NEW YORKERS FOR THE EQUALITY MODEL.
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • About EqualityModelNY
    • AF3IRM NYC
    • CATW
    • COVENANT HOUSE NEW YORK
    • ECPAT USA
    • EQUALITY NOW
    • MENTARI
    • GRAHAM WINDHAM
    • LIFEWAY NETWORK
    • NEW YORK STATE ANTI-TRAFFICKING COALITION
    • NOT ON MY WATCH, INC.
    • NOW-NYC
    • SAFE NETWORK INC.
    • SANCTUARY FOR FAMILIES
    • WORLD WITHOUT EXPLOITATION
  • About NY Anti-Trafficking State Coalition
  • Blog

The Anti Vice Anti Immigrant Organizations

11/27/2019

 
I understand people wanting to fight vice, but I don't understand the violent crusade against it that prefers police and prisons getting involved in people's personal morality choices. We live in a country that has laws against or restricting gambling, smoking cigarettes, drugs, alcohol, sex work, and other vices. These regulations are based on exclusion like banks being able to close the accounts of gamblers and sex workers. Or based on heavy punishment. When they should be providing treatment if people want it. People can't be forced into sobriety if they don't want it, they can't even be forced into treatment if they aren't ready because it has adversarial effects and often leads to a crash.

These people are continuation of the Temperance movement which is why they work and are allied with the Salvation Army (a descendant of the Temperance movement). This isn't based on reality. Most people aren't addicted to drugs or alcohol, they just do it once in a while by their own choice. Even if someone was addicted or housing insecure/homeless, you can't eliminate it by having the police beat them, hurling them to prison, or requiring total sobriety before they can access housing. What I just described is how a lot of these housing institutions work. Because they don't have enough beds for everyone, they are usually selective in who they help. Housing is usually the first step to getting better, it helps make it easier to get counseling, treatment, and a job. They act like they can save millions of victims, but they literally don't have the resources. Most of the money we give them in federal and state taxes usually doesn't go to victims, it goes into the operations, salaries, PR, and marketing for these institutions that are filled with corruption. 


Despite their claims that they speak for the marginalized, they have a very clear disdain for them. Sex workers, undocumented immigrants, LGBTQ folk have tried talking to them from across the aisle. And they have run away every time. Three of the organizations that are a part of this coalition have stated in writing that they refuse to be in a room with undocumented immigrants because they don't want to be involved with illegal activity. A lot of the services these organizations gatekeep are denied to immigrants and they see nothing immoral about it. The Salvation Army would keep citizenship status of parents, because they wouldn't give Christmas gifts to children of migrants. The public had to find out about it and become angry for them to change policy. These organizations aren't the objective saviors they advertise themselves to be, and it's more immoral when you realize they advertise themselves this way to guilt trip people into giving them money. 

Ending slavery was never a popular position. But now it is, and it's a really profitable business model for the people that claim that's what they do. They say sex sells. But slavery, and ending slavery narratives are even more profitable. They don't even need to provide much proof, be transparent to the public, or be answerable to the people they pretend to serve.  
Picture
Picture
Picture

We're proud to work w/ our incredible partners.

New York, let's continue the #EqualityModel conversation. @AF3IRMNYC @CATWIntl @CovenantHouseNY @ecpatusa @equalitynow @GrahamWindham @MentariUsa @NYS_ATC @NOW_NYC @safenetworkinc @sffny @WorldWEUS @LifeWayNetwork pic.twitter.com/ZlVxy5sQyV

— NoBuyerNoPimpNY (@NoBuyerNoPimpNY) November 12, 2019

Important Developments

11/26/2019

 

Ashley Judd and Seth Meyers Say They Want to Help Sex Workers. They Could Start by Shutting Up. https://t.co/VZ6SCmeQz2

— Elizabeth Nolan Brown (@ENBrown) November 26, 2019

2. Members of the President’s Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (PITF): https://t.co/ienEKZHqkR

— □□ Carol Fenton □□ (@cfpdx) November 24, 2019

3. Members of the Public-Private Partnership Advisory Council to End Human Trafficking https://t.co/Y16JSmfg9Y

— □□ Carol Fenton □□ (@cfpdx) November 24, 2019

Everyone from San Diego's DA Summer Stephan to far-right radio host Glenn Beck have used Soros mythology and anti-Semitic propaganda. Both are hard core anti-sex work advocates. Beck supports OurRescue and provides a platform for border wall supporter Tim Ballard. https://t.co/NxuPPK2Zgi

— □□ Carol Fenton □□ (@cfpdx) November 22, 2019

This is the anti-LGBTQ group and host of the annual Value Voters Summit. They work closely with Human Trafficking NGO's that create harsh laws anti-sex work laws in all 50 states. https://t.co/dptwQHTaOW

— □□ Carol Fenton □□ (@cfpdx) November 20, 2019

@NYDailyNews, Ashley Judd, Seth Myers and his wife, Alexi Ashe Myers are joining other ANTI-sex work/ers labor and rights advocates who work and lobby with the most powerful and wealthy anti-abortion, LGBT and sex work lobbyists in the country --- to end the global sex industry.

— □□ Carol Fenton □□ (@cfpdx) November 26, 2019

The first thing that crossed my mind about that @MarieClaire article is the relationship(s) between Alexi Ashe Meyers and Anne Fulenwider. That who-you-know thingy.

— □□ Carol Fenton □□ (@cfpdx) November 26, 2019

2). I don't think many people realize that victims/survivors are propped up by wealthy anti-sex work NGO's at awareness events, seminars and conferences...and they're not paid.

— □□ Carol Fenton □□ (@cfpdx) November 25, 2019

The TIP Ambassador putting in a plug for Dressember, which benefits the NGO he used to work for. The month-long event also benefits anti-sex work NGO THORN, which partners w some of the wealthiest tech co's in the U.S. https://t.co/U5MheV3wmO

— □□ Carol Fenton □□ (@cfpdx) November 17, 2019

Ex-military and intelligence pros have started using AI to scan sex ads and send data to cops so they can arrest transgender persons, migrants and WoC who're targeted and arrested for a range of sex work laws---inc. promoting prostituiton and advertising! https://t.co/C98pRil35W

— □□ Carol Fenton □□ (@cfpdx) November 11, 2019

FOSTA lobbyists, including NCMEC, Salvation Army, FAIR Girls, Qanon Conspiracy Theorist and Mira Sorvino, join new anti-sex work alliance. According to Lynn Shaw--they've been on hill since Spring of 2019. https://t.co/akB8jAmuk3

— □□ Carol Fenton □□ (@cfpdx) November 16, 2019
She's talking about Tim Ballard from Our Underground RailRoad, which does prostitution stings globally. A trafficking survivor was kicked off the council for responding to one of his op-eds. This is a pretty good illustration of how survivors are used to legitimize the system instead of the system being "victim centered". They aren't, they just claim to be. Survivors do have small amounts of power to gain from playing along, but as soon as they stray, they are kicked out.

I haven't seen a single reporter write on the anti-sex work leaders who are lobbying for the border wall and urging Congress to keep asylum seekers in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador

— □□ Carol Fenton □□ (@cfpdx) November 16, 2019

Esp. concerning is that Piraino-Guzman—a survivor who worked w/the Council, Tweeted in response to a Ballard op-ed and was immediately removed. Ballard, on the other hand, is now on the Public-Private Partnership Advisory Council to End Human Trafficking. https://t.co/sbj7QgaICA

— □□ Carol Fenton □□ (@cfpdx) November 18, 2019

In Illinois, Marion Hatcher lobbied for FOSTA/SESTA and put the Cook County Jail, her employer, on the list of sex worker resources. The Cook County Jail is known as one of the most dangerous in the country. https://t.co/ioARx70OSl

— □□ Carol Fenton □□ (@cfpdx) November 17, 2019

This is an organization that takes in millions in government funding each year — money that *could* go to direct victims services but instead funds a telephone line & a six-figure salary for Polaris CEO Bradley Myles — yet refuses to even acknowledge Myles' disgraced departure

— Elizabeth Nolan Brown (@ENBrown) November 26, 2019

ICE has a section of its website dedicated to human trafficking. A lot of those airport posters list the same DHS number for reporting undocumented immigrants. https://t.co/2Vyfi9SLFA https://t.co/LqTi4ti7Mm

— You're Wrong About... (@yourewrongabout) November 26, 2019

Only a white feminist would call for a policy that puts more cops in black neighborhoods, gets even more woc deported, causes higher rates of homelessness among poor women and call it “progress for all women” https://t.co/1qzeUBeyuQ

— phoenix, the lumpen you hate follow □ (@uppittynegress) November 24, 2019

Mayor Ashley Curry signed a faith-based initiative that will require all city staff to be trained on how to spot sex work / workers; and implements a "Trafficking-Free Zone", which is known to target people of color and poor people. https://t.co/JbnIymE42l

— □□ Carol Fenton □□ (@cfpdx) November 26, 2019

A reminder about the constant rebranding by sex work prohibitionists:

Nordic model isn’t decriminalization
End Demand isn’t decriminalization
Equality model isn’t decriminalization

Anything that gives police power over the livelihoods of sex workers isn’t decriminalization. https://t.co/RA76UsIHG4

— Eric Sprankle, PsyD (@DrSprankle) November 26, 2019

The last episode of @patriotact talks about "Fast Fashion" & its commitment to destroying the earth - it's great (obviously, definitely worth a watch) & totally ties into #trafficking too, because what doesn't? Commence: My nerdface rant of the day! https://t.co/TXdGnDGqke

— Kate (@KateDAdamo) November 26, 2019

Note that Exodus Cry has an ugly history of opposition to homosexuality and endorsement of conversion therapy strategies. @NicoleRPrause has documented it extensively.

— David J. Ley PhD (@DrDavidLey) June 25, 2019

Thanks, but I cannot take credit for this onehttps://t.co/kmRhvS0sJp pic.twitter.com/m4oq67YcJf

— Liberos (@NicoleRPrause) June 25, 2019

Prostitution sting targets Black transgender woman resulting in trafficking sentence of 8-14 years in prison. According to McLean's attorney, the then 17-yr-old told court officials that “Ms. McLean had no idea what I was doing.” https://t.co/wxvGZmuK45

— ?? Carol Fenton ?? (@cfpdx) November 19, 2019

Supporters of “the equality model” allies itself with anti-lgbtq, anti-abortion, anti-surrogacy groups, anti-mixed race families [And pro POLICE/ICE]

11/25/2019

 
From the very beginning the coalition worked with bigoted organizations and people who are opposed to basic human rights. 

They have gone from calling their policy the Nordic model (highlighting that it did partially criminalize & would increase police/prisons/bodies behind bars), but now they are appropriating the language of their opponents claiming the label "decriminalization", despite the fact that they are opposed to this.

The language around this is scary because it shows their hatred is starting to intensify. While they claim 90% of prostitutes are sex trafficking victims, that doesn't align with the work Alexi Meyers has been doing with Sanctuary for Families which gets most of it's clients/victims from the Human Trafficking Intervention Courts from police sting and low level charges. Sanctuary For Families like the Salvation Army (which they work with), are working with local law enforcement and making profits from it. 

The language alone is very telling 
"decriminalization of prostitution". Notice that they use criminalized and stigmatized terms to describe the victims/people they claim to care about. They are purposely playing dog whistle politics here.  
Picture
The images above are from March 11, 2019 which was to launch their nobuyernopimpny. Gloria Steinem (who was a CIA agent) was a big promoter of this event, and continues to promote the criminalization of sex workers. These supporters are trying to do everything they can to appear to be a organic grassroots coalition. But it's very clear the people supporting it are largely the same (while constantly changing terms, and lying to the public). You'll find that they often fly the same people state to state, or will fly supporters from other countries. Most of their supporters are not from the states they seek to influence and push more criminalization policy. The most notable group was ObjectUK a United Kingdom organization that held a sign in the group with the words "No to sex trade, surrogacy, and transgenderism". 

News reports about the protest 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Many of the groups didn't have a problem with them being there, and many of these groups and individuals do feel this way. People should be challenging them on their views on surrogacy, abortion, and trans people AND compare them to what the organization supports and does. 


In a 2013 piece for Reason, Melissa Gira Grant, an author and senior staff reporter at The Appeal, cited Melissa Farley, a longtime anti-sex work advocate and researcher who has summed up her camp's position by calling sex work "paid rape."

Farley, Grant suggested, is just one agent in a "war on women that is nearly imperceptible, unless you are involved in the sex trade yourself. The war is spearheaded and defended largely by other women: a coalition of feminists, conservatives, and even some human rights activists who subject sex workers to poverty, violence, and imprisonment—all in the name of defending women's rights."
​                                                                                         - Vice

In the Vice article Sonia Ossorio, the president of NOW's New York City chapter claims "I don't see a divide. We agree on the biggest part—we don't want to arrest sex workers." 

This is gas lighting. It goes against the reality that they support policy that get profits and clients from police, they work with police, they train them. We continue having this conversation with journalists who take their word for it, while ignoring the fact that these people have very real institutional power and are a part of the criminal justice system. Little to no attempts are made to examine what they currently do within the system. For the most part the media believes everything they say, becoming a mouthpieces for "moral" criminalization entrepreneurs. It also ignores that they actively fight to avoid sex workers while sex workers and DecrimNY have been open to having open and unbiased events with them. They have refused. This is passive aggressiveness to hide how violent the policies they support truly are. 

One of the organization that Sanctuary for Families (and all the other supporters of the equality model) have been allied with the Salvation Army. The Salvation Army has a long history with the white slave traffic/white slavery narratives of the late 1800s and 1900s. They used it to help criminalize homosexuality, immigration, sex work, drugs, and alcohol. In fact, the Salvation Army is part of the Temperance Movement.
​
They follow the same model of working law enforcement while claiming *no sex worker will be arrested* (they have been doing this for years, the Salvation Army has been doing this for over a century). They are targeting migrant communities.

Going after Massage Parlors is like going after Taco Trucks. They are targeting migrants for arrest, imprisonment, family separation, and deportation. 

They are glossing over the fact that this policing is radicalized and classiest. Similarly the Salvation Army works with law enforcement and they target the border and urban areas for police violence. This is the exact same thing Trump does when he talks about trafficking at the border, and "inner cities". It's dog whistle politics. Just like the Salvation Army, Sanctuary for Families doesn't believe in "handouts" and partners to create "economic empowerment programs that puts criminalized people into service level jobs. And this is only if they can manage to avoid arrest, jail, a criminal record, loss of funds, property, or deportation. 
Picture
Picture
This year the Salvation Army hosted an event to ensure the criminalization of sex work, Sancturary for Families Yvonne Chen that has been working with vice division of NYPD (the same division that used condoms as evidence against sodomy and anti-sex worker laws and created an epidemic of HIV in those communities). It's important to note that vice division is rebranding itself as the "human trafficking division and is training many domestic violence shelters to target sex workers. Other people on the panel were BRIAN G. GANDERSpecial Agent, Criminal Division, New York Field Office


LT. DETECTIVE DONNA GAVINBoston Police Department


CHRIS MULLERDirector of Training and External Affairs for Restore NYC

​Restore NYC is a social enterprise that partners with local companies that puts criminalized migrants to work for low level waged jobs. Their reports puts the earnings at $1200/a month. The CEO makes 6 figures. These programs are similar to what the Salvation Army and Sanctuary for Families has. 

Many of the organizations they are aligned with don't believe in contraceptives, teaching sex ed, or abortions. Various organizations they partner with see nothing wrong with denying abortion rights to rape victims or sex trafficking victims. 


Picture
Another "expert" on human trafficking is Cindy McCain. She believes a police state is great for victims of abuse and encourages predominately privileged people to call the police on marginalized people. This has led to her calling the police on a mixed race family...because she *felt* it didn't look right. News reports 1, 2, 3
These kinds of attacks are normalized and viewed as good intentioned. But calling the police on people is inherently a violent act. Especially if it is done without the consent or legal representation of the perceived victim first. Especially if it is done because privileged white people *feel uncomfortable* about diversity and minorities. Police have a high rate of violence, and arrest rates against minorities, and migrants. These kind of phone calls against them has a chilling effect on deteriorating any trust they could ever have of reporting any violence or abuse done to them. These groups in doing this are adding to persecution of minorities, while blaming abusers for their mistrust of police, and the system. 

It's important to understand that these kinds of narratives are not new. In the past the Salvation Army was involved in the criminilization of homosexuality and prostitution. They blamed both of these groups for teens and children having to work to survive in the system they created and upheld. To prove it they cheered and celebrated a journalist (non sex worker, and cis heterosexual) that raped a child and posted the details in the news. It was called the Eliza Armstrong Case. Originally the journalist went to a poor neighborhood to prove that these communities are raping or enslaving children. Thankfully other news outlets went around and asked questioned and exposed him as the pedophile himself. Even when he was charged, Evangelicals and the Salvation Army praised him as a martyr and as innocent. That's how much they hated sex workers and gay people.

Even SESTA/FOSTA which these organizations all supported has caused LGBTQ, sex woker, and sex ed content to be eliminated, shadowbanned, censored, demonetized, and heavily policed. 

    Author

    Write something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview.

    Archives

    April 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • About EqualityModelNY
    • AF3IRM NYC
    • CATW
    • COVENANT HOUSE NEW YORK
    • ECPAT USA
    • EQUALITY NOW
    • MENTARI
    • GRAHAM WINDHAM
    • LIFEWAY NETWORK
    • NEW YORK STATE ANTI-TRAFFICKING COALITION
    • NOT ON MY WATCH, INC.
    • NOW-NYC
    • SAFE NETWORK INC.
    • SANCTUARY FOR FAMILIES
    • WORLD WITHOUT EXPLOITATION
  • About NY Anti-Trafficking State Coalition
  • Blog