As MoJo reporter Mac McClelland pointed out earlier this week, murdered prostitutes don’t often make the news these days. When they do, their deaths may be dismissed as more occupational hazard than crime. Here, for example, is how St. Francis County sheriff Bobby May explained the fatal shooting of trans prostitute 25-year-old Marcal Camero Tye: “You know, prostitutes, these types of folks—it’s a risk. Whenever you’re soliciting, things of this nature happen sometimes.” Translation: If Tye hadn’t been trans and/or a prostitute, the murder would have most likely never happened. But why is it so easy to deny a prostitute’s right to safety? Read More….
Local non-profit organizations leaders react to two events that took place yesterday regarding AIDS in DC. First, DC Appleseed, a non-profit group devoted to solving public policy problems, released its first ‘report card’ on the District’s response to the AIDS crisis in five years. In the report, Appleseed gave grades to the different ways the District government addressed the AIDS crisis in the last sixteen months. Also, Mayor Gray called the first meeting of the recently established DC Commission on AIDS. READ MORE….
At UN, US Says No one Should Face Discrimination For Public Services, Including Sex Workers
March 9th, 2011? According to their statement in response to the UN’ human rights evaluation, the US agrees that “…o one should face violence or discrimination in access to public services based on sexual orientation or their status as a person in prostitution.”This marks a rare occasion in which the US is addressing the needs of sex workers as a distinct issue separate from human trafficking. Sex workers have unique needs that aren’t adequately addressed by federal trafficking policy. Sex workers are hopeful that this will present a new opportunity to work with anti?trafficking efforts to address mutual human rights concerns. Read more…
