Tag: sex workers

Backpage: The Monumental Free Speech Case the Media Ignored

After a dozen years of legal tussles, seven years in the crosshairs of ambitious prosecutors, and five-and-a-half years fighting a federal case that saw his business forcibly shuttered, his assets seized, and his longtime partner dead by suicide, alt-weekly newspaper impresario Michael Lacey was found guilty Thursday on just one of the 86 criminal charges levied against him in connection with the online advertising platform Backpage. But the government’s fanatical pursuit of Lacey and his four other Backpage co-defendants is far from over. 

Lacey, an award-winning investigative journalist, was found guilty of international concealment money laundering, which could land him in prison for up to 20 years, and not guilty of international promotional money laundering. But after a week of contentious deliberations, the jury could not come to agreement on the other 84 charges, prompting U.S. District Judge Diane Humetewa to declare a second mistrial in this case. That means Lacey could face a third federal trial essentially for the crime of running a classified ads site that knowingly enabled and profited from illegal, if consensual, transactions involving sex.

Thanks to Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, the speech and conduct of website consumers is considered to be the legal responsibility of the speakers themselves, not the owners of the platform. This has been a thorn in the side of politicians and other would-be censors ever since. In 2013, Kamala Harris and 46 other state attorneys general sent a joint letter to Congress urging a rollback of Section 230; the letter started like this: “Every day, children in the United States are sold for sex. In instance after instance, state and local authorities discover that the vehicles for advertising the victims of the child sex trade to the world are online classified ad services, such as Backpage.com.”

Seven weeks before her election to the U.S. Senate, Harris, along with her Texas counterpart Ken Paxton, brought the first criminal case against Lacey, his partner Jim Larkin, and other executives at Backpage, who were paraded in a Sacramento courtroom cage wearing orange jumpsuits. That case was tossed out by a judge who pointed out: “Congress did not wish to hold liable online publishers for the action of publishing third party speech….It is for Congress, not this court, to revisit.” 

But just three days before leaving the A.G.’s office for the Senate, Harris filed yet another Backpage case, which was yet again thrown out (partially) because of Section 230. Once in Congress, Harris helped push through the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act, or FOSTA, which does peel back Section 230 to make websites liable for the “facilitation” or “promotion” of prostitution by their users, even though prostitution itself is not a federal crime. 

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Oregon Democratic candidate vows to ‘reclaim her sexuality’ after footage of her working as a $500-per-hour dominatrix at Manhattan BDSM dungeon was leaked, leaving her ‘hyperventilating and crying’

A Democratic Congressional Candidate is ‘reclaiming her sexuality’ after a clip of her working at a Manhattan BDSM dungeon was leaked.

Courtney Casgraux, 41, is a self-described ‘international businesswoman’ who is running for a seat in the United States House of Representatives for Oregon‘s first district.

The single mother of a teenage son was exposed in a video leaked on Reddit for working as a dominatrix in Manhattan during hers 20s and 30s. 

Casgraux would charge clients $500 for playing the dominant role in BDSM activities.

The California native returned to the BDSM industry when she began working at Donatella’s Dungeon – a hidden S&M club in Midtown Manhattan, The New York Post reported.

She launched her campaign to represent Portland‘s western suburbs on June 7 – a few months later she discovered provocative footage of her working as a BDSM dominatrix had been leaked to the public on Reddit.

The bombshell August 31 leak shocked Casgraux and left her in a state of panic: ‘I was like, “Who did this?” and I just started calling every single person that I pretty much knew from my past … I was like hyperventilating, crying,’ she said.

She described the upsetting moment she saw the video: ‘My heart just kind of sinked in and I went psycho.’

The political candidate never discovered who exposed her in the Reddit post – she thinks that whoever is responsible was attempting to ‘shame’ her.

‘To shame me for something that helped create the life that I have today where I have opportunity … made me really mad. Because it felt like an attack on women, not just an attack on me,’ she said.

She is now reclaiming her sexuality – starting with a Playboy campaign collaboration.

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OHIO SERIAL KILLER ARRESTED: Woman Charged in Deaths of Multiple Men, AG Says

A 33-year-old Columbus woman who allegedly met men for sex and drugged them so she could rob them has been indicted in four murders, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and Columbus Division of Police Chief Elaine Bryant announced today.

Rebecca Auborn faces four counts of murder, four counts of involuntary manslaughter, five counts of aggravated robbery, five counts of felonious assault, five counts of corrupting another with drugs, one count of tampering with evidence and four counts of trafficking in drugs – all felonies.

“Don’t buy sex in Ohio – it ruins lives and could cost you yours,” AG Yost said.

The indictment, handed down today by a Franklin County grand jury, stems from a joint investigation by homicide detectives from the Columbus Division of Police and special agents from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI).

“These indictments are a result of our close collaboration with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation,” Chief Bryant said. “The Columbus Division of Police remains dedicated to ensuring justice for all victims and their families affected by the actions of a single individual.”

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GERMANY: Pro-Prostitution Picture Book Offered To Children By Government Officials

The city of Berlin has prompted outrage from locals after offering a graphic picture book on prostitution to children via its official website. The book, titled Rosie Needs Money (Rosi sucht Geld), is advertised as a resource for youth aged 6 to 12 years old.

According to Equal Opportunities Officer Kerstin Drobick, the book is a “helpful tool” for explaining prostitution to children of families residing in a red-light district of Berlin, located in Kurfürstenkiez, known as Kurfürstenstraße.

“In the years in which the Tiergarten Süd and Schöneberger Norden neighborhood management offices dealt with the issue of street prostitution and also had many conversations with residents, this was one of the topics: What do I say to the child? The Tiergarten Süd district management has faced this courageously,” Dobrick says in her defense of the book.

“An order was placed for a children’s book that tried to explain to the children what was happening there. Interestingly, extensive research has shown that educational books for children aged 10 and over avoid this explanation.”

Drobick also explains that the book on prostitution, which features graphic illustrations, was created “with primary school children and other people [in mind].”

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Just The Tip: AP Gave Dem Porn-Wife Heads-Up Before WaPo Scoop, Allowing Her To Delete Videos

Democratic Virginia political candidate Susanna Gibson, who was outed by the Washington Post for performing sex acts online for cash – and instead of owning up to it cried ‘sex crime!‘, was actually tipped off a week earlier by the Associated Press, which didn’t run the story – allowing her to delete videos before the WaPo piece hit, according to the Daily Wire‘s Luke Rosiak.

Gibson, a 40-year-old nurse practitioner and mother of two, streamed various sex acts on ‘Chaturbate,’ where more than a dozen videos of she and her husband were archived on a publicly available site, Recurbate, in September 2022 after she entered the race. The most recent were two videos archived Sept. 30, 2022, however it’s unclear when the live stream occurred.

Rosiak also reports that Gibson’s online sex acts could have exposed her to prostitution charges, lawyers say.

Virginia law states that “any person who, for money or its equivalent … engages in sexual intercourse” or other sexual acts with another person “is guilty of prostitution, which is punishable as a Class 1 misdemeanor.”

Shawn M. Cline, a former prosecutor and defense attorney in Virginia Beach who represents people charged with sex crimes, said in his view it’s a “chargeable offense.”

“The statute is very clear, you cannot for money or its equivalent perform sex acts,” Cline told The Daily Wire. “It doesn’t matter who’s paying for the act, if it’s an observer or the recipient. You can’t receive money.”

“It would definitely be a chargeable offense,” Cline said. -Daily Wire

What’s more, she could be busted for deliberately causing hotel workers to see her performing sex acts.

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Ads for AI sex workers are flooding Instagram and TikTok

Facebook, Instagram and TikTok have tried to keep a tight lid on sexualized content in recent years, banning nudity outright in almost all cases, kicking off sex workers and even cracking down on some artists and educators who speak frankly about sexual health and safety. 

But a new kind of sexualized content has lately been getting through their moderation systems: ads for scantily clad and dirty-talking chatbots, powered by what their creators say is artificial intelligence. 

Dozens of tech startups have been running explicit advertisements on TikTok, Instagram and Facebook in recent months for apps that promote not-safe-for-work experiences. The ads promise “NSFW pics,” custom pinup girls and chats with “no censoring,” and many of them feature digitally created potential “girlfriends” with large breasts and tight clothing. 

Some ads use memes that include popular children’s TV characters, such as SpongeBob SquarePants, Bart Simpson or Cookie Monster, to promote apps with which people can create “NSFW pics.” Others feature digitally created girls who appear to be teenagers or younger, sometimes in the style of anime. 

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“I Just Want To Sell Titty Pictures”: Sex Workers F**ked By Crypto

Sex workers – who frequently face financial discrimination, losing access to payment apps and banking apps such as PayPal, Venmo and CashApp due to their profession – began using cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin as an alternative for payments, which bypass traditional banking systems and avoid service fees from platforms such as OnlyFans.

According to data by the Free Speech Coalition, 2/3 of sex workers have lost access to a bank account or financial service, with 40% having an account closed within the last year, Wired reports.

“I just want to sell titty pictures,” said Allie Eve Knox, a professional dominatrix and fetish performer. “I never wanted to be an expert in financial discrimination.”

…

Given the systemic discrimination throughout the banking sector, many sex workers have turned to cryptocurrencies as a means of both storing wealth and accepting payment. For a while, things were great. Digital currencies allowed customers to pay discreetly without supplying personal information, while sex workers now had a way to bypass the banking system entirely.

Knox, for example, began accepting crypto in 2014 – holding up a QR code through which viewers could tip her in crypto.

Another sex worker, former escort-turned-porn star Lira Roux, told the outlet that she began to accept crypto in 2015 at the request of clients. Initially, she would exchange the crypto for dollars, however when new laws came into effect – after which many adult-friendly advertising sites were barred from accepting regular money – she began to pay for ads with crypto too.

“By and large, crypto is useful for people that aren’t being taken care of properly by the government,” Roux said. “For sex workers, who aren’t well-served by banks, it becomes a useful option.”

Now, thanks to regulatory scrutiny which has gone into overdrive since the collapse of crypto exchange FTX, sex workers are ‘bumping up’ against limitations – and are finding that ‘decentralized’ crypto is no more detached from the banking system than traditional currency – as sex workers are finding it increasingly difficult to convert crypto into dollars. Typically, this is done via an exchange, which then allows one to withdraw to a traditional bank account. Sex workers are now being banned from crypto exchanges.

“You get on an exchange for as long as you can, until they shut your ass down,” said Knox. “You quickly [run out of exchanges], so you sit on a lot of useless money. The whole ‘crypto is permissionless and censorship-resistant’ thing is a bunch of bullshit.”

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Dallas Law Against ‘Manifesting’ Prostitution Declared Unconstitutional

Manifesting prostitution law rejected. The Dallas County Criminal Court of Appeals has struck down a law against “manifesting the purpose of engaging in prostitution.” The law “is seeking a shortcut that trespasses on the constitutional rights of Dallas citizens,” wrote Judge Kristin Wade in her decision. The statute was “overbroad,” she argued, because “it punishes constitutionally protected conduct as well as illegal activity.”

The Dallas law is separate from Texas’ main prohibition of prostitution. The latter prohibits engaging in, offering to engage, or agreeing to engage in sex acts for a fee. The former prohibits looking like you might be about to do so.

Under the Dallas law, it was a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $500 to loiter “in a public place in a manner and under circumstances manifesting the purpose of inducing, enticing, soliciting, or procuring another to commit an act of prostitution.”

Laws like these—sometimes called “manifesting” for the purpose of prostitution, sometimes “loitering” for prostitution purposes—are common in cities and states around the country. But there’s been a growing movement against these laws, which make it easy for police to hassle and arrest people without cause.

In 2021, New York state repealed its loitering for prostitution statute. California did the same in 2022.

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Former Detroit police commissioner admitted to paying $10 for sexual favors, officers said

Former Detroit Police Commissioner Bryan Ferguson admitted to officers that he had paid a prostitute $10 in exchange for sexual favors in Detroit on July 12, according to a citation obtained by the Detroit Free Press.

“Yes, I gave her $10 dollars for it,” the citation says Ferguson told undercover narcotics officers from the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office that caught him parked in his car in Detroit that morning engaging in a sex act with the prostitute.

“I’m sorry, I know I was wrong.”

That’s not what Ferguson said to the public. He previously denied the allegations, characterized them as a “big misunderstanding,” and said the woman was unknown to him and that she had attempted to enter his vehicle.

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Gates funds millions to NGO claiming kids born sexual, 10-year-olds should learn about ‘commercial sex work’

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation donates millions annually to a nongovernmental organization which claims that children are born sexual and should learn about “commercial sex work” under 10 years of age.

The International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) – a separate entity from the U.S. nonprofit – wields significant influence on global sex education. The NGO comprises 120 independent organizations in over 146 countries and has received – including its European network – over $80M from Gates. Other significant donors included the World Health Organization. 

A toolkit released in 2017 showed an insight into how the NGO teaches sex education to children around the globe. 

“Sexual activity may be part of different types of relationships, including dating, marriage or commercial sex work, among others,” IPPF said about children under 10 should be taught, which was first flagged by Nicole Solas of the Independent Women’s Forum. 

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