Defending sex workers
Shawn Gude - The Daily Iowan
Issue date: 11/30/07 Section: Metro
Iowa City native and City High graduate Sue Simon argued for increased rights and an end to negative stereotyping for sex workers around the world Thursday afternoon at the Congregational United Church of Christ in an Iowa City Foreign Relations Council-sponsored event.
Making the distinction between sex workers and human sex trafficking - two things too commonly equated with each other, she said - she argued that many individuals she has come in contact with through her international work have been in the profession willingly, whether it's for personal, economic, or social reasons.
"Many believe there is no good reason to get into or remain in sex work," Simon said. "The reality is that for a lot of people, sex work is their best or only opportunity to earn enough money to support their families."
Conditions that encourage this profession arise from financial hardships and a lack of adequate employment opportunities, Simon said. In Thailand, for example, she said sex workers told her they were able to make 10 times more money providing sexual favors as they would have working at a more accepted job in a factory or restaurant.
Simon's background is one of 25 years in public health and social justice, with a good deal of that time spent fighting HIV and AIDS with a variety of organizations, both inside and outside the United States.
Asserting the validity of the sex-worker profession, Simon decried the treatment such workers receive and "right-wing conservatives and prohibitionists … who believe they can and should end sex work because of their religions or moral beliefs."
She didn't leave the United States out of the problem either.
She highlighted America's insistence that before organizations - both foreign and domestic - receive money for HIV and AIDS assistance, they take an anti-prostitution pledge.
"Requiring service providers and service agencies to judge and publicly state their disapproval of the very people they are charged with helping is not only damaging to whatever trust has been established, it is likely to drive sex workers further away from the service arena," Simon said about the measure, which has since been taken to court.
She also advocated for the complete decriminalization of the sex-worker profession throughout the world. And instead of state discrimination against prostitutes, governments should advocate for the ethical treatment of sex workers, she asserted.
"No one should lose their human rights because of the work they do," she told the crowd of approximately 60, who sat around 11 tablecloth-covered tables.
UI honor student Cassandra Decker said she learned a lot from the speech.
"I think there were a lot of surprises about what she said about the subject," the sophomore said. "There was a lack of knowledge I had that she shined some light on … She touched well on the fact that sex working is a right - and in some places a necessity - because people have to survive."
E-mail DI reporter Shawn Gude at:
shawn-gude@uiowa.edu
Making the distinction between sex workers and human sex trafficking - two things too commonly equated with each other, she said - she argued that many individuals she has come in contact with through her international work have been in the profession willingly, whether it's for personal, economic, or social reasons.
"Many believe there is no good reason to get into or remain in sex work," Simon said. "The reality is that for a lot of people, sex work is their best or only opportunity to earn enough money to support their families."
Conditions that encourage this profession arise from financial hardships and a lack of adequate employment opportunities, Simon said. In Thailand, for example, she said sex workers told her they were able to make 10 times more money providing sexual favors as they would have working at a more accepted job in a factory or restaurant.
Simon's background is one of 25 years in public health and social justice, with a good deal of that time spent fighting HIV and AIDS with a variety of organizations, both inside and outside the United States.
Asserting the validity of the sex-worker profession, Simon decried the treatment such workers receive and "right-wing conservatives and prohibitionists … who believe they can and should end sex work because of their religions or moral beliefs."
She didn't leave the United States out of the problem either.
She highlighted America's insistence that before organizations - both foreign and domestic - receive money for HIV and AIDS assistance, they take an anti-prostitution pledge.
"Requiring service providers and service agencies to judge and publicly state their disapproval of the very people they are charged with helping is not only damaging to whatever trust has been established, it is likely to drive sex workers further away from the service arena," Simon said about the measure, which has since been taken to court.
She also advocated for the complete decriminalization of the sex-worker profession throughout the world. And instead of state discrimination against prostitutes, governments should advocate for the ethical treatment of sex workers, she asserted.
"No one should lose their human rights because of the work they do," she told the crowd of approximately 60, who sat around 11 tablecloth-covered tables.
UI honor student Cassandra Decker said she learned a lot from the speech.
"I think there were a lot of surprises about what she said about the subject," the sophomore said. "There was a lack of knowledge I had that she shined some light on … She touched well on the fact that sex working is a right - and in some places a necessity - because people have to survive."
E-mail DI reporter Shawn Gude at:
shawn-gude@uiowa.edu
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