BC Coalition of Experiential Communities

We thank Dr. Goodyear for his response to our article. We fully agree with
his concerns surrounding the recent coverage of our work on HIV prevalence
in British Columbia, Canada. Dr. Goodyear has expressed difficulty in seeing
how this study will benefit the individuals who participated in the
research. Of note, estimates of HIV prevalence among at-risk groups are
vital in planning for the development and provision of appropriate policy
and programmatic responses. We wish to affirm that it is our overarching
goal to ensure that there are adequate services for all individuals living
with HIV infection in Vancouver. The WHO has consistently shown that less
than 10% of sex workers have adequate access to HIV prevention and care
resources.

Our paper did not aim to highlight HIV infection among sex workers in
particular. Instead, we sought to model the estimate of HIV prevalence at
the city level and related gaps in services in Vancouver. Also of note, all
the studies considered in our paper received institutional ethical approval.

We acknowledge that prevalence estimates are rarely perfect and are limited
by uncertainty surrounding population size and potential biases inherent in
source data. We would like to clarify that the estimate of HIV prevalence
among female sex workers in 2006 is based on data collected among survival
sex workers predominantly located in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, who live
in poverty and all who inject and/or smoke illicit drugs. This estimate
therefore does not reflect indoor sex workers, such as sex workers in
establishment-based venues, bars, or escort services. We are fully aware
that female sex workers in Vancouver do not constitute a homogeneous group.
This could have been further stressed in the published paper.

Perhaps most importantly, we recognize that sex workers have been unfairly
stigmatized in the past by medical research as vectors of disease, and it
was not our intention to perpetuate this in any way. We have acknowledged in
our article that detailed data on sex work clients were not available.
As a global assessment of HIV prevention needs, our article did not seek to
review the factors that enhance vulnerability to HIV infection among
marginalized populations, such as survival sex workers. However, as
mentioned by Dr. Goodyear, we feel it is important to acknowledge that many
pivotal studies both in Canada, including some of our own, and globally have
demonstrated that criminalized sex work legislation, enforcement-based
strategies and violence greatly reduces sex workers’
ability to safely negotiate condom use with clients as well as other HIV
risk reduction strategies.

Finally, we concur with UNAIDS and WHO that structural approaches to HIV
prevention are crucial both for the health of sex workers and clients.
This includes policy changes such as the removal of criminal sanctions
targeting sex workers.

Eric Druyts, Robert Hogg and Julio Montaner

Hello. My name is Laurel. I have lived in Vancouver for over 10 years, but having grown up in Prince George, I still call the north my home. I am grateful for those who have gone before me, leading the way for our movements, and I acknowledge my own struggles and lived experience for shaping me as an activist and advocate for social justice.

My professional experience as a sex industry advocate began with Speaking Out, a peer-based media project for experiential women that I became involved with as a participant, and later became coordinator for. Through this project, I was involved in the creation of 3 videos calling for an end to harm to sex workers. In addition, I submitted a presentation for the decriminalization of the sex industry to the House of Commons’ Subcommittee on Solicitation Laws (SSLR), and I participated in the Stella XXX Forum in Montreal.

I was involved in the early stages of the History of Sex Work Project, a project that unearthed and showcased contributions sex workers have made to Vancouver’s history.

I was a peer consultant and co-facilitator for Safe/Not Safe, a photography project involving women who live and work in the Downtown East Side, highlighting issues of safety in the survival sex trade.

I spent 2 years as an interviewer and support worker with the Cedar Project, an ongoing advocacy-based research project involving at-risk native youth in Vancouver, Kamloops and Prince George, many of whom are involved in the survival sex trade.

In 2005 I began working as a peer support worker with the Mobile Access Project (MAP), a joint project between WISH (Women’s Information and Safe Haven) and PACE (Prostitution, Alternatives, Counselling and Education). MAP operates an outreach van that visits strolls around Vancouver every night, offering supplies, support and referrals to sex workers. I am now the MAP coordinator, since May 2008.

In addition to this, I am a student and practitioner of acupuncture, herbology and traditional Oriental medicine. I specialize in acu-detox, and I have a strong desire to help complimentary and alternative medicine become more accessible to marginalized people. I have worked with acupuncture programs in detoxes, on reserves, and for people living with HCV and HIV. Currently, I am working towards development of a community acupuncture clinic for the Downtown East Side that will be based on principals of harm reduction, peer-based support and treatment on demand.

For more information about the DTES Community Acupuncture Clinic, or to help, please contact acupuncturiste@yahoo.ca

For more information about the Mobile Access Project, or to help, please contact

Laurel Irons
Mobile Access Project Coordinator
515-119 West Pender
Vancouver, BC V6B 1S5
Tel: (604) 720-4939
Fax: (604) 669-9479
mobileaccessproject@hotmail.com

MAP is a joint project between WISH Drop-In Centre Society and PACE Prostitution Alternatives Counseling & Education Society.
www.wish-vancouver.net
www.pace-society.cahttp://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=70019874391&ref=ts

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In terms of attitudes towards prostitution, New Zealand and Europe are almost as diametrically opposed as they are in geography. Kiwis have opted for wholesale liberalisation of the sex trade, while Europeans are increasingly restricting it.

Does the New Zealand liberal approach provide a model or a warning? Henri Astier looks at its prostitution industry six years after decriminalisation, in the first of two articles.

New Zealand prostitutes groups lobbied for the 2003 reform

When “Sophie”, a medical worker from Christchurch, fell behind on her mortgage payments last year, she found that her job was not paying enough. Her only option was a temporary career change: she became a prostitute.

“I needed money fast so I didn’t lose my house,” she explains.

A soft-spoken 30-something with a shy smile, Sophie does not look like the stereotypical scarlet woman, even in the low-cut dress she wears at work.

She does not feel like one either. “I don’t drink. I don’t smoke. I don’t do drugs. I’m a vegetarian,” she says, adding that she had qualms about her new job.

But the city centre parlour she joined – basically a pub with a sitting area at the front and bedrooms at the back – was not the drug-fuelled dive she had imagined.

“All the women here are lovely,” she says. “We spend a lot of time sitting and talking. I’ll stick it out a bit longer.”

Good money

Some might question the morality of Sophie’s choice, but legally it cannot be faulted.

Since the Prostitution Reform Act of 2003, brothels have been allowed to operate more or less freely.

I make twice what I was earning in retail – it’s by far the most gratifying work I’ve ever had “Lucy”

Sex workers have the same rights as everyone else. In the eyes of New Zealand’s law, the oldest profession is just like any other.

This policy stands in marked contrast to Europe. In 1999 Sweden criminalised the purchase of sex services, and several countries are introducing similar laws in an attempt to combat trafficking.

Ask New Zealand sex workers what they think of Swedish-style strictures, and the response is overwhelmingly negative.

“Whether you’re prosecuting the men or the girls, you’re still prosecuting the business,” says “Lucy”, 23, from Wellington.

Lucy works in Bon Ton, an exclusive establishment in the capital where an hour-long session costs NZ$400 (£140; $200). She says the reform has given her the opportunity to work for a legitimate business in a safe environment.

“I make twice what I was earning in retail. I am appreciated by customers and my boss. I can work whenever I want to – it’s by far the most gratifying work I’ve ever had,” she says.

Legal rights

Lucy’s manager, Sarah, also believes criminalising clients would be a disaster for the industry and put the girls at risk.

Bon Ton caters to gentlemen who want to be “pampered in every way”

“This would scare away the quality customers,” she says. “We would be left with the dangerous sort. The nasty men won’t go away.”

Bon Ton – which thrives on “quality customers” like lawyers and civil servants – certainly looks like an ideal showcase for New Zealand-style liberalisation.

The bedrooms look like luxury suites, the upstairs office looks like – well… an office, and the workers say they are treated with respect.

Sarah insists she has zero tolerance for abuse and will back the girls even if they refuse a client. “I can’t force a woman to have sex,” she says.

As she speaks another girl appears at the door, draped in a towel. “Myah” looks at the work ahead, and realises that a client who often insists on having oral sex without a condom wants to see her.

“I don’t want him,” Myah says. “No problem,” Sarah replies. “I’ll tell him you’re not available.”

NZ PROSTITUTION REFORM ACT Brothels allowed to operate Up to four prostitutes can set up collective as equal partners Advertising sale of sex legalised Brothels require certificate and registration by court Sex work subject to normal employment and health and safety standards

Myah is not afraid to turn down work. Her health is at stake, and the law requires a condom for any commercial sex act. “It is my legal right to make that demand,” she says.

But are the benefits from legalisation confined to high-end businesses like Bon Ton?

According to Catherine Healy of the New Zealand Prostitutes Collective (NZPC), better and safer working practices are now the norm.

Across the industry, she says, women are now aware of their rights and exploitative brothel owners are becoming marginalised as a result of the reform.

“Sex workers say: I can work across town,” she says. “The dynamic has altered.”

Anna Reed, who was a sex worker in Christchurch for 23 years and is now NZPC’s local spokesperson, agrees that exploitative practices have become rare.

“Owners used to demand huge fines for being late. They used to hire and fire workers without reason.” But now, she says, “girls feel more able to stand up for themselves”.

Limited change

Another key benefit of decriminalisation, according to Ms Healy, is a sea change in relations with the police: “If you’re the one committing a crime, you won’t ask the police for help.”

Advocate Catherine Healy says the law has empowered sex workers

Now, Ms Healy says, the girls find law enforcement officials are on their side.

This idea was borne out by a parliamentary report last year, which gave a positive assessment of the reform. It said prostitutes were more likely to report violence to police, and officers were treating their complaints seriously.

Some brothel operators, however, are not so sure the reform has made a big difference.

Bon Ton owner Jennifer – who got into the sex business after decriminalisation – says some old-style establishments are still exploiting people. “This is still an industry in transition,” she says.

Monique, who ran brothels before 2003 and now owns Capri, a “Gentleman’s club and garden bar” in Christchurch, also plays down the impact of the reform – but for the opposite reason.

She says relations with police were good even when bordellos operated illegally. And then, as now, exploitation of girls was never widespread, Monique adds.

“We now have a fat, legal agreement with the workers but they are treated the same.”

Suspicions

A sure sign that New Zealand’s sex trade has not been entirely revolutionised is that society still frowns on it.

Last year a teacher was sacked when it was learnt that she occasionally – and perfectly legally – moonlighted as a prostitute.

We get so pissed off when politicians portray us as victims Anna Reed NZPC

Many sex workers keep a regular part-time job to avoid leaving suspicious gaps on their CVs.

They tell only trusted friends about their main activity. None of the working prostitutes and madams interviewed for this report was ready to give their real names.

Brothels may be legal but most New Zealanders prefer not to live next to one.

Bon Ton never mentions an address in its adverts – only a phone number. In Christchurch operators had to fight a proposed zoning law that would have kept them out of most areas.

But the overwhelming majority in the business feels huge progress was made when the industry emerged from the shadow.

Anna Reed says she loved working as a prostitute – “I had sex, money and men!” – and resents enduring cliches about a job no-one in her right mind could willingly embrace.

“We get so pissed off when politicians portray us as victims,” she says.

“It’s important to blow down the stereotypes about sex workers – particularly that of the poor girl who is coerced into doing it.”

New legislation aimed at scaring away
potential punters will only rob those who work within the sex industry of their
livelihood

• Nathalie
  Rothschild
• guardian.co.uk,
  Friday 13 March 2009 13.00 GMT
• Article history