SweetRachel

[toya]

Well done ladies you are an insperation and thank you for taking time and voicing your opinons

[Bumble]

Well done to Rachel and Amber. You both come across as extremely intelligent and passionate about doing the right thing for the women in the industry.

[the traveller]

Sorry I'm late with this but want to say a big thank you to all the ladies who attended the conference. It took a lot of courage to stand there and talk to the assembled people. I think your words must of made a big impression on the legislators as you are proof that sex workers are normal healthy people. Once again I thank you, you have my admiration.

[40odd]

Lol... Yep , "My name is Rachel, I work as an escort in Ireland" , remember to said it a few times at the start of my speech

I think you ladies are so brave, everyone in that room would have known it was conviction speaking due to the risk of taking to your feet. You are to be admired, and I wish to add my thanks to you for bringing the voice of reason to some very unreasonable people.

[Morpheus]

Thanks for the thanks.

Firstly I have to say that Leah made an effort to attend but due to my own being late (I had a few problems and a long way to travel) she was stood up by me. I have spoken to her privately and would like to say sorry again hun.

I think the conference went really well. I was only there from about 1pm but for what I did hear public opinion is not set in stone.

One of the most positive things I heard was that instead of trying to copy other models of legislation we need our own "Irish Legislation".


Dr. Derek Freedman of St.James hospital was first to speak from a public health dimension point of view. He highlighted the fact that in his numerous years of experience levels of STI's in working ladies and clients are very low. That I think was a fact that put some shock into those that believe that all escorts are desiese ridden. He was not for criminalization.

Next up was Dr. Andrea Holmes the Clinical Director of Galway Sexual Assult Treatment Unit (SATU). Now a lot of her info was based on street working ladies, which I profess not knowing much about. She was quite neutral on her stance but made a very big point that whilst ladies come in for help they are hesitant to report incidences to the Garda for fear of being outed when going to court.

This was a point I feel a lot of ladies would agree with. Currently if you are a sex worker wanting to take your attacker to court you need to be prepared to have your name dragged in public. When speaking I said I believe that in any legislation this needs to be looked at.

Last to speak on the Public Heath Dimension topic was Ms. Linda Latham of the Womens health project. I have to say that I was a bit disappointed in her. She is head of a clinic in D4 which I know a lot of escorts visit. She seemed to put out an attitude that she felt awfully sorry for the poor little working girls. She also went on to say that (not a direct quote) women who are trafficked and those working free of choice have the same problems and are essentially the same.

That was something I pulled her up on. To say that a women working out of an informed decision was the same as someone under duress is in my opinion an insult and shows her to be very mis informed. She later replied, retracted and apologized.


Earlier Pye Jakkoben gave a presentation. I was not there but I had a drink with her after the conference and she ran me through it. Rachel I am sure can tell you what the reaction to her presentation was. She had conducted a survey amongst hundreds of Sex Workers working under the Swedish laws. She posed questions such as-

Do you feel the new laws have made you safer?- under 10% agree
Do you feel the new laws have increased the stigma of sex work- over 80% agree

So on and so forth. The results were obvious. None of the sex workers were happy with the new laws.

Pye is an amazing woman.

The last part I saw was an academic point of view. I have no notes so you'll have to excuse me. All of the 3 speakers also seemed against a criminalization for various reasons. How can we introduce a new law and wait to see if it is working when we have no reliable info on the sex industry as it is now? Dr.Elis Ward even said that any law would be based on fantasy!

I also had a chat with a government man who's name fails me sorry. and he asked me what the most important aspect of women's rights needed to be looked at. My answer was safety. He then queried what I believe the best thing could be for safety. I told him that in my opinion convicting women of brothel running because they decided to share an apartment is ridiculous and counter productive. They seem so wanting to have options for women to exit prostitution. Well how does one exit it when one has a brothel keeping criminal record? Safety is in numbers. Allow 2 women to work together. He said he understood.


Rachel- you were fantastic and I am very proud to have been there with you. I think I put the point across that just because I choose to be a sex worker did not make me an inarticulate drug taking fool. Poverty had not pushed me into it. That was a good thing. But Rachel- you should them that even foreign ladies are free too!

There is so much more to be said but I have a broken keyboard and a lot of errands to run.

Hope that covers a bit of what I heard.
Ambs x

I am lost for words. This is what I'd do if I ever met you Amber (and Rachel too)


Although I'd also like to this, to show my adoration!


Seriously, once again, kudos to Rachel, Amber and all the ladies who attended. I am delighted you got your chance to say a few words and demonstrate that there are many women who make a conscious informed choice to do escorting. And that you aren't all victims.

I am all talk (although my heart is in the right place). I will write any amount of anonymous letters but would never have the courage to risk all the way you ladies did and show my face in public. As Ali G would say "Respect Aiiiii!

[Rachel Divine]

""Difficulties in analysing the issue of prostitution:

There are customers,pimps,owners of premises used for trading sex and so forth. there is little research in relation to certain issues that are linked to prostitution , including the role of organized crime, and trafficking in persons for the propose of prostitution.
While important, none od these issues are directly relevant to assessing the issue of voluntary comercial sex,

Although hundreds of individuals are involved in prostitution in Ireland, it is difficult to obtain their opinions on the effects of the criminal law on their daily lives and quality of life.

There is prostitution which is of an organized nature. This involves third parties ans is exploitative to varying degrees.
Some prostitutes operating in networks are trafficked or coerced. Others are not. There are also prostitutes operating independently and who choose , whatever their reasons for doing so, to become involved in prostitution.""


The above is from the Minister...
Is not as Ruhama claims , we are trafficked , as we can read above, the Minister is aware of prostitutes working on their own will, and not coerced/forced...

[Nicole]

Big thank you to all Ladies who attended. You are very brave and wonderful.

Kisses and Hugs, great job.

[Martin Ward]

Fair play to all of you....we all owe you a big thankyou!

[mellors]

Fair play to all of you....we all owe you a big thankyou!

Fair praise for the ladies and rightly so
My question. Should EI not also take part in these events, being the biggest 'player' in the industry in Ireland ?

[Martin Ward]

Fair praise for the ladies and rightly so
My question. Should EI not also take part in these events, being the biggest 'player' in the industry in Ireland ?

I can't answer on behalf of the company. All I can say that we take the whole thing very seriously. I know Patricia does a lot of work. I very much doubt we have washed our hands and had a lassez-faire attitude to the proceedings.