NORTH AMERICAN TASK FORCE ON PROSTITUTION
Matthew Gaylor
From: Priscilla Alexander <pj...@columbia.edu>
Sender: pj...@columbia.edu
To: Matthew Gaylor <free...@coil.com>
NORTH AMERICAN TASK FORCE ON PROSTITUTION
A Network of Sex Workers' and Sex Workers Rights Supporters
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Priscilla Alexander Margo St. James
2785 Broadway, Apt. 4L 2269 Chestnut Street, #452
New York, NY 10025-2834, USA San Francisco, CA 94123, USA
Phone/FAX: +1-212-866-8854 Phone: +1-415-292-2450
e-mail: pj...@columbia.edu e-mail: mar...@aol.com
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ABOUT THE NTFP
The National Task Force on Prostitution (NTFP) was founded in 1979, to act
as an umbrella organization for prostitutes and prostitutes' rights
organizations in different parts of the United States. In 1994, its scope
was expanded to include organizations and individuals who support the
rights of prostitutes and other sex workers. The NTFP is thus a network
of sex workers, sex workers' rights organizations, and individuals and
organizations that support the rights of sex workers to organize on their
own behalf, work safely and without legal repression, travel without legal
restrictions, have families and raise children, and enjoy the same rights,
responsibilities, and priviledges as other people. At the current time,
affiliated organizations include: COYOTE-San Francisco, COYOTE-Los
Angeles, HIRE-Atlanta, PONY-New York, SWAC-San Francisco, SWAT-Toronto,
and Willing Women Workers-Minneapolis/St. Paul.
The goals of the NTFP are to:
1) Decriminalize prostitution: repeal the existing prostitution laws; use
workplace regulation, such as OSHA, to cover working conditions; enforce
laws against rape and other sexual assault, physical assault, kidnapping,
extortion, and fraud against thos e who abuse sex workers.
2) Ensure the right of prostitutes and other sex workers to bargain with
their employers, when they work for third parties, in order to improve
their working conditions.
3) Promote the development of support services for sex workers, including
HIV/AIDS/STD and violence prevention projects, health and social support
services for sex workers (including supportive programs to deal with
sexually transmitted diseases, violence, and substance abuse), legal
assistance projects, and job retraining and other programs to assist
prostitutes who wish to change their occupation.
4) Inform the public about a wide range of issues related to prostitution
and other forms of sex work.
5) End the public stigma associated with sex work.
To this end, the NTFP:
- engages in public education, producing and distributing position papers,
bibliographies, program development manuals, and other publications,
including through the medium of e-mail and the Internet.
- encourages research that is designed to improve sex workers' lives, and
especially encourages sex workers to work for advanced academic degrees in
order to engage in research that is based in their own experiences.
- provides technical assistance for the development and evaluation of
health, social service, and other support service programs for prostitutes
and other sex workers.
- provides speakers to lecture in college and university classes,
participate in and/or organize conference workshops and panel discussions,
as well as to discuss sex work issues with the print and electronic media.
The NTFP is affiliated with the International Committee for Prostitutes
Rights (ICPR), based in the Netherlands, with a growing number of
affiliated organizations in Europe, North and South America, Australasia,
and Africa, and the Network of Sex Work Projects, based in the United
Kingdom.
Suggested Readings from a Sex Workers' Rights Perspective:
Alexander, Priscilla, Making Sex Work Safer: A Guide to HIV/AIDS
Prevention. Geneva: World Health Organization, Global Programme on AIDS
(in press). Available in draft form from the NTFP. To receive a copy,
send a priority mail postage stamp (currently $3.00) to the NTFP-New York
office, with information about where to send it.
Alexander, Priscilla, "Sex Workers Fight Against AIDS: An International
Perspective," in Beth E. Schneider and Nancy Stoller (eds.), Women
Resisting AIDS: Strategies of Empowerment. Philadelphia: Temple
University Press, 1995.
Almodovar, Norma Jean, Cop to Call Girl: Why I Left the LAPD to Make an
Honest Living as a Beverly Hills Prostitute. New York: Simon & Schuster,
1993. Avon Paperbacks, 1994. Memoir by the founder and President of
COYOTE-Los Angeles.
Bell, Shannon, Reading, Writing, and Rewriting the Prostitute Body.
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994.
Delacoste, Frederique, and Priscilla Alexander, Sex Work: Writings by
Women in the Sex Industry. San Francisco: Cleis Press, 1987. The first
half of the book includes first-person narratives by women who have worked
in various forms of the sex industry; the second half consists of
position papers and analytical articles written by representatives of
prostitutes' rights organizations in the United States and Europe.
French, Dolores and Linda Lee, Working: My Life as a Prostitute. New
York: E.P. Dutton, 1988. A memoir by the founder and President of HIRE
(Hooking Is Real Employment), the NTFP affiliate in Atlanta, Georgia.
Jenness, Valerie, Making It Work: The Prostitutes' Rights Movement in
Perspective. New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1993. Based on Jenness'
doctoral dissertation which analyzed the development of COYOTE's approach
to prostitution between 1973 and 1989, and its effect on discussion of
the issue in the larger community.
Pheterson, G (ed.), A Vindication of the Rights of Whores. Seattle: Seal
Press, 1989. Includes the proceedings of the Second World Whores Congress
held in Brussels, Belgium, in 1986, plus a number of articles commissioned
for the book covering prostitution in developing countries, and AIDS.
Roberts, Nickie, Whores in History: Prostitution in Western Society.
London: HarperCollins Publishers, 1992. This book, the first of its
kind, is written by a former sex worker; as such, it offers a unique
perspective on the historical record, quite different in tone from other
books on the subject.
04/95
Priscilla Alexander
North American Task Force on Prostitution
2785 Broadway, 4L
New York, NY 10025-2834 USA
Phone/FAX: +1-212-866-8854
e-mail: pj...@columbia.edu
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Matthew Gaylor,1933 E. Dublin-Granville Rd.,#176, Columbus, OH 43229
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