Sexual Offences Act 2017 review - would a petition be worth thinking about ?

[WeeJimmy]

No one wants to get involved when it comes down to it.
Although legal over here we get councils and MPs who gain public support by getting escorts out and specially they target Romanian and Albanian Escorts they get extra support.
Its unfair and they are discriminated against these people
Governments are not going to side with the Escorts because there nothing to be gained from it and when most are not adding to the revenue then they will just belittle and ignore them.
There no reason why escorts could not all be seen by all as professional legit workers like everyone else so they can pay tax etc and be part of everyday life, even street workers should be given the chance to work on the streets and we have proved over here that that can work.
They are just gradually pushing escorts and other sectors out of business but they got reasons for doing so

[Stephanie]

When this bill was first being investigated in the Oireachtas SWAI completely messed up. On the govt side they had ex Irish sex workers who then worked for or represented different charities. It was easy for them to tell their version of everything.

~~~On the side representing escorts I seem to remember it being represented by two Romanian women who were very prominent on these boards back then. Unfortunately it was very easy for the pro side of the argument to cast them in a bad light.~~~

Instead SWAI should have put forward a few Irish ladies, or at least Western European.

You remember incorrectly .

I was one of the two active sex workers who was allowed to testify .

Rachel was the other , and she was brilliantly well spoken , collected and

cool under pressure .

We testified in complete secrecy - I insisted on no video recording .

We were in front of the Committee for over two hrs of hard grilling .

THEY were clueless , but already had their mind made up .

[Stephanie]

When this bill was first being investigated in the Oireachtas SWAI completely messed up.

~~~On the govt side they had ex Irish sex workers who then worked for or represented different charities. It was easy for them to tell their version of everything.~~~

On the side representing escorts I seem to remember it being represented by two Romanian women who were very prominent on these boards back then. Unfortunately it was very easy for the pro side of the argument to cast them in a bad light.

Instead SWAI should have put forward a few Irish ladies, or at least Western European.

On the ‘other side’ were embittered former streetwalkers , with bad history of substance abuse

and a hard life on the streets in the 90’s . They knew Nothing of current state of our industry .

These embittered ones were scooped up by various ‘charity’ organizations - Ruhama being

the most prominent :: mutually beneficial arrangement : the women got some momentary

importance to their lives , and Ruhama et. al. got readymade Victims of the trade .

They took submissions from some near 100 ( ??? I don’t remember ) entities , and deemed

the issue worthy to hear only from Two Current providers - who actually Knew today’s

conditions .

Rachel would’ve known many other ladies ( touring and otherwise ; lower bracket and otherwise ) ,

and I brought my Own good self to the table .

Hardly a pushover , hardly ineloquent . Hardly to be cast in a bad light .

[WeeJimmy]

You remember incorrectly .

I was one of the two active sex workers who was allowed to testify .

Rachel was the other , and she was brilliantly well spoken , collected and

cool under pressure .

We testified in complete secrecy - I insisted on no video recording .

We were in front of the Committee for over two hrs of hard grilling .

THEY were clueless , but already had their mind made up .

but that is it, its a donedeal before you even get there and only went through the charade as its its due process and to let on they give a fair hearing, its all BS,
You mention the girls on the street with drug habits but where the help for them, where the counselling and clinics, no help years ago and even worse now and with what happening with cost of living its driving more girls on to the streets who have not a drug habit but may have soon

It Pointless as the Governments have already plans and made up their minds and steamrolling ahead and nothing will stop them

[Sterling Duchess Archer]

When this bill was first being investigated in the Oireachtas SWAI completely messed up.

It was a disaster you're right.
Through no fault of the two escorts who testified, they were courageous to do so, although I seem to remember a third escort, an Irish lady also wanted to testify but she was purposely kept out of the loop, the way these things inevitably go, with competition and cliques.

The biggest own goal was this forum and Samlad for months starting threads about Rachel and being her biggest cheerleader telling all posters of the wonderful work she was doing campaigning against the Nordic model.

The result being that no matter how compelling Rachel's testimony she was quickly dismissed as a puppet of the pimp lobby. The link to Samlad who was employed by the owners of
E-I was on thread after congratulatory thread.

I could say more re. Ireland too which does good work on behalf of escorts but unfortunately it can with minimal effort also be dismissed as fruit of the poisoned vine.

[TheReaper]

When do petitions ever work. Apparently there are 100,000 men who use escorts in Ireland, however they came up with that number. It's too small of a niche market to ever bother the government with.

[Airbusdriver]

I see that there is a debate on this very topic - sex workers and legislation- at Electric Picnic. Chance for any punters/workers down there in the rain to give their views!

[Stephanie]

I see that there is a debate on this very topic - sex workers and legislation- at Electric Picnic. Chance for any punters/workers down there in the rain to give their views!

Where , when ? X

[Airbusdriver]

It was organised by Amnesty International Ireland and held in their tent this afternoon. Saw info on Twitter...