This essay first appeared in Cliterati on October 19th; I have modified it slightly for time references and to fit the format of this blog.
I am often asked by interviewers if I think the majority of sex work prohibitionists truly wish us harm, or if they’re just misguided. I answer that while the leaders of the prohibition movement are evil, duplicitous and fully aware of the harm they’re causing both to whores and to our clients and families, most of the rank and file are well-intentioned people who believe the prohibitionists’ claims that they “only want to help sex workers, to ‘rescue’ us from ‘objectification’ and ‘degradation’, to ‘save” us from our own choices.” This is nothing new; all through history unscrupulous leaders have used similar claims (“saving the souls of heathens”, etc) to justify conquest, pillage, rape and murder, and the majority of the population supported them because they simply didn’t know any better.
For the most part, anyone with the slightest actual knowledge about sex work sees right through such claims; a large fraction of the writing, speaking and social-media activity of activists and allies these days is devoted to exposing these false claims of concern for our welfare, often under hashtags such as “#NotYourRescueProject” and “#RightsNotRescue”. But every so often the prohibitionists manage to sugar-coat their bait well enough so that even veteran activists swallow it, and unwittingly promote the interests of prohibitionists by spreading their propaganda and contact information. In June of last year I shared several examples in “Long Spoon”, but a month ago another, even better one appeared: 
This graphic was shared on Facebook and Twitter by a number of activists, but few seem to have noticed the direct source, the Massachusetts State Police, who are about the farthest thing from sex worker allies it’s possible to be. And even fewer saw this article, which totally lays bare the agenda behind it:
…the large female percentage signals that these arrests may not be dealing with the root of the problem, the demand for prostitutes created by johns and pimps and the over-sexualization of the female in American culture. “Mass NOW believes that the commodity model of sexuality in our culture contributes to the inability of law enforcement officials to see the percentage of sex workers who are coerced into the sex industry as victims”…said Katie Prisco-Buxbaum …“We believe…in…working to erode some of the cultural perceptions around prostitution”…“It is certainly cheaper for police to arrest the sellers, but there isn’t much evidence saying that it is efficient to do so,” said Michael Shively, founder of Demandforum.net…If prostitution is to ever be truly eliminated, the state of Massachusetts and the rest of the world need to make a larger effort to eliminate the prostitution market by targeting the johns and the pimps…
I doubt many of those sharing the above infographic without comment (or even worse, with supportive comment) would have done so had they realized that it was naked “end demand” propaganda, a blatant push toward Swedish-style systems that aim to “eliminate prostitution” by eliminating prostitutes through slow starvation. The filth about “victims”, “commodification” and “cultural perceptions” belched forth by Katie Buxbaum would’ve been quite enough, and even the name of Michael Shively would’ve rewarded a quick Google search with the revelation that he makes a very good living producing bogus studies for Swanee Hunt, a morally-warped multi-billionaire with a personal vendetta against whores who actually bankrolls pogroms against us. These “operations” go under the name “National Day of Johns Arrests”, but just because a politician calls something the “Free Kitten Act” doesn’t mean it’s actually devoted to giving out free kittens; in fact, it may be the exact opposite. The center of Hunt’s private anti-sex jihad is Cook County, Illinois, where Chicago is located; its sheriff, Tom Dart, vomits out “end demand” poison every time he opens his filthy mouth on the subject. So one would expect his county to be a model of “john arrests” in order to uphold his advertising and please his obscenely-wealthy patron, wouldn’t one? Well, not quite:
On paper, sex workers are still not as likely to face felony charges as their patrons, who can be charged with a felony on their first offense…But…analysis of the…data shows that prostitution-related felonies are being levied almost exclusively against sex workers. During the past four years, they made up 97 percent of the 1,266 prostitution-related felony convictions in Cook County. And the number is growing: Felony convictions among sex workers increased by 68 percent between 2008 and 2011…
In other words, the city most associated with Hunt’s “end demand” program saw an increase in the number of sex workers’ lives destroyed by police, despite propaganda to the contrary. Given the presence of her toady Michael Shively and the recent announcement that she’s inaugurated a new crusade in Boston, this “infographic” has Swanee Hunt’s name all over it, and those who spread it without explanation were doing her dirty work. The proverb tells us not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but the Trojans might have a different opinion on the wisdom of doing so; given the cleverness and resources of our enemies, advocates would do well to closely examine the teeth, hooves, withers and (especially) parentage of any horse presented to us before saddling it up and riding it in this very serious race where our lives are literally at stake.
