Free Republic

Frédéric Mitterrand, France’s culture minister, was under pressure to resign after it emerged that he had admitted to paying “young boys” for sexual acts while on holiday in Thailand. The revelations in his 2005 autobiography “The Bad Life” have come back to haunt Mr Mitterrand after he emerged as one of the most vociferous defenders of Roman Polanski, the film director currently detained in Switzerland in connection with an outstanding conviction for unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl in the US in 1977. In his book, Mr Mitterrand, the nephew of the late Socialist president François Mitterrand, wrote: “I...

The journalists at the center of an embarrassing scandal for the grass-roots organization ACORN also paid a visit to the ACORN office in San Diego County. Grass-roots organizing has gotten a black eye on the national stage after undercover videos involving ACORN, a controversial group with a local office, were released that were shot during a series of visits from a hidden-camera crew. At 6 p.m. on Wednesday, a video was broadcast on Fox's "Hannity" that purported to show a San Diego ACORN staffer discussing human trafficking with two people who were undercover. Earlier in the day, local ACORN officials,...

New website (biggovernment.com) with complete video footage of ACORN investigation.

A WESH 2 News crew came under attack on Monday while investigating a story about two teenagers who were reportedly working at a strip club in Brevard County.The Playmates Nightclub in Cocoa remains under investigation for allegedly having a 15-year-old and 17-year-old working there in skimpy attire. The reporter and photographer were looking for one of the teenagers but encountered a furious grandmother instead. A videotape recorded during the incident showed the grandmother charging the photographer with a garden hoe. One swing landed squarely on the camera.

Sex Trade Ring Busted in Houston, Ex-Police Officer and 5 Others Charged August 26, 2009 HOUSTON — A sex trade ring in which young girls were allegedly pistol-whipped and forced from their homes into sexual slavery was broken up in Houston this week and several suspects are in custody. Five people, including a former Houston police officer, were arrested in the largest sex trafficking case in Texas' southern district, MyFOXHouston.com reported. A sixth remains on the run. John Butler, 47, William Hornbeak, 34, Jamine Lake, 27, Andre McDaniels, 39, and Kristen Land, 28, all of Houston, as well as Tulsa,...

Falling prices for services 'causing a lot of misery' and raising fears prostitutes will take more risks Drag queen "Ray" was enraged when a late-night customer on Toronto's downtown track offered him $5 for oral sex recently. "I didn't spend two hours getting my makeup on and all dressed up for that," says the 36-year-old former hairdresser from Venezuela, who usually charges $60 for the service. These days, Ray is getting little more than callouses from standing all night near Jarvis and Wellesley, as the economic slump delivers an unexpected hit to the sex trade. The vices – smoking, drinking,...

In Thailand, transgender males, also called lady-boys, are a common sight in cities and tourist areas. While many transgenders work in traditionally female professions such as in cabaret shows or Thailand's notorious sex industry, most are looking for better integration in Thai society. But, despite their high visibility, transgenders still face challenges in seeking acceptance. At a popular beauty contest this month in southern Thailand, 30 attractive, feminine figures glide onto the stage. Dressed in sparkling evening gowns and perfect hair and make-up, the contestants smile widely at the audience as the cameras broadcast the pageant live across the nation....

ALBANY - Call it an un-cover charge. A Brooklyn assemblyman introduced a bill yesterday that would require patrons to pay the state $10 every time they visit a strip club or topless joint. Felix Ortiz, a Democrat, said the flesh fee could raise as much as $500 million for victims of human trafficking, domestic violence, sexual abuse and child prostitution.

Downtown D.C. Declared 'Prostitution Free Zone' @ 3:12 pm by Walter Alarkon The police in Washington, D.C. have declared several downtown blocks a "prostitution free zone" for Inauguration Week, reports DCist. In an area just east of Mt. Vernon Square and west of Union Station, the police will be on the lookout for anyone seeking sex for cash. According to D.C. law, officers will first hand out warnings to people they suspect engaging in "prostitution or prostitution-related activities" in that area, and then they would arrest them if they failed to obey orders to disperse. A conviction could lead to...

A quick reading of the measure that will go before San Francisco voters in November to decriminalize prostitution easily could leave you with the misimpression that the measure is an exercise in fairness that demands that prosecutors go after men who abuse prostitutes and implement policies "to reduce institutional violence and discrimination against prostitutes." A careful reading of the initiative, "Enforcement of Laws Related to Prostitution and Sex Workers," however, shows a measure that shields child prostitution and traffickers of human beings. "If I had just heard from the proponents, I would probably vote for it myself," said the Rev....

BUT WILL THEY RESPECT HIM IN THE MORNING?July 23, 2008 Back before the Republican Party was saddled with John McCain as its nominee, The New York Times called him "the only Republican who promises to end the George Bush style of governing from and on behalf of a small, angry fringe." The paper praised him for "working across the aisle to develop sound bipartisan legislation" and predicted that he would appeal to "a broader range of Americans than the rest of the Republican field." At the same time, the Times denounced "the real" Rudy Giuliani as "a narrow, obsessively secretive,...

Sex Workers’ College Tour by: Bethany Stotts, February 15, 2008 In the wake of the departure of the president of the College of William and Mary over his scheduling of a sex workers’ art show, it is useful to know that the Flathats are not alone in their choice of extracurricular activities. This semester the Sex Workers’ Art Show visited the following colleges: January:• UC Davis • Northern Arizona University • College of Santa Fe February:• Guilford College • Duke University • College of William and Mary • George Mason University • Bard College • Harvard • Rhode Island School...

William & Mary Uncensored by: Don Irvine, February 04, 2008 February 1, 2008— William and Mary school president Gene Nichol okayed students’ requests to hold the “Sex Workers’ Art Show” to be held on campus this week. The show which features prostitutes, strippers and other sex workers performing their work is part of a nationwide tour that will take them to Harvard and the University of Michigan. The show was scheduled to take place at Virginia Commonwealth University as well but according to Reuban Rodriguez no student requested campus space for the event and the performers violated their contract with...

Economists let some light in on the shady market for paid sex IT IS all too easy to become a lost soul in New Orleans. The annual meeting of the American Economic Association this month was part of a huge gathering of social scientists sprawled across the city. Each venue itself was a warren of meeting rooms. Take a wrong turning and a delegate seeking an earnest symposium on minimum wages might innocently end up in the conference session devoted to the market for paid sex. The star attraction there was Steven Levitt, an economics professor at the University of...

First it was tattoos; a pimp put his name on the shoulder of his “girls” as indication that they “belonged” to him. Now, unbelievably, those guys are branding their “babes.” It’s happening not in a foreign underdeveloped country but right here in America. Earlier this month, a 40-year-old man, Shawn Bailey, and a 22-year-old woman were arrested in Phoenix for actively pimping girls aged 14-17. The charges against the man included aggravated assault because one of the girls had been branded! Appalling! Those of us who work to combat sex trafficking are aware that the horrendous act of branding is...

T.O. announces campaign to attract gay tourists toronto.ctv.ca Tourism Toronto said Friday that it plans to launch an advertising campaign aimed at making the city a top destination for gay travellers from the U.S. The campaign will focus on four major cities - New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles. It will include ads in gay restaurants, bars and local publications, as well as event sponsorships and other promotional activities. "Toronto has things to offer all year round--we've got a number of festivals outside of Pride that we can market," said Bruce MacDonald of the Canadian Gay & Lesbian...

Amsterdam to get statue to world's prostitutes Jan 16 12:32 PM US/Eastern Amsterdam's red light district is reportedly to receive a bronze statue dedicated to prostitutes around the world. According to the Dutch agency ANP, sculptress Els Rijerse made the statue at the request of a former prostitute Mariska Majoor, who a decade ago founded a centre on prostitution in the Dutch capital. Majoor was quoted as saying by ANP that the statue would be a first of its kind and that it had received the blessing of the city authorities. The statue represents a self-assured woman, her hands on...

Youngest Victim In Prostitution Scheme Was 14-Year-Old Girl (CBS) CHICAGO -- Two Chicago women were charged Thursday with using popular Internet site Craig's List to sell sex with girls as young as 14 years old. CBS 2'S Mike Puccinelli reports on the sting. Craig's List is a virtual smorgasbord of products and services and, as it turns out, sex crimes. Cook County vice officers regularly troll the site looking for prostitutes, but recently uncovered something they'd never before seen on Craig's List. "It's particularly shocking because the three people being pimped were 14-, 15- and 16-year-old children," said Cook...

Nearly 50 percent of men in Scotland who pay for sex at home or abroad have a partner and the percentage could be greater, researchers said on Monday. One in 10 men questioned in a survey in Glasgow admitted that they had paid for sex recently and 27 percent said they repeatedly visited prostitutes. "Approximately half of all men paying for sex were in a concurrent relationship," said Dr Tamsin Groom, of the Sandyford Initiative in Glasgow, in the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections. The men visited prostitutes abroad or at home but rarely did both. Most used condoms but unprotected...

LAS VEGAS (AP) - Strippers and hookers are trying to get some respect in Sin City. The so-called sex workers demonstrated yesterday on the steps of the courthouse in downtown Las Vegas. They're calling for more legal protection and decriminalization of the world's oldest profession. Starchild, a 36-year-old former Army Reservist stood amid rallying sex workers in Las Vegas on Thursday and boasted of his bid for a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. "And that ballot is going to say 'escort/exotic dancer,'" he said, beaming.

VAN NUYS - As they pass time on the corner of Kester and Oxnard streets looking for work, day laborers tell stories. They talk about a man who drives by in the afternoons, pretending to need someone to mow the lawn, trim some trees or paint the garage. What the man really wants is sex. And he's looking for a man to hire for the day. "I tried to ask him what kind of work he wanted, and at first he said one thing, then another, so I didn't want to go," one worker recently said at the Van Nuys...

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungarian prostitutes will have to get used to doing more paperwork after a court ruled they must have a tax number to pursue their trade. A court in the southern town Pecs rejected a prostitute's appeal against a 50,000 forint ($225) fine by the tax authority and said she should have had a tax number, judge Roza Meszar told the national news agency MTI. The claimant, who was unnamed, argued a treaty signed by Hungary banned the registration of prostitutes, but the court ruled they still needed to pay taxes, must have a tax number and an...

(AgapePress) - A pro-family leader in Pennsylvania is condemning two art shows celebrating "sex workers" being held this month at college locations in her state. The shows, she explains, literally feature art related to professions glorifying sex.The first show was held on March 1 at Swarthmore College. On its website, the art show promised to celebrate, among other things, prostitution. The second show takes place today (March 8) at Bucknell University in Lewisburg. Diane Gramley, president of the American Family Association of Pennsylvania, says she was appalled at the notion of such a show."The sex workers art show includes...

WASHINGTON - They enter the massage parlors as undercover detectives. They leave as satisfied customers. In Spotsylvania County, as part of a campaign by the sheriff's office to root out prostitution in the massage parlor business, detectives have been receiving sexual services from "masseuses." During several visits to Moon Spa on Plank Road last month, detectives allowed women to perform sexual acts on them on four occasions and once left a $350 tip, according to court papers. Spotsylvania Sheriff Howard D. Smith said that the practice is not new and that only unmarried detectives are assigned to such cases. Most...

After finding out that her boyfriend was in debt, Jenny, 15, used the Internet to settle it. She had sex for money with three men she met in chatrooms. She suffered no guilt, no remorse; shrugging it off as a simple transaction: She needs money, she has a body to offer and someone is willing to pay. Her biggest fear was not AIDS. It was her boyfriend finding out about her sex-for-money exploit, her counsellor said. Celine Koh, a senior social worker at Fei Yue Family Service Centre in Bukit Batok, found out about her wayward view of sex while...

SAN FRANCISCO — This city claims a proud history in the realm of tease. Stripper Carol Doda made her 1964 debut at the country's first topless club atop a baby grand piano. Then the wild and raunchy Mitchell brothers one-upped her — promoting the heavy-contact lap dancing that has become the national norm in strip clubs. Here, sex and free speech walk hand-in-hand — often donning leather chaps or a G-string. So when Dist. Atty. Kamala Harris declined this year to prosecute exotic dancers arrested for soliciting prostitution in the private booths of strip clubs, some saw it as another...

Patricia Ireland just said that she grew up as a Christian in Indiana and asked that (paraphrase) "if there was a real problem with lesbians and gays, why didn't Jesus say anything about it?"

Ryan Sager of the NY Post editorial board is posting quite a few interesting pictures of protests in NYC that you might otherwise not see in the MSM... an example: Take a look at his very entertaining blog at: http://www.rhsager.com/

"Most Americans today believe slavery was outlawed in the United States many years ago, and they are correct. But they falsely believe that slavery doesn't exist in the United States and on that, they are sadly mistaken," said Wade Horn, assistant secretary U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families. During a news conference in Newark announcing the program, U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie said federal prosecutors are conducting several investigations into trafficking rings. Archbishop John Myers promised a new anti-trafficking clearinghouse in Newark. Victims are often smuggled into the U.S. from their home countries with the...

CLAYTON, Mo. -- Hookers are using the Internet to keep tabs on undercover cops. Police departments have used computers for years, but now the oldest profession is going high-tech. St. Louis County vice-squad commander Rick Battelle said he was shocked to find his cell-phone number listed on a hookers-only Web site. Undercover police use mobile phones to set up sting operations. But some of those phone numbers were listed in the database. The hookers' computer files also included the names used by undercover officers and details about their unmarked cars. St. Louis area officers discovered the hookers' Internet database on...

Strippers and pole dancers should be banned from performing in stretch limousines, according to a British report. Councillors from the mountainous Welsh county of Gwynedd said many limousine hire companies were providing the erotic dancers as entertainment for clients, but in-car striptease was an "inappropriate" activity. "Lately, stretch limousines have been used more and more," said the report, released on Tuesday. "Some operators are providing entertainment to clients within the vehicle which may involve inappropriate activities such as lap dancing, giving rise to concerns about indecency." The new proposals recommend a blanket ban on striptease, lap dancing, pole dancing and...

A judge has dismissed charges against two New York men accused by state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer of promoting prostitution through "sex tourism" in Asia. Douglas Allen, 59, and Norman Barabash, 58, were indicted last year on felony and misdemeanor counts of promoting prostitution in the operation of Big Apple Oriental Tours. Spitzer accused them of using their tour business -- run from Allen's Poughkeepsie home and Barabash's Queens home -- to solicit customers for prostitution rings operating in the Philippines and Thailand. Dutchess County Court Judge Gerald Hayes dismissed the charges, finding prosecutors failed to provide sufficient evidence that...

A year after a law change designed to get prostitutes off the street, a price war driven by teenage sex workers has flared up on the streets of South Auckland. Market forces appear to be driving street prostitution as teenagers, some as young as 12, compete alongside seasoned sex workers - with tumbling prices the result. Rather than pushing sex workers into legalised brothels, a Weekend Herald inquiry has found the new legislation has done little to discourage street prostitution. This is especially true in pockets of South Auckland, where the Manukau City Council has been forced to shelve plans...

Pornography is tearing apart the very fabric of our society. Yet Christians are often ignorant of its impact and apathetic about the need to control this menace. Pornography is an $8 billion a year business with close ties to organized crime.(1) The wages of sin are enormous when pornography is involved. Purveyors of pornography reap enormous profits through sales in so-called "adult bookstores" and viewing of films and live acts at theaters. Pornography involves books, magazines, videos, and devices and has moved from the periphery of society into the mainstream through the renting of video cassettes, sales of so-called "soft-porn"...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - California's multi-billion-dollar adult porn industry ground to a virtual halt on Thursday after a popular actor tested positive for the virus that causes AIDS (news - web sites). Industry advocates immediately called for a 60-day moratorium on filming so that others could be tested. Actor Darren James tested positive for HIV (news - web sites) on Wednesday in screening conducted routinely on the industry's 1,200 regular actors by the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare (AIM) Foundation, the foundation's Dr. Elizabeth Mitchell (news) said. They must show negative tests to keep working in the industry, Mitchell said, adding...

THE PORNO-IZATION OF AMERICAN MEDIA AND MARKETINGHow Hard-Core Sex Stars are Penetrating Mainstream Culture January 26, 2004 QwikFIND ID: AAP30D By T.L. Stanley LOS ANGELES (Adage.com) -- Ron Jeremy, the legendary star of some 1,700 hard-core porn films over the last two decades, steeps in the hot tub of a sweeping hilltop Los Angeles mansion, glass of merlot in hand, flanked Declaring the ascendence of porn is a 48-foot-high billboard of porn queen Jenna Jameson in Time Square, the symbolic heart of the U.S. advertising industry. She is now courted by TV producers, book publishers and marketers as a cultural...

Two flights are due into Montego Bay Airport, one from Toronto, the other from London. Clinton waits on the beach for the new arrivals, hoping that one of them will bring him good fortune. "I look for the milk bottles," he says, explaining how ultra-white skin is a giveaway, "the ones who've just arrived. Milk bottles that need filling ..." Negril, with its 11-kilometre stretch of pristine sand and turquoise sea, attracts the majority of Jamaica's 1.3 million tourists every year, primarily from the United States, Canada and Europe. It is known as a "swinging" resort. Many white Western women...

Sex for sale, legally Jul 11th 2003 From The Economist Global Agenda Though some governments are still trying to crack down on prostitution, others are realising that it is better to legalise and license it than to suffer the ill effects of driving it underground. New Zealand has just done so; Belgium looks set to be next Reuters An honest Dutch taxpayer at work THE selling of sex has been widely practised, and roundly condemned, throughout history. The Bible constantly rails against whores and whoremongers, from Genesis through to Revelation, and the book of Leviticus gives the stern injunction: “Do...

Virgins Meet in Sin City, Tout Abstinence By CHRISTINA ALMEIDA The Associated Press Sunday, June 29, 2003; 7:54 AM LAS VEGAS - In a city known more for sin than virtue, a group of virgins from around the country gathered this weekend to send a message: wait until marriage. It was a clash of the "Good Girls" and the sin-seekers as about 200 teens, parents and youth counselors descended on the Strip to pass out cards promoting abstinence. "What better place to bring this than Sin City?" said participant Deanna Grimm, 24, of Sioux Falls, S.D. "They need to hear...

<p>Colin Powell wants to do something about Castro's reliance on prostitution.</p> <p>Fidel Castro has a nasty sex problem. And he's livid at Colin Powell for exposing it to the world. "Despicable," "rude," "cynical" and "repugnant" are only a few of the words Fidel used during a recent tirade.</p>

Cheers, tears as prostitution bill passes 26 June 2003 Parliament erupted in cheers last night, as a landmark law to decriminalise prostitution passed by a single vote. Christchurch MP Tim Barnett's Prostitution Reform Act will become law next Monday and soliciting for sex and brothelkeeping will no longer be illegal in New Zealand from that day. In one of the closest votes in Parliament's history, the Act passed 60-59, on the abstention of Labour's Muslim MP Ashraf Choudhary. Had Mr Choudhary, who opposed the bill, not abstained the bill would have fallen because a 60-60 tie is counted as a...

Albanian connection to the teenage sex slaves in London By Jason Bennetto Crime Correspondent 19 June 2003 The Romanian girl was 15 when she was smuggled into Britain. She arrived in Dover, via Brussels and Ostend, on a hovercraft in July 2001 and was met at Victoria station and taken to a flat in north-west London. A day later, a man named Mustapha Kadiu, 31, arrived and made the girl, later known in court as Miss X, phone saunas and massage parlours to work as a prostitute. Kadiu, an Albanian who persuaded her to travel to Britain to start a...

Saratov's human rights commissioner urged skeptical State Duma deputies Tuesday to follow his region's lead in decriminalizing prostitution, arguing that regulating the country's growing sex trade would help crack down on disease and delinquency. The governor of the southern Saratov region, Dmitry Ayatskov, has given prostitution de facto legal status and hopes to further regulate the world's oldest profession to cut down on sexually transmitted disease and tuberculosis in the region, human rights commissioner Alexander Lando said. "This is about the health of the nation," he told reporters. Lando has helped draft a bill on legalizing prostitution that would oblige...

Berlin - With the German economy on the brink of recession, cash-strapped cities are resorting to slapping a "pleasure tax" on brothels to help balance budgets. Berlin and Cologne said yesterday they may broaden their pleasure tax - which already applies to casinos - to brothels, sex shows and erotic trade fairs. The cities of Gelsenkirchen and Dorsten have already done so, but only about a tenth of brothels have paid up since January. Tax officials are checking out sex venues and prostitutes working from home to see if they are eligible for the tax, which amounts to €5,60 (about...