Monday, September 24, 2007

More Panic than Evidence When it Comes to Sex Trafficking in the US


filed under: Strange Bedfellows by Melissa Gira | 1 Comment

Though the US government spent over $28.5 million fighting trafficking within the United States in 2006 alone, very few victims of sex trafficking have been assisted with this money, says a blistering Washington Post feature on human trafficking. Far fewer sex trafficking victims, or trafficked persons, have been found than government estimates, and the figures on how widespread trafficking and the sex industry are have come under question, as well. Does sex trafficking exist? Of course. Is the half a billion the US has spent to combat trafficking doing much to advance human rights? Well.

For this to be coming so contrary on the heels New York Times op-ed columnist Bob Herbert’s one, not two, but three pieces on an anti-prostitution activist’s recent publication, Prostitution & Trafficking in Nevada: Making The Connections? Which attempts to make the case that the sex industry is trafficking? This could just be the beginning of a dent made in the Bush administration’s “prostitution = human rights abuse” rhetoric.

(And has any book only available at Lulu.com ever gotten three favorable editorial columns about it in the Times before? Let me know in the comments, please do.)

(via Bound, Not Gagged, with many more resources on how supposed anti-sex trafficking policies translate on the ground)

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Hot Married (?) Senatorial Action


filed under: Strange Bedfellows by Melissa Gira | 1 Comment


The American Sexuality Blog points to this week’s Roll Call’s turn at queer public sex nonfiction smut:

“At 1216 hours, Craig tapped his right foot. I recognized this as a signal used by persons wishing to engage in lewd conduct. Craig tapped his toes several times and moves his foot closer to my foot. I moved my foot up and down slowly. While this was occurring, the male in the stall to my right was still present. I could hear several unknown persons in the restroom that appeared to use the restroom for its intended use. The presence of others did not seem to deter Craig as he moved his right foot so that it touched the side of my left foot which was within my stall area,” the report states.

Craig then proceeded to swipe his hand under the stall divider several times, and Karsnia noted in his report that “I could … see Craig had a gold ring on his ring finger as his hand was on my side of the stall divider.”

(img: Cowboy Rudy, posing with Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho), arrested June 11, 2007 and charged with “soliciting lewd conduct” in a public airport restroom, and was convicted August 8, 2007)

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Bad Medicine, Good Lubrication: The Times Comes Out Against Bush’s Nominee w/ Smart Sex Science


filed under: Strange Bedfellows by Melissa Gira | Leave a Comment

Surprise, Bush is considering appointing another Christian with a dubious understanding of what constitutes public health to the position of Surgeon General. Leave it to the New York Times to skewer nominee Dr. James Holsinger’s bad science, with grace & smarts:

Titled “Pathophysiology of Male Homosexuality,” the paper purported to be a scientific and medical review. It argued that gay sex was abnormal on anatomical and physiological grounds and unhealthy, in that anal sex can lead to rectal injuries and sexually transmitted diseases. Dr. Holsinger did not brand the large number of heterosexual women who engage in anal sex as abnormal, failed to acknowledge the huge burden of disease spread heterosexually and implied that women are more likely than men to avoid injuries with generous lubrication.

How often are we exposed to a political appeal grounded in considering the realities of how people have sex, lubrication and all? How about on any major editorial page?

Monday, June 4, 2007

The Big (Corrupt) Business of Abstinence-Only Education


filed under: Do It for Science, Strange Bedfellows, State of Sex Ed by Melissa Gira | 1 Comment

Not only is abstinence-only sex “education” (where’s the education, exactly?) without evidence in reducing STI’s and unwanted pregnancies, now its crooked money trail is starting to unravel, as well.

Out in this week’s Nation, The Abstinence Gluttons tracks the neoconservative anti-abortion, anti-comprehensive sex education agenda, and reveals it for the cashgrab that it is. Abstinence-only “education” is simply another business for the Bush administration, a way to funnel funding into long-time campaign contributors pockets and out of programs that are proven to increase sexual health.

There’s simply no way to combat the seemingly anti-sex, Christian Fundamentalist motivations of abstinence-only programs on the grounds of the public health imperative to promote positive sexuality alone. Really what we need is to reframe the excessive waste of money and the total abdication of civic duty as the coming of the Halliburtons of sex. This is sex war profiteering, and like any other, the casualties are mounting.

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