Posts Tagged ‘BDSM’
Scotland should be celebrating a vibrant, free society, rather than mimicking the prohibitionist, draconian nanny state that England has become. Sadly, all paths to Scottish freedom end in Glasgow, a city ruled by the Roman Catholic Church and the Wee Free Presbyterians.
It’s not as if Scotland isn’t heaving with consensual sexual activity. There are 190 couples on one swing site in Inverness alone, and more than a dozen fetish and BDSM clubs around the country. One Glasgwegian lass enjoyed sex with 52 men in a greedy-girl session at the Night of the Senses.
Exotic Edinburgh, Amorous Aberdeen, Daring Dundee, Invigorated Inverness and all Highland Flings are hopelessly apathetic in the knowledge that our lustful yearnings, already thwarted by the Wee Frees. will be beheaded in Glasgow, the city otherwise renowned for being the most violent in Europe, with the worst teenage pregnancy and STI /HIV rates too.
Scotland is deserted by its famous sexpots: Irvine Walsh fled to Dublin and Miami Beach, Billy Connolly to LA and Sean Connery to Switzerland, leaving ordinary sexpots to fend for ourselves to Keep Scotland Sexy.
We need to challenge Scottish plans to close down brothels. criminalise the buying of sex and the possession of extreme pornography.
Glasgow’s evangelical group CARE asked the Scottish Parliament’s justice committee to add a clause to the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Bill, to outlaw the purchase of sex. Glasgow City Council is also pressing for a ban on the purchase of sex. Ann Hamilton, of Glasgow City Council’s Community and Safety Services and lead officer on prostitution, said the new law on kerb-crawling was helping to combat street prostitution, but some women were continuing their trade elsewhere. The 2009 Stage 1 Report on the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Bill did not include legislation against the buying of sex.
However, the law already passed by the Scottish Parliament in October 2008 makes men who buy sex – or try to – liable to face prosecution. Under the Prostitution (Public Places) Scotland Act, anyone caught soliciting a prostitute for sex, as well as those “loitering for the same purpose”, can be fined up to £1000. See http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/topstories/Call-for-outright-ban-on.4653578.jp
The Edinburgh Evening News reported on 03 November 2008:
“The campaign to amend the Sexual Offences Scotland Bill to include a clause making it illegal to pay for sex is well intended, but on closer examination misguided.
While it may reek of double standards that a blind eye is effectively turned to those who seek sex in saunas, while kerb crawlers are prosecuted, such a move threatens to drive underground what is a relatively well-controlled sector of the sex trade
There is no evidence that the introduction of the kerb-crawling laws has done anything to curb the trade in Edinburgh. While 30 men have been arrested in the past year, it has merely driven girls from their traditional haunts into less safe areas and into flats.
It would be naive to think these figures give a true reflection of the level of activity which still goes on and those caught surely only represent the tip of what is still a sizeable iceberg.
Since the kerb-crawling law was introduced last year, the mobile phone rather than the car has become the point of contact and the absence of a safety-in-numbers strategy has led to an increase in violence against the girls.
Since the trade was driven into the shadows, attacks reported to Scotpep have almost doubled from 66 in June 2006 to 126 last year. There have been 55 assaults and 17 rapes and sexual assaults.”
see http://news.scotsman.com/edinburghssexindustry/Sex-in-saunas-39Street-girls.4653583.jp
Any ban on the purchase of sex would contravene the European Declaration of Human Rights.
It is already illegal to traffic human beings and to sexually exploit, rape or assault children, so any new Scottish legislation is unnecessary. If any proposed legislation becomes law, it will be used as an excuse to close down saunas and parlours that provide a public service.
What consenting adults do, look at, and perform, is not the business of the state. Therefore any pornography that is made with consenting adults is not to be banned and its possession not to be criminalised.
CJLB, the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Bill
see the latest, dated 05 Mar 2009 on www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Justice/crimes/pornography/ExtremePornograhicMateria
POSSESSION OF EXTREME PORNOGRAPHIC MATERIAL
The Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Bill was introduced into the Scottish Parliament in March 2009 and contains provisions to:
- introduce a new offence which will criminalise the possession of obscene, pornographic images which explicitly and realistically depict those which are of an extreme violent and sexual nature
- increase the maximum penalty from 3 to 5 years, for the existing offence under section 51 of the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982, for the publishing, selling or distributing or possessing with a view to selling or distributing obscene material
Summary of the new offence
The new offence criminalises the possession of obscene, pornographic images which explicitly and realistically depict:
- an act which takes or threatens a person’s life
- an act which results or is likely to result in a person’s severe injury
- rape or other non-consensual penetrative sexual activity
- Sexual activity involving (directly or indirectly) a human corpse
- An act which involves sexual activity between a person and an animal (or the carcase of an animal)
The maximum penalty for the new offence will be three years imprisonment.
The new offence is similar to that at section 63 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008, which applies in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Scottish offence goes further than that offence, however, in that it covers all images of rape and non-consensual penetrative sexual activity, whereas the English offence only covers violent rape.
The offence will not catch those who accidentally come into contact with this type of material and the provisions will contain a defence to this effect. There will also be a defence for those who can prove that they participated in the act depicted, that the extreme nature of the act was apparent and not real and there is no intention to distribute the material.
Under section 51 of the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982, it is already illegal to publish, sell or distribute or to possess with a view to selling or distributing the obscene material, including the obscene pornographic material which is covered by this new offence. The Bill therefore contains provisions to increase the maximum penalty under section 51 of the 1982 Act in respect of extreme pornographic material from 3 to 5 years.
The Scottish Government proposes to increase the maximum penalty under section 51 of the 1982 Act in respect of the publishing etc. of extreme pornographic material from 3 to 5 years.
……………………………………………………………………………………….
What you need to know and do
If this Bill becomes law, it will produce a situation whereby acts of the most extreme animal cruelty are likely to get you six months imprisonment, having sex with an animal can get you up to 2 years imprisonment and possessing a picture of someone having sex with an animal can get you three years imprisonment, selling it 5 years.
Possession of Extreme Pornography has been banned in England and Wales under the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act since 26th January 2009, and nothing has changed except people who like looking at extreme images are losing sleep at night instead of sleeping soundly, and Ben Westwood’s photographic book, F**k Fashion: The Erotic Photography of Ben Westwood has been removed from the shelves.
Mark Cowling of University of Teesside makes this comment, “It seems to me that aspects of this legislation are ridiculous (over and above libertarian objections to the whole principle)”.
Scottish MSPs Patrick Harvie and Robin Harper from the Scottish Green Party and Margo Macdonald, Independent, are known to be challenging this new legislation. Write to ask how you can help here:
Robin Harper
Webpage : http://www.robinharpermsp.org
Patrick Harvie
Website: http://www.patrickharviemsp.com
Margo Macdonald
Website: http://www.margomacdonald.org
CAAN (Consenting Adult Action Network Scotland) is protesting and planning a meeting with Sexual Offences team about the CJLB. You can reach them on
. Please contact them before sending any attachments.
To object to Ann Hamilton’s crusade to ban the purchase of sex, contact her here:
Ann Hamilton
Glasgow Community & Safety Services
Westergate
11 Hope Street
Glasgow G2 6AB
Phone 0141 276 7400
Fax 0141 276 7699
Email
To object to the Criminal Justice and Licensing Bill
email (the preferred method of getting in touch) -
By post to: Jim Wilson, Scottish Government, Criminal Law and Licensing Division, Room GW.15, St Andrew’s House, Regent Road, Edinburgh EH1 3DG
By phone – 0131 244 7050
To express your views on the Sexual Offences Scotland Bill, contact Andrew Proudfoot, Assistant Clerk to the Committee, on 0131 348 5047 or email
Send your opinions to your MSP
Find your local MSP on
http://www.theyworkforyou.com
on the Scottish Parliament webpage http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/apps2/MSP/MSPHome/Default.aspx
or
Tell your MSP that you cannot see any reason why any pictures of consenting adults, even if deemed “extreme pornography”, however threatening-looking, or convincing the acting, should be outlawed (and tell them why), and that this section should be removed from the CJLB.
You don’t need to use posh language, just say it as it is. For example, websites showing porn stars getting hung are obviously just acted, as you see the same starlets being hung over and over again. Show those MSPs how stupid they are being if they fall for the fundamentalist, puritanical prohibitionist arguments rather than your common sense.
AND HURRY!
The Criminal Justice and Immigration Act (CJIA) came into law in May 2008.
This law makes it illegal to possess pornographic images which show an act which threatens a person’s life, an act which results, or is likely to result, in serious injury to a person’s anus, breasts or genitals, an act which involves sexual interference with a human corpse, or a person performing an act of intercourse or oral sex with an animal (whether dead or alive).
The law applies to England and Wales (so not Scotland or Northern Ireland).
“Pornographic images” includes both still photographs and videos and the acts referred to can be both consensual BDSM and non-consensual violence.
The section of the Act relating to extreme pornography takes effect from 26 January 2009.
You can download a leaflet explaining what the law says and how to protect yourself here.
One of the defences available is that the images depict the consensual activities of the owner of the image. However as many SM activities are currently illegal it is now vitally important that we get as much support as possible to change the law on consent and injuries sustained during sex.
A PDF of the relevant sections of the Act can be found here.
A PDF of the Ministry of Justice Information Sheet on this section of the CJIA can be downloaded here.
This sheet contains reference to a recent ruling (R v Porter) concerning what “possession” means in terms of Internet images. For the legally minded a copy of this judgment can be found here.
You should review your porn collection before 26 January 2009 and delete any images which you think might break this law.
Please pass this email on to anyone who may be interested or potentially affected by this law.
Here’s the links to these important PDFs again
- Spanner Trust leaflet explaining what the new law says
- Relevant sections of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008
- Ministry of Justice Information Sheet
- Recent judgment confirming that just viewing images on a web site does not constitute “possession”
Derek Cohen
chair, the Spanner Trust