irishtimes.com/news/social-af…
“The greatest deterrent to sex buyers is the risk of arrest and public exposure.” And what do sex workers with no clients face? Starvation and eviction.
“The law also sends a clear message to society in general that the purchase of sexual access to vulnerable individuals is not tolerated in a country that values women and girls.” Since when?
Bear in mind too that Ruhama is founded and run by religious orders that literally enslaved women until 1996 and trafficked their children. So much respect!
Ruhama said “some” women it supports “reported feeling more confident to report incidences of violence to An Garda Síochána now that they have been explicitly decriminalised”. I’m sure the pregnant young woman sentenced to 9 months with her friend feels so much more confident.
Also all the workers harassed, evicted. I didn’t feel more confident after I was evicted under current law. Neither did my wife who attempted suicide and has continued to battle severe depression since we were evicted. We lost everything.
Eviction and starvation are not things the wealthy women on the board of Ruhama have to think about but as a trans person that finds it difficult to find employment outside of sex work it’s constantly on my mind.
“Increased supports for women who wanted to exit prostitution were “promised at the adoption stage of the law” but remain inadequate, Ruhama said.”
Like... isn’t that what y’all are paid for? Y’all pushed this stupid law through.
Don’t act surprised.
“Barriers faced by women seeking to get out of prostitution include poverty, third-party coercion, violence and control from pimps, homelessness, lack of education, post-traumatic stress and substance misuse.“ yeah we know.
So Ruhama, how about tackling the causes that lead people to consider sex work with your millions in funding rather than attacking our last resorts while admitting we have zero other resources?
Of course there’s no mention of trans folk or male sex workers who do actually exist, but what can you expect from an NGO that maintains such close ties to notorious anti-trans bigots like Bindel and Moran?
They complain that SWers are working more with the lifting of restrictions (dur, like most people), admit there’s no supports or reduction in the causes that lead people to enter sex work (poverty and inequality) but insist they should be trusted with caring for SWers 😧
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So despite having horrible experiences yourself, you have become a professional shill for Irish elite and Magdalene orders to ensure everyone else engaged in sex work also has horrific experiences.
Today, November 8th, is Herculine Barbin’s birthday. Herculine is a French intersex person that was assigned a female gender at birth. After an affair with a woman Herculine was seized, examined and reclassified as male.
Today, November 8th is Intersex Day of Remembrance/ Intersex Day of Solidarity.
Today we also remember the countless intersex lives destroyed by societies, churches and surgeons that butcher and reclassify our young bodies to suit their needs and whims.
You’ll hear people like jk Rowling and the family research council dismiss intersex existence in their war on trans people, but of course people that are both transgender and intersex exist.
So for those that don’t know, TORL stands for Turn Off the Red Light. It was a campaign in Ireland to eradicate sex work by criminalizing clients spearheaded by NGOs founded and run by nuns that ran Magdalene laundries with a recent (1996) history of trafficking.
The Irish government in recent months has twice recently refused dealings with SWAI because our values are not in alignment with TORL, which again is spearheaded by Magdalene NGOs.
This doesn’t bode well for the outcome of the Swedish model review. This law failed in every regard save for making those the law was supposed to protect more vulnerable therefore more dependent on those that pushed for these laws, whose funding benefits from our vulnerability.
The law criminalized the purchase of anything deemed to be sexual services.
Senior gardaí in charge of trafficking told us all intel disappeared after that date both from clients and sex workers, two groups best positioned to report suspicious activity.
Imagine if an organization with a history of human trafficking started an NGO to “end trafficking,“ but instead of sex workers it was construction and manufacturing workers, dangerous jobs and 47% of all trafficking victims.
Imagine they were so worried about construction workers that they pushed for laws that made it illegal for construction workers to work together for safety.
Imagine continuing to push for these laws after the workers they "care“ about got lengthy sentences solely for working together.
We in Ireland are experiencing the Nordic model in all of its glory.
Under NM we are routinely evicted.
We have our funds seized.
We are arrested, imprisoned and deported.
We hear weekly of SWers targeted for working alone and brutally robbed, left with no recourse as turning to the Gardai will make their circumstances worse.
This is what it was designed to do.
When friends and associates warned @FitzgeraldFrncs that SWers would be harmed, she reportedly responded that perhaps the risk of harm might discourage them.