The Hypocritical Victimisation of Asian Sex Workers in Victoria

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Whore Pride- A Short Film

So this was a digital story I made a couple of years ago.  It's a snapshot of achievements I had made at the time.  Sex Workers, stigmatised and hiding, are often erased and silenced throughout history.  I refuse to be made invisible.  I am here.  We are here, and if I have anything to do with it, we will not be forgotten.  

I've been lucky enough to screen in a few times alongside other digital stories by other sex workers.  I've even taken these stories across the planet to share with other sex workers.  

I'm really grateful to Zero-One-Zero, an amazing, community minded multimedia collective who gave me the skills to put this- and so many future projects- together.  

Sex Workers Speak Out For Law Reform, SameSame

After my appearance on the Project, this piece was written in SameSame:



http://www.samesame.com.au/news/local/8526/Sex-workers-speak-out-for-law-reform.htm

A gay male sex worker has spoken up about his role in the sex industry as the campaign continues for various Australian states to loosen up their prostitution laws.

“The world would be a really sad place without sex workers,” says 29-year-old Christian Vega. “For a lot of people, sex workers are their only form of sexual expression. There’s nothing wrong with those people.”

He adds that sex work helps him supplement the small income he makes doing a job in the community sector that he’s passionate about.

In NSW alone, there are an estimated 10,000 sex workers, with a fair percentage of them working in the queer community. In most parts of Australia, private sex work is legal, but some states ban brothel work and most of them ban street work.

Experts in the sex industry say decriminalising various forms of sex work leads to safer working conditions as workers feel able to contact the police with their concerns. Anti-discrimination laws would also benefit the often stigmatised profession.

“We as a community have a choice,” says Vega. “Do we make these people’s lives harder than they already are, or do we support them as part of our community?”

On Channel 10's the Project

So I've made it onto prime time television.  


After the Festival of Sex Work was written about in the Age, Festival Organisers were bombarded with a whole bunch of media requests, Channel 10 was on of them.  

On 3CR's 'Done By Law'

Podcast of an interview with me on 3CR's 'Done By Law' program on Monday night about the festival, sex work and the law.

SEX WORKERS SPEAK OUT

Written by Annie on June 5, 2012

Last week venues around Melbourne hosted talks, public forums and screenings for the city’s firstFestival of Sex Work. Sex worker and advocate Christian Vega from VIXEN (Victorian Sex Industry Network) joins Done By Law to talk about how current laws and policies affect the rights of sex workers in Victoria.

http://www.donebylaw.org/2012/06/05/sex-workers-speak-out/

Festival of Sex Work Video

Having learnt video shooting and editing skills through the digital storytelling workshop I had done with Zero-One-Zero, I was able to write, shoot and edit this video promoting the Festival of Sex Work.

Beginning on Saturday 26 May concluding with International Whores' Day, Saturday 2 June 2012, the Melbourne Fesival of Sex Work is a celebration of the lives, skills, culture and community of sex workers, and will include a number of different events. 

For more information please visit www.festivalofsexwork.com


NB: The content of this video was accurate at the time its making and circumstances may have changed. Specifically, the statement "Vixen is the only organisation made 100% of sex workers in Victoria" does not account for the creation of any new sex worker organisation that may have been created since.

It Gets Better, a misappropriation

My It Gets Better Video.  


For my queer sisters & brothers...

Feel free to share. X

No One Is Listening To Us: Sex Workers

In all likelihood you probably aren’t aware that it has been 10 years since the death of the Prostitutes Collective of Victoria.  Understandably so; no one is marking the loss of this organisation.  There are few people left in the state who were a part of the ground breaking group.  “But they were significant and their absence is felt in every policy of discrimination, every patronising word and every stigmatising portrayal of sex work,” said Christian Vega, current Victorian sex worker and advocate for sex worker rights.

“There is no funded sex worker organisation in Victoria.”  Mr Vega explains, “What we have are a collection of services that are accessed by a minority of sex workers and whose survival depends on maintaining the stereotype that sex workers are desperate and helpless victims that need to be rescued.”  Mr Vega, who used to work for one of these services, expresses his frustration, “I’m sick of people thinking we are a problem that needs to be dealt with or managed- and in order to maintain funding, our so-called ‘helpers’ are ready to shove us naked and vulnerable before the press in order to justify the work that they do.”

“The approach is wrong, it’s ineffective and offensive,” Mr Vega continues, “No other community group would tolerate such a mischaracterisation; the GLBTI community would not accept a service staffed only by heterosexual people whose goal was to rehabilitate all the gays, no matter how well intentioned,” said Mr Vega, “but sex workers have to endure state funded interventions that depict us as ‘victims of trafficking’ or in need of ‘exit programs.’ And while these activities may serve the genuine needs of a small group of sex workers and victims of crime, the rights of the majority of us go ignored.  As supposed victims or patients, we are not trusted enough to contribute to our own well being; that’s why, in Victoria, it’s rare to find any current sex workers employed by any of these services. Whenever you read a story about us, if anyone has bothered to speak to a sex worker, it is always the voice of a service user of one of these services, not a sex worker who can actually be representative of our community. No one is listening to us.”

Mr Vega speaks about some of the consequences of the current situation in Victoria, “With no sex workers resourced for advocacy to the government, it is no wonder that discriminatory policies that undermine our agency, the proliferation via media of social stigma and substandard working conditions are continually implemented with the endorsement of government and the general community. Not one change of policy has markedly improved the lives and working conditions of sex workers.  If you want to see real change in the sex industry, how about you start listening to us, instead of listening to those who claim to speak on our behalf.”

Mr Vega ponders some solutions to the quandary in Victoria, “In other states, health departments fund their sex worker organisation to not only support vulnerable sex workers but to create an opportunity to connect all sex workers as a community and  provide a genuine voice for these workers.  These organisations have affirmative action policies that ensure the participation of sex workers is not hijacked by anything other than the agenda of human rights for sex workers.  With the constant doom, gloom and misery spoken about the sex industry, it’s clear that we desperately need a sex worker organisation in Victoria.”

Mr Vega reflects on the history of sex worker rights in Victoria, “Victoria was the first place in the world where a government committed funding for a sex worker organisation. And whether we operate in the open and are accepted by the community or we have to work underground, there will always be sex work.  I suspect nothing will get better until we return to the first step of listening to us.”

The Australian Sex Party was the only political party who had a policy of funding a sex worker organisation in Victoria at the last state election.

http://www.sexparty.org.au/Media-Releases/no-one-is-listening-to-us-sex-workers.html 

Landmark case for the rights of sex workers in Victoria

In July 2011, a sex worker who worked in a Melbourne brothel engaged with WorkSafe Victoria to tkae action against her employer for putting her in an unsafe situation.

The Media coverage was pretty offensive.  Here's an article written by the Age's Julia Medew.  I know after reading it, the person the article was about was in tears.  Here's her article: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/prostitute-to-sue-brothel-over-gun-20110712-1hc7n.html


Of course I'm wasn't going to take that lying down and wanted to write about all of the things Julia over looked.  Here's was my response: 
http://www.sexparty.org.au/index.php/news/media-releases/1143-landmark-case-for-the-rights-of-sex-workers-in-victoria

Human Download, Hungry Beast (ABC)

Downloading isn't just digital. Peer to peer sharing existed long before laptops -- traditionally, that's been the role of counselors and priests. But there are other people we go to, perhaps without realising it, to talk about what's going on. Meet three people whose work involves listening while others download their lives.

by Kirsten Drysdale April 19, 2011 at 08:08pm

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/hungrybeast/stories/human-downloading/

Scared and misguided: the crackdown on “illegal brothels” is not what it seems

I wrote this media release after the Victorian Government cracked down on a number of illegal operators.  Of course all of the media at the time wanted to push this image of dingy run down houses with young Asian women chained to beds.  The truth is not so simple; the definition of "illegal brothels" in Victoria actually includes a diverse range of businesses and I wanted to write about that.

http://www.sexparty.org.au/index.php/news/local-news/958-media-release-scared-and-misguided-the-crackdown-on-illegal-brothels-is-not-what-it-seems

Attention focussed on what is commonly termed “illegal sex work” has been high in recent months.  At the end of last year, a blitz on “illegal brothels” resulted in the shutting down of eight establishments. “But what are these establishments?” asks Christian Vega, a sex worker, activist and candidate for the Australian Sex Party in the 2010 elections. “There is a perception that an illegal brothel is easy thing to define.  The general community may think it’s a sub-standard building full of young women being held against their will and exploited.  The truth is not so simple.”

“The law only allows for a small number of opportunities to do sex work.” Mr Vega explains, “If it doesn’t occur in a licensed brothel, escort agency or as a registered private worker going to a client’s premises, then sex work is considered illegal.  Private workers can register a premise but current planning regulations make it impossible to do so. This doesn’t reflect the diverse reality of sex work or the experience of the workers involved. And more police is not the answer.”

Mr Vega goes on to explain illegal brothels, “They are hard to define- the term actually refers to a broad number of practices, not one specific concept.” He extrapolates, “There are many circumstances that would be considered an illegal brothel: a registered exempt escort seeing a client in a hotel room booked by the escort; a massage parlour where a worker negotiates ‘extra services’ without the awareness of management; a street sex worker who discretely takes clients back to their home. In this way, one can see the limitations of taking a ‘more police’ approach.”

“When the government gloats about shutting down illegal brothels one has to ask: what are they doing?” Mr Vega asks, “Are they evicting vulnerable women from their own home? Raiding massage parlours because someone may have given a customer a hand-job? It then leads one to ask: who are these efforts helping? The police should be there to protect us in case something goes wrong.  Casting police as enforcers against ‘illegal sex’ has the potential to stop sex workers reporting rapes because they fear the police will turn around and charge them.”

Mr Vega is suspicious about the drivers of this issue, “There are many interest groups who have an agenda against sex workers.  There are those who want to shut down the entire sex industry- conflating our work with the issue of human trafficking and exploitation.  There are also those within our industry who have an interest in shutting down the private sector.” He reflects on their efforts, “Their strategies are the same: take advantage of the confusion and lack of understanding of the sex industry to spread fear and block progressive policy.”

“Sex work is hard work and the government seem completely out of touch with what workers are going through.” Mr Vega shares his own experience as a part-time private escort, “As an exempt escort it’s illegal for me to organise a premises to see clients.  However, client demand for ‘in-calls’ combined with how quiet our industry is at the moment creates immense pressure for sex workers to break the law.  In the past two months I’ve earned less than a thousand dollars but I’ve turned down over $10,000 worth of work because I won’t see clients illegally. Speaking to other private workers, I know my experience is not uncommon.”

Despite the challenges of this issue, Mr Vega is optimistic looking at solutions to the issues, “I invite the government to engage in dialogue with sex workers. It needs to implement policies that will protect the health, safety and rights of workers. Currently, there is no funded organisation of sex workers in Victoria, as there is in other states, to provide a voice for sex workers on these issues.” With regards to illegal brothels, “The government has the power of eliminate the problem with simple amendments to legislation and planning regulations to allow private workers to operate from a premise.  It seems ridiculous that it is perfectly legal for a private escort to see a client in a hotel room, but if that same hotel room is booked in the name of the escort, it is suddenly considered an illegal brothel.”

Every Ho I Know Says So

EVERY HO I KNOW SAYS SO is a response to the total lack of accessible online resources for people looking for advice on how to be a good date or lover or partner to a sex worker. We want to support our lovers to continue unlearning the internalized stigma against sex workers, especially in intimate relationships. We think that sex workers themselves have valuable advice and direction to give to people who get into intimate relationships with us. This is the direct message we want to give to our lovers: "We hope that this video is useful to you in your journey to 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!"

Love, Sex and Cold Hard Cash, SameSame

This article appeared on SameSame and looks at relationships and sex workers.

My boyfriend and I feature in it, telling our story.  Hope you enjoy it.  


http://www.samesame.com.au/features/4457/Love-Sex-And-Cold-Hard-Cash.htm