Update on Every Ho I Know Says So!

Hi everyone,

It’s been 5 months since Beef Jerky and I released the video Every Ho I Know on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTdBXLCo1Qk. We have had so much positive feedback on the YouTube thread, through conversation and emails… it’s been really amazing! The video is an important and FREE resource for many people.

Every Ho has been screened at sex worker gatherings, community events, university student events and also in university classrooms, anti-violence against women conferences, and will likely be screened at upcoming festivals in 2011 like Trigger Fest in Toronto, RheD symposium in Melbourne, San Francisco Art and Film Fest, Sex Worker Open University in London, Entzaubert Queer DIY Fest in Berlin, Ladyfest in Bellingham, at the Allied Media Conference in Detroit. People are listening to sex workers talk about how they’d like to be respected and heard! Yay!

Let me thank the participating sex workers again for opening their hearts and putting themselves at risk by being so out about their work, their challenges, and their lives.

This is an update on what’s next for this project. Right now, Beef Jerky and I are:

*providing closed-captioning for the video in English, German, Spanish and French so that it is more widely accessible and available to sex workers around the world. If you have contacts for doing additional languages, let us know!

*building a website where sex workers can upload additional videos from anywhere in the world. If your advice didn’t make the first cut of the video, or we had to edit you down, or we didn’t have time to interview you, we are hoping to upload more and bigger clips to this site. We hope to have this site up by the end of May 2011! Then we hope you will encourage all your sex worker friends to submit video! (And anonymity will be possible!)

-funding ourselves! We are collecting screening fees where ever possible and selling DVD copies of the film to funded student groups and university libraries and professors, as well as clinic/social service providers. If you are connected to any group like this, please put me in touch with them. NO VIDEO LIKE THIS exists. Wouldn’t it be amazing if people could find it in their university library, community centre, or trans or women or queer group resource library? We will continue to leave it on YouTube so it is FREE but we also want to collect funds where we can.

If we can collect sufficient funds, the goal is to share out proceeds. Right now, our major unavoidable costs are DVD printing and mailing and web hosting. We hope to pay the DVD cover designer and the webworker, and then hopefully pay contributors. (All of whom are sex workers who volunteered their time.) We will see what happens, fingers crossed.

In the meantime, if you want to share thoughts, ideas, or anything at all on this project, please be in touch.

Whorelicious hugs,

xxx
Lusty

Edited: April 27th, 2011

zine on being a good ally to sex workers

Last year my friend Sunny made this awesome zine called Ho Lover that I give out whenever I can. I hope it is useful to you. He has recently updated the resources section so I thought I would make it available here. (With his permission, of course!)

HO LOVER zine layout

I hope it is useful to you. Print it out and leave it laying around where ever you hear people making whorephobic comments.

xxx
Lusty

Edited: April 27th, 2011

Tits and Sass: One Big Service Piece

Some rad people have started a new sex worker blog, please go check it out! It’s called Tits and Sass! It’s funny! Smart! Touching! Political! All the good stuff. The lovely Bettie interviewed me via Skype for a post there, if you want to read more background on how our video Every Ho I Know got made.

xxx Lusty

Edited: March 16th, 2011

DIY Resource on touring as a sex worker in Australia

I worked as a sex worker in different states in Australia for about a year. I managed to do it, and do it well, by the grace of a few lovely and talented sex workers who taught me the ropes. As a result, my philosophy on sharing information on working safely and successfully in providing sex services is to share, for free, whatever information I have.

Sadly the reality is that sometimes I am inundated with requests and questions from people wanting to get into the business. I am flattered you asked me for my advice! But I will tell you that what you think is a simple question – is not. People contact me, I think, because they can see that I am a professional, community-minded, and that I love what I do. All these things are true. However! This means that I have a lot of information and knowledge and so when you ask me a question, I just can’t do you justice by giving you a simple answer. Selling sex services might look like a simple process – advertise, book, fuck – but it is skilled work that takes some thinking and planning. So please keep this in mind if you send me a request, and please  - write me back, tell me how it went, continue to share information, and at the very least – I love me a thank you.

Over the past year I have offered a very DIY workshop called Working It Down Under: Escorting in Australia a few times. I recommend a trip to Oz to anyone who wants a sunshine holiday and the opportunity to work in a decriminalized environment (in only some Australian states). Of course, there are some limitations, some of which are discussed on the handout below.

Legally things are changing over there, especially in Western Australia. Also sex workers are embroiled in constant fights with city councils to keep brothels firmly on the agenda during elections. Australian and migrant sex workers down under are very well organized to fight back against the moral crusade to keep laws on our bodies.

All this to say that my caveat is that some of the information on this handout I made back in July 2010 might be inaccurate or a bit misleading (since I couldn’t give the whole story), I hope it gives you all a taste of what to expect. I highly recommend going on over to Scarlet Alliance to get the whole 411 on what’s happening now, and of course, to make friends with some of the smartest, sluttiest and most empowered hookers I know.

Edited: January 9th, 2011

Every Ho I Know Says So: A Resource for Lovers, Partners and Sweeties of Sex Workers

Hi friends,

I just wanted to share this link with you, it’s a video that my friend Jackson and I made over the past six months called

Every Ho I Know Says So: A Resource for Lovers, Partners and Sweeties of Sex Workers

Just in time for December 17, I just want to say a few words about why we came to making this video. This year, we were both struggling with lovers and friends who weren’t able to understand, support or celebrate the work we were doing as sex workers. We saw that our loved ones were trying their best, but there were really very few resources out there for them. For me personally, a significant relationship in my life ended in violence because of my partner’s whorephobia. We set out to interview sex workers on two continents, seeking their wisdom.

Every Ho I Know Says So is a response to the lack of resources for people looking for advice on how to be good to a sex worker. We want to support our lovers to fight stigma against sex workers, especially in intimate relationships. Sex workers themselves have valuable advice and direction to give our partners. With this video, we are saying “We support you in becoming a sex worker-positive and supportive lover and person in the community!!! By continuing to work on your attitudes about our work and educating yourself, you are showing us that you care. We love you!”

Please share it around and if you have any comments, contact me.

xxx
Lusty

Edited: December 15th, 2010