beach party, arts festival, A-list entertainment, sunset concerts, top DJs and drag brunches. A glamorous fashion show will feature designs by Bravo’s “Project Runway” alumni and local designers – modeled by male, female, transgender and drag models – at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in nearby Hollywood.
“Greater Fort Lauderdale is home to a thriving LGBT+ community, and we are very much looking forward to welcoming hundreds of thousands of LGBT+ visitors and allies to our destination where diversity shines brightly,” said Richard Gray, senior vice president of Diversity & Inclusion at the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Pride of the Americas will draw attention to the shared issues LGBT+ individuals, families, youth and seniors face in Latin America and the Caribbean. Key thought leaders from different countries will share their expertise at life-changing conferences and symposiums on human rights, business, travel, health and wellness, education and more.
Although Greater Fort Lauderdale is close in proximity to Latin America and the Caribbean, they are miles apart regarding the treatment and acceptance of the LGBT+ individuals in their communities. The event hopes to bring international attention to these inequalities while improving education and understanding of the LGBT+ community on a global scale.
“Greater Fort Lauderdale is a community that celebrates diversity and inclusion in every way, each and every day, where Pride is our daily way of life,” said Miik Martorell, president of Pride Fort Lauderdale. “Pride Fort Lauderdale and the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau are committed to leveraging Pride of the Americas to strengthen the LGBT+ communities and the Pride movement in the Caribbean and Latin America.”
Welcoming 1.5 million LGBT+ visitors annually spending $1.5 billion, Greater Fort Lauderdale is well-suited to host Pride of the Americas. With hundreds of gay-owned and operated businesses and the highest concentration of same-sex couple households in the country, the destination is one of the most diverse and welcoming in the world.
Greater Fort Lauderdale is also the LGBT+ capital of Florida and is home to one of the largest Pride Centers in the country, the world’s first AIDS museum, the global headquarters of the International Gay & Lesbian Travel Association, and the Stonewall Museum, one of the only permanent spaces in the U.S. devoted to exhibitions relating to LGBT+ history and culture. The LGBT+ Visitor Center is co-located with the Greater Fort Lauderdale LGBT Chamber of Commerce in the heart of Wilton Manors.
The Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau has been reaching LGBT+ travelers since 1996, when it became the first Convention & Visitors Bureau with a dedicated LGBT+ marketing department. Since then, Greater Fort Lauderdale has continued to break down barriers and facilitate visibility for the LGBT+ community at large, acting as a pioneer in the hospitality industry and ensuring that the destination is inclusive and welcoming with a diverse, safe and open community for all travelers.
Four years ago, it became the first destination in the world to create a transgender marketing campaign. Now the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau includes trans, lesbian, gay and straight people in all its mainstream marketing initiatives.
About Greater Fort Lauderdale Greater Fort Lauderdale, also known as the “Venice of America,” boasts an average year-round temperature of 77˚F and has 3,000 hours of annual sunshine. Explore 4,000+ eateries, 300+ miles of navigable waterways, eight distinct beaches, a thriving arts and culture scene, craft breweries, rooftop bars, outdoor adventure, and world-class shopping – all conveniently located in the center of South Florida. Made of up 31 municipalities, the destination boasts more than 35,000 lodging accommodations at a variety of hotels, luxury spa reports and Superior Small Lodgings reflecting a cosmopolitan vibe. Upon arrival at FLL Airport (Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport), it is just 5 minutes to the beach, Port Everglades, the Broward County Convention Center and downtown. For trip planning inspiration, visit the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau at www.sunny.org and follow @visitlauderdale.
About Pride Fort Lauderdale Pride Fort Lauderdale (originally Pride South Florida) was founded 41 years ago amid protests after entertainer and evangelical activist Anita Bryant successfully waged a hateful public campaign to overturn a landmark gay civil rights ordinance in Miami-Dade County. The organization’s name and location have changed over the years, but its mission has remained the same—to instill pride in our community and support those organizations that serve the local LGBTQ community. In 2017, Pride Fort Lauderdale celebrated its 40th anniversary on Fort Lauderdale Beach, attracting more than 40,000 people for the festivities. For more information, go to PrideFortLauderdale.org.
Gilead Sciences, the drug giant behind the blockbuster HIV prevention pill Truvada, won FDA approval on Thursday to market Descovy — a medication already used by those who have HIV — as its next-generation prevention drug.
Descovy is not yet approved for certain groups, including women who have vaginal sex, since its efficacy has not been studied in this population; for these patients, Truvada is an approved option.
“Descovy for PrEP provides a new HIV prevention option that matches Truvada’s high efficacy with statistically significant improvements in renal and bone safety, which can be an important consideration as people at risk increasingly use PrEP for longer periods of time,” Daniel O’Day, Gilead’s CEO, said in a statement.
Like Truvada, Descovy is taken once daily and can reduce the transmission of HIV by over 95 percent. According to GoodRx, a one month’s supply of Descovy and Truvada both retail for roughly $1,800, though few U.S. patients pay this price as PrEP is covered by private and public insurance.
Gilead has long been buffeted by HIV activists like the PrEP4All coalition over the high price of Truvada and the circumstances of Truvada’s development and testing, which was largely funded by private donors and the U.S. government. That information was first publicized by the Global Health Justice Partnership at Yale University, which wrote “based on our preliminary review, CDC’s Patents for PrEP appear to be valid and enforceable.”
