Very important- Scotland's consultation/submission deadline 14th December!

[Jack in the Box]

The deadline is next Friday 14th December so please send in a submission before then. Rhoda Grant predecessor Trish Godman failed in her bid to criminalise the clients of sex workers thankfully and she stood down at a previous election but it was a close call so it is very important that as many as possible get a submission.

Denmark threw out proposals to crimalise the clients of sex workers which is excellent news. If a place like Scotland which is physically and culturally close to Ireland abandons criminalisation it will be a hammer blow to the morale of the TOTRL crowd. So please get a submission in!

[the traveller]

May I suggest that a copy of the submissions be sent to the clerk of the justice committee Mr Peter McGrath whose e-mail is
justice.committee@scottish.parliament.uk. as, to be honest, I wouldn't trust Ms Grant to include any voices that disagree with her stated position in any document that she produces. Hopefully I'm wrong but lets not leave anything to chance.

[Banjaxed]

May I suggest that a copy of the submissions be sent to the clerk of the justice committee Mr Peter McGrath whose e-mail is
justice.committee@scottish.parliament.uk. as, to be honest, I wouldn't trust Ms Grant to include any voices that disagree with her stated position in any document that she produces. Hopefully I'm wrong but lets not leave anything to chance.

That is a fantastic idea. In fairness to the Scots (and more so to Scottish sex workers) they are keen to encourage voices from across the sea, and those undergoing similar persecution in Ireland should not fear to contribute something. Even a small repeat of submissions to the Oireachtas Committee would be suitable.

[Morpheus]

Just bumping this thread for those interested in making a submission. The deadline is Friday.

I admit to being lack lustre with submssions outside Ireland but as Jack has pointed out - any changes to legislation in Scotland or Northern Ireland, will have an impact here.

[the traveller]

I received a mail from Ms Grant stating "I have noted that you have specified anonymity in your submission. I will make sure that your submission is treated as such with the appropriate procedures. Your response will be published but your name and private information (such as email address) will be redacted", so no need to worry about your identity being exposed, just ask for confidentiality and that will be respected.

[Jack in the Box]

Don’t let Grant away with completely twisting the facts:

The following information from a sex worker organisation should be of some help:

Most sex workers start in the industry as children
http://www.women.it/cyberarchive/files/melrose.htm is Rhoda’s own source. However Professor Melrose’s research actually states (in this document):

‘The data on which I am drawing in this paper was generated by in-depth interviews with forty-six women, all of whom had become involved in prostitution before they were 18. At the time of the interviews, 32 were still involved in prostitution. Approximately three-quarters of those interviewed were street-working prostitutes.’

So – Prof Melrose only interviewed sex workers who had become involved before age 18. Around 75% were street sex workers.
However, Rhoda extrapolates this into: ‘For example 75% of women in prostitution in the UK became involved when they were children’ (p.6) – which is very different to the reports actual findings and a rather large leap!



Regarding the rape myths about men who purchase sex:
You might find this document useful from our own website – which is an academic challenge to ‘Challenging Men’s Demand’ and specifically critiques the reports assertions about men who purchase sex.
http://scot-pep.org.uk/sites/default...n_scotland.pdf

Page 3 particularly states:
‘misrepresentation and distortion of the report’s own findings. The report found that 22% made associations between sex workers and sexual violence, the majority of men interviewed did not make these links and did not hold the view that sex workers deserve sexual violence’

On trafficking / decriminalisation:
Re Rhoda’s footnote no.49 – Cho et al – she is in fact quite selective in the quotes she uses from the source document as the authors actually qualify their findings and place caveats on their own findings.
She does not include a link to the document itself but you can find it here:
http://www2.lse.ac.uk/geographyAndEn...us-REVISED.pdf
Their caveats include (page 10 under ‘conclusions’)
‘Our central finding, i.e., that countries with legalized prostitution experience a larger reported incidence of trafficking inflows, is therefore best regarded as being based on the most reliable existing data, but needs to be subjected to future scrutiny’

Furthermore, the authors also go on to caution against using their research to argue for criminalisation as that would miss the potential benefits of ‘legalisation’.”

[Jack in the Box]

Fair play to everybody who sent in a submission. We need to fight the anti sex work crowd no matter where they surface. Hopefully they will get the message.