Sex In The Public Square - PEPFAR - Comments

Urgent action needed, thank you Amber!

Elizabeth — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 17:44:47 -0800

I had meant to get a SexAct(ivism)! piece up about this but clearly there isn't time. I'm so glad you posted this. Of course we're looking forward to your original posts, too, but thank you for taking time away from that to post this call.

Real Consequences

Amanda Brooks — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 09:39:29 -0800

The anti-prostitution pledge has also led to a rising number of AIDS cases. I have a few articles referenced here: http://pledgingaction.wordpress.com/the-pledge/ if you scroll down the page a bit.

Safer sex is sort of one my things.

I'm the one who should say thank you

Elizabeth — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 02:50:04 -0800

You're welcome Stacey, but I'm the one who should be saying thank you to all of you who are taking the time to come here to contribute! There are so many smart people out there working on these issues and just not enough opportunities for us to all get together and share what we're thinking about or raise questions and explore problems without having to defend ourselves immediately. So thank you all for being here for the week!

Thanks Elizabeth!

Stacey Swimme — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 19:26:12 -0800

Thank you for inviting us to participate in this forum and using Sex in the Public Square to bring more attention to these important isuues.

Thank you Carol!

Elizabeth — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 17:18:14 -0800

Carol, thank you for the update on HR 3887 and for the link to BAYSWAN's page of sample letters and background info. I'll put up a SexAct(ivism)! piece calling on readers to write to their Senators and action on thi.s. I also think that a call for continued action on this, with an echo back to the beautifully written letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee and published on Bound, Not Gagged , should be part of our summary statement at the end of this forum.

Thanks also for the link to Collateral Damage. It makes me think that another thing that should come out of this forum is a page of resources that would link readers here to all the important web sites and documents from from which we each draw.

Trafficking Victims' Protection Act Reauthorization

CarolLeigh — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 17:07:04 -0800

Unintended consequences...of course folks want to protect victims of force, slavery, but wind up punishing sex workers in the course of combatting trafficking. Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women has a new report, Collateral Damage, which investigates the "Victims of Anti-Trafficking," the sex workers and migrants.

House version HR 3887 now expands the Mann Act to broadly place all sorts of commercial sex business operations (targeting voluntary contexts!) within the scope of FBI oversight. The Department of Justice is opposed to this move as they state that this is not the purvey of the US Department of Justice. The bill is waiting in the Senate Judiciary Committee after making it through the House.

This effort is spearheaded by fundamentalists (an alliance of the fundamentalist Christians and fundamentalist feminists).

Please visit www.bayswan.org/traffick/HR3887.html for a more extensive analysis, and for model letters to send to your Senator about this issue.

The issues are quite complex as it revolves around some minor changes in the wording of the current Mann Act.