From Sex SF:
June: Sexiest sexy festival month ever
“This is definitely a good month for worthwhile local festivals. The 6th San Francisco Sex Worker Film, Art, & Music Festival officially kicked off this past weekend and promises to be a thrill for both the intellect and the libido. Smart, kinky, and fun, the Sex Worker Fest is a positive and educational week-long extravaganza that occurs in tandem with the ongoing 12th Annual Queer Arts Festival, a whopping month-long festival featuring over 400 artists in over 100 performances taking place in 18 venues all over San Francisco. The only question at this point is how you’re possibly going to fit everything into your schedule.”
Oh man, I have to make it out to the Sex Worker Festival one day. It sounds so cool! Did you go? Email me details! (and pics)
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From Boing Boing:
Manga collector faces 15 years in jail because some of his comics included sexual images of children
“A US manga collector has plead guilty to possession of child pornography because some of the many thousands and thousands of comics he owns depict children in sexual situations. He now faces up to 15 years in prison and a life of being treated as a child molester, though there’s no evidence he is a pedophile or has ever interfered with a child in any way.
The 39-year-old office worker was charged under the 2003 Protect Act, which outlaws cartoons, drawings, sculptures or paintings depicting minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct, and which lack “serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.” Handley’s guilty plea makes him the first to be convicted under that law for possessing cartoon art, without any evidence that he also collected or viewed genuine child pornography. He faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison…”
This story shows how broken our legal system has become. After reading the DC Madam book I wonder if Handley had a bad lawyer.
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While getting the link for the above story I found another from Boing Boing:
Online Personal Narratives from Patients of Murdered Late-Term Abortion Provider
“Salon’s Kate Harding has collected a number of first-person accounts from women (and families) who were patients of the recently murdered Dr. George Tiller. As I understand it, he was one of only three providers of late-term abortions in the USA, and widely considered the most expert practitioner in this extremely controversial area of health care. Snip:
Susan Hill, President of the National Women’s Health Foundation, who knew Dr. Tiller for over two decades and referred girls and women to his clinic, said in a phone interview, “We always sent the really tragic cases to Tiller.” Those included women diagnosed with cancer who needed abortions to qualify for chemotherapy, women who learned late in their pregnancies that their wanted babies had fatal illnesses, and rape victims so young they didn’t realize they were pregnant for months. “We sent him 11-year-olds, 12-year-olds who were way too far along for anybody [else] to see,” said Hill. “Eleven-year-olds don’t tell anybody. Sometimes they don’t even know they’ve had a period.”"
Will abortion ever stop being such a big deal? Sometimes I think women won’t be truly liberated until we have full control over what goes in and out of our vaginas.
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From The Clitheroe Advertiser and Times:
Stripper is banned from sacred mountain
“A man who stripped on one of Asia’s highest peaks has been banned from the mountain and accused of ruining the scenery, national park officials have reported.
The 30-year-old man will be kept off Jade Mountain, Taiwan, for up to three years after a friend took photos of him naked on the 3,952m peak and posted them online.”
To me being naked in nature is a holy act. Strip down to your birthday suit and commune with the nature spirits I say!
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From CNBC:
Prostitutes in Canada Get Training for the Olympics
“As the prostitution industry grapples with the recession, prostitutes in Canada are gearing up for the next big thing: The 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.
(snip)
A Canadian agency that provides support for Vancouver’s sex workers (Remember, prostitution is quasi-legal in Canada) is working up a brochure — hey, I read it for the articles — to prep them on how to handle requests for photographs and interviews, Canadian media are reporting.
“We just want our members to feel safe,” Kerry Porth, a spokeswoman for the Prostitution Alternatives Counselling and Education Society (PACE) told the Canadian Press. “Media attention to the area can be a little less than compassionate and we don’t want them to feel like animals in a zoo.”"
We sex workers definitely need to educate ourselves on how to deal with the media.
Posted by Vixen as News at 8:45 PM CDT