Audacia Ray

• First of all, Dacia tried last month to open an account at Citibank for her business, Waking Vixen Productions. After filling out the preliminary paperwork, she received a voicemail delicately informing her that her line of business made them unable to take her account.
• Then, early this month, she got a similar notice from iTunes, notifying her that her podcast, Live Girl Review, could no longer be included in their directory. ITunes was less direct than Citibank, saying only that podcasts could be excluded "for a variety of reasons." On checking out their podcast spec sheet, she found "strong prevalence of sexual content"  included among the possible reasons that Apple can kick you to the curb.
• And just last week, Google yanked her Google Checkout account, barely twenty-four hours after she'd put her new short film The Love Machine up for sale. According to the e-mail Google sent Dacia, "the products or services [she's] selling on [her] website are considered ‘Restricted’ per our policy- Adult goods and services."

Thursday night I was at a reception in honor of the launch of a new nonprofit organization called "Sex Work Awareness." Formed by the amazing folks at $pread Magazine, SWANK, and PONY it promises to make truly important contributions to sex work advocacy, research and community organizing. I think they're definitely an organization to watch!

And tomorrow I'll be on a panel at the Left Forum with one of Sex Work Awareness's founders, the seemingly indefatigable Audacia Ray. Also on the panel are some other sex worker advocates I admire deeply: Ignacio Rivera and Amber Hollibaugh also of Queers for Economic Justice and the National Gay and Lesbian Taskforce, and Antonia Levy from the Graduate Center at CUNY. Here's the panel info:

These photos are just a sampling from Viviane's Flickr set. Thanks Viviane!

Me, with co-founder Chris Hall and Rachel Kramer Bussel

Audacia Ray, Lux Nightmare and Rachel Kramer Bussel

I'm sleepy and exhiliarated after our "coming out party" last night. It was really amazing to meet so many friends of Sex in the Public Square face-to-face, in one place and at one time! Your enthusiasm for this project was palpable, and I can't wait to see where that energy takes us.

Slowly throughout the day today and tomorrow we'll be getting pictures together, so if you took any you want to share send them along to me at elizabeth at sexinthepublicsquare dot org or drop me a link to your Flickr page or just let me know where to find your shots.

Here are just a few to get you started. They're of our fabulous speakers, who I really can't thank enough for honoring our project by sharing their work. You really did demonstrate all the different kinds of things we want this site to accomplish!

Lux Nightmare's exploration of the pink ghetto...

Here's the poster for our "Coming Out" party. (Yeah, it's the same party we've been talking about. We just decided "coming out party" sounded better than "launch party. Don't be confused!)

You're coming, right?

(Click on the image for your own poster-sized copy. It's a PDF, so you need Acrobat or something similar.)

Location(s)