Posts Tagged ‘laws’
Nick Clegg is calling on the public to help repeal bad laws. His website is not working very well yet, but if you go to http://yourfreedom.hmg.gov.uk/ and register, you can begin to express your views. Perhaps you might like to start by “search” and type in Sexual Freedom. If you are lucky, you may find Tuppy’s suggestion to Ban all the Laws against Consenting Adults’ Sexual Freedom. Let’s hear it for accessible brothels (by repealing all the silly laws criminalising keeping a brothel) and tick to agree with all the ideas you like, and against the others. Sex positive people are often too busy shagging to express their views so, this time, get to it!
There are still relatively very few submissions objecting to this awful Bill, which aims to ban the buying of sexual services, close down brothels, and bust sex workers.
We have been asked to give you some guidelines on making your response. You don’t need to use any special language – just tell them what you think, plain and clear — keeping to the point — and within 4 pages.
Here are the sections to object to:-
Clause 13 Paying for the sexual services of controlled prostitutes
How on earth can a punter know whether a sex worker is controlled? How can one know if they are being forced to work by a pimp, manipulated by a husband, controlled by gangs, trafficked or (like most) working to support themselves, of his/her own free will? This clause puts all punters at unnecessary risk, and frightens innocent people off paying for sexual services that they may really need
Clause 15 Amendments to the offence of loitering by adding the word “persistently”
Adding the word “persistently” will make street workers more panicky about picking up clients, so they will rush into cars without making considered judgements, and wait for clients in more hidden, derelict areas where psychos can prey on them, putting themselves at real danger
Clause 16 Requiring sex workers who are drug addicts to enter rehab
It is not acceptable to force sex workers who have drug habits into rehabilitation and, in any case, this has been proven not to work
Clause 18 Soliciting
This clause will make it much easier for kerb crawlers to get busted and even ordinary motorists and pedestrians will get busted for stopping to ask for directions, etc.
Clause 20 Closure Orders
This will mean the police can shut down what they think is a brothel whenever they “discover” one, without requiring any evidence. This threatens sex workers who work together (much safer for them, when they do), well-run brothels, massage parlours and saunas. When establishments get closed down, sex workers will naturally resort to working on the street, where they will be more vulnerable, and risk getting murdered like the five girls in Ipswich.
Do send your submission as soon as possible, as the Bill is already being discussed by the Scrutiny Committee who definitely need your views to stop them letting this Bill become law.
Send your rant to the following address:
Don’t forget to send a copy of your objections to your MP who you can find on the following link:
www.theyworkforyou.com
To see what other people and organisations have sent in so far, see
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmpublic/cmpbpol.htm#m
Once we know when the Bill is going to the House of Lords, we will give you new instructions.
The Policing and Crime Bill aims to criminalise paying for sexual services of a sex worker who is trafficked and/or controlled. It includes paying for such services abroad as well as in Britain. It also aims to further criminalise kerb crawling and street prostitution, restrict lap dancing and other sex encounter venues, and make it easier for the police to close down brothels.
According to Lord Richard Faulkner, the Bill is based on lies, and needs to be fought at all costs. Thankfully, resistance is forthcoming, but your help is needed, both by sending in your views to the Scrutiny committee and to your own MP.
The Bill can be viewed here:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmhansrd/cm090119/debtext/90119-0021.htm#0901201000005
Click here for Sections of the Bill relating to sex work
The Policing and Crime Bill has gone before the Scrutiny Committee and they are hearing evidence between Tuesday 26th January and 26th February. Membership for the “Policing and Crime Bill” is as follows
Chairmen: Sir Nicholas Winterton and Hugh Bayley
Members: Mr Ian Austin, Dr Roberta Blackman-Woods, James Brokenshire, Mr Simon Burns, Mr Alan Campbell, Mr Ian Cawsey, Mr Vernon Coaker, Mrs Nadine Dorries, Jim Fitzpatrick, Dr Evan Harris, Paul Holmes, Ms Sally Keeble, Miss Julie Kirkbride, Mr David Ruffley, Lynda Waltho and Phil Wilson.
This Bill has had its second reading in the House of Commons. There is enormous resistance from academia, sex workers, disabled people, and the general public. In fact, a petition is being sent to Number 10, to delay any legislation on prostitution until after the election. See http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/defersexworkbill/
In order to make your own (short) objections to this Bill
See guidance (but be warned they don’t want more than 1,000 words even though they state 3,000)
http://www.parliament.uk/parliamentary_committees/scrutinyunit/gws.cfm
email address to send your views:
For further info on lobbying
http://www.parliament.uk/about/contacting/lobbying.cfm
It is always important to email your own MP to state your views.
For inspiration on stating your case, see the following link
Porn Law Commencement Date 26th January 2009
The long awaited date for commencement of the Porn Laws was at last discovered by a chance phonecall and followed shortly after with a release of government guidelines for the public regarding sections 62-67 of the CJIB.
http://www.justice.gov.uk/news/announcement261108a.htm (gov. guidelines pdf link on page)
CAAN released the date to various publications that have been supportive, including the Register and Bizarre magazine, and we went on to announce it on Informed Consent (UKs largest BDSM website), our Facebook group and on MelonFarmers.
Please pass this date on to anyone and anywhere you can as that is the date by which all extreme porn should be deleted from your computer.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/26/pr0n_ban_date/ (release story)
As one anonymous (probably now ex-) labour party member posted on El Reg in response to the release of the government guidlelines:
Dear Government,
Fuck you.
No really, fuck you very much.
Yours sincerely,
a lifelong Labour voter (aged 42 and a half)
There is still understandably a lot of panic and fear both around what to delete and how to delete it. Hopefully we’ll have a detailed guide to ‘How to delete your porn’ on the website in the new year. But as a rough guide…
WHAT SHOULD YOU DELETE?
We just don’t know for sure, and neither does anyone else (including lawyers we have spoken to), so here’s the rough overview:
- Images have to be realistic. (photographs, unrated films, clips from rated films, good cgi, photorealistic art)
- AND images need to be pornographic. (but context on your computer, or in a collection, can MAKE it deemed to be pornographic/used for sexual arousal).
- AND the image needs to show some level of ‘serious’ harm to breasts anus or genitals that isn’t qualified exactly, or a life threatening activity (ie involving threat with a weapon)…and we presume things like asphyxiation.
- AND the image needs to be judged “grossly offensive” by a jury.
The definitional detail just won’t start to evolve until there have been instances tried in court.
If you want to be sure not to fall foul of this act… delete everything you have that has any level of violence or threat in it… we all have to make our own judgement call on this.
HOW DO YOU DELETE IT?
For images in your computer:
If you are non-techy just delete the stuff.
If you are techy, you need to delete stuff beyond your own abilities to retrieve it.
If you are very techy you need to smash your hard drive, drive over it several times in a tank, jump up and down on it, cover it in petrol and set fire to it (responsibly please).
Images other than on your computer should also be destroyed responsibly, we imagine in the case of books this would mean burning them. So lovely to be a member of a society where book burning is actively encouraged. (not)!
Wacqui Jacqui at it again
Jacqui Smith announced she will make kerb crawling punishable as a first offence, hand more power to police and councils to close brothels and outlaw paying for sex with someone controlled for another’s gain.
The International Union of Sex Workers (IUSW) say the measures further complicate already outdated, confusing and ineffective laws governing the sex industry.
Those convicted of the new offences face substantial fines and criminal records and may also be prevented from working in sensitive occupations.
Miss Smith said that ignorance that a prostitute was controlled by a pimp would not be a defence. “It won’t be enough to say ‘I didn’t know’,” she said. Though she did not go on to say how anyone was supposed to know for sure and avoid criminalising themselves, whilst still maintaining their legal right to buy consensual sex.
In future, whether an individual ends up on the Sex Offenders’ Register will depend not on their conduct, but on the honesty of the prostitute they have sex with.
IUSW spokeswoman Catherine Stephens said “The Government could have made sex workers safer, but they’ve failed. The measures they are proposing endanger us all”.
The government could have chosen to follow the example of New Zealand, by recognising the rights of sex workers, allowing sex workers to create safe areas to work and to negotiate working conditions without fear of reprisal by the state. But instead they chose the Swedish method…. Hopefully if they are so fond of following Sweden’s lead we can look forward at least to……
some good news… (but we’re not holding our breath)
Late last month in Sweden the National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen) took the decision to declassify some sexual behaviours from being illnesses in order to avoid strengthening prejudices about them.
The diagnoses which will soon disappear from the disease registry include fetishism, fetishistic transvestitism, sadomasochism, gender identity disorder in youth, and multiple disorders of sexual preferences.
Agency head Lars-Erik Holm said that the changes emphasize that these behaviours are not illnesses in and of themselves, nor are they something perverse.
“These diagnoses are rooted in a time when everything other than the heterosexual missionary position were seen as sexual perversions,” he said.
It was 30 years ago that Socialstyrelsen took a similar step in removing homosexuality from Sweden’s list of diagnoses.
Some real good news
CAAN has the support of Spike Rhodes, London club promoter and organiser of the first London Gay and fetish Awards. We think we were the only non-gay organisation in the final nominations for the awards and went on to win the specialist website section on the night.
We asked Cristian Torrent to be on hand to pick up the award on our behalf which he duly did.
Clair Lewis (who had to drop out of attending at the last minute) says…
“Big love and thanks go to Spike Rhodes for including CAAN in the nominees, to Cristian Torrent for representing us at this event, to our webmaster, to the gay press for supporting our campaign work, to everyone who voted for us at this fantastic event, and most of all to everyone who has supported and worked with and for CAAN over the last 8 months in scores of different ways.”
Press
Another publication to support and cover CAAN’s actions consistantly is Bizarre Magazine and we had a full page in their December issue as a write up of the Ben Westwood Demo back in October. Interestingly in the same issue on their letters page they advise readers not to delete old copies of the magazine until the publisher has a better idea of how the law is going to be applied.
(There could just be more to this than meets the eye. Bizarre is part of the Dennis Group, published by none other than Felix Dennis, of Oz fame. Those of a certain age may remember him giving the establishment a bloody nose over the trial of the Oz Schoolkids’ issue. So perhaps he’s just the man to give the Labour Government a run for their money on the extreme porn law).
December’s issue went to press before the government guidance was issued but we suspect there certainly will be images in back copies of Bizarre which will breach the letter of the Porn Laws. The government advises that images in books and magazines should be disposed of ‘responsibly’.
If Bizarre does have images which breach this law the first test cases will be as interesting (if not more interesting) than the recent furore over the IWF blocking access to Wikipedia for hosting an image of a heavy metal album cover (by the Scorpions) which was deemed to be child porn. Unfortunately it’s an image which was not only available on wiki…but also on Amazon, at HMV and in local bookshops and in any record shop which sells the Scorpion deluxe box set.
Rather more staid a publication, but a very thorough and thoughful piece by John Ozimek (often of el Reg) in the Liberator Magazine (pdf)
The article starts on page 20.
Liberator magazine ‘acts as a forum for debate among radical liberals in all parties and none’.
Enough of the past..and into the future: current actions and how to join in…
If anyone is interested in leafleting, this is a brilliant way to help CAAN, so please contact us at the same address for flyers, or a copy for you to print – if you can print them it saves us money and hassle, but we will also have a stock for anyone else.
Demo 25th January
The purpose of the leafleting is to help advertise a demo to be held on 25th January, the eve of the porn ban. It’s a Sunday evening and as yet we don’t have the final details. Put the date in your diary and keep an eye on our website for an action notice (and hopefully I’ll get another newsletter out mid January).
Spread the word…. This will be a celebration of sexual diversity before the stroke of midnight turns innocent people into unemployable sex offenders.
Porn advice seeking mission challenge: how many can we do in 6 weeks? If you don’t think you can make it to London for a demo, and you don’t like leafletting, you can join in from your home town. We would like as many people as possible to receive a selection of images from our pornographic evidence collection, with a list of questions and use these tools to seek advice from their local police as to what will and will not be legal. The police should at least by now be able to tell you which images they can arrest you for in January, even if they can’t anticpate which way a court will jump.
If you feel like having your own porn expedition (alone or with a couple of mates) send an email FOA to Clair at the usual e-dress.
General Help
CAAN is indebted to so many people who have helped by donating things but the one thing we are always short of is people willing to declare and use particular skills such as… Additional Web Support, Researchers, Phone Contacters, E-mail & Letter writers, Leaflet giver-outers, Individuals capable of keeping tabs on income and expenditure, Fund-raisers and liaison artists (people who can act as go-between with a particular section of our audience: Press, politico’s, celebs, munches, etc.)
Lots of people get in touch to say ‘how can I help?’ It actually helps us if you can make that decision first…do you have a specific skill? Can you donate time or money? Do you want to come along to demos, or join in with online campaigns?
One of the most time wasting (and demoralising) things for a growing pressure group is giving people things to do only to find they don’t get done. Please offer your help responsibly and realistically…we’d rather people offered and did a small thing than took on something huge and then ran away.
If you have any of the named skills (or anything else useful…cartooning, baking us cakes etc) and have the time and energy to put them to use for CAAN please let us know at
and don’t forget everyone can help us by spreading the word about CAAN.
Donations to CAAN should still be sent via a paypal account at
Signing up to the CAAN statement of principle is probably the one single easiest effective thing a person can do. (followed by encouraging other people to do it too) We are drawing support from a very wide base as we had hoped…libertarians, academics, the gay and BDSM communities, and lots of people who have seen what CAAN are doing and just believe what the statement says makes sense. For those who still think signing the statement points you out as being some kind of sexual devient or purveyor of violent porn…. you couldn’t be more wrong.
Heres a reminder of the statement and a link to the sign up page…
“We believe in the right of consenting adults to make their own sexual choices, in respect of what they do, see and enjoy alone or with other consenting adults, unhindered and unfettered by government.”
“We believe that it is not the business of government to intrude into the sex lives of consenting adults.” http://www.caan.org.uk/sign.php
Feel free to forward this newsletter to anyone you think may be interested. And if you’d like to be involved with the design or writing of the next letter drop us a note.
And finally…. Have a Cool Yule, a Merry Christmas or enjoy your seasonal equivalent and we’ll see you all hopefully in January!