Skye is a sex worker who’s been reading my blog almost since the beginning; I knew that her primary means of advertising was Backpage, so when she asked me to give her space to discuss it I immediately agreed.
On April 6th of this year, the federal government committed an act of violence against millions of sex workers worldwide, for no other reason than the fact that these individuals engaged in consensual sex for reasons the government didn’t like (reasons such as keeping a roof over their heads, clothes on their backs, and food in their mouths). That violence took the form of shutting down Backpage, an advertising site used by sex workers such as myself. On April 6th, I lost my means of support; being able to advertise my business on Backpage allowed me to meet my financial needs, and even kept me from having to go on welfare benefits. Backpage was where most of my clients found me. I’m currently 48 years old; I started sex work when I was 41, back in 2011, and work exclusively for myself. Hardly the stereotype of the “under-aged girl” controlled by some nefarious pimp, right? Yet this was the excuse used by the government to shut down my advertising—that Backpage was pimping out “trafficked young girls”. Except that it wasn’t. Not at all.
Let me backtrack to before 2011, when I worked “straight jobs”, or what’s normally called “regular work” by those not in the sex trade. Even though I went to college, I’ve never been able to obtain a job worthy of my education; this means I was stuck doing low-paying work for most of my adult life. Before sex work, I got up at 5 AM every morning, and many times didn’t get home until 8 PM, and I still barely made ends meet. When I finally lost that job, meager as it was, I placed an ad on Backpage, and the rest is history. For the past seven years, I’ve done work that did not require a resumé, or experience, or references, or the endless filling out of job applications, or the endless waiting for potential employers to contact me. I simply put up an ad, and that was it. In fact, I got a client the very same day, and had cash in my hand by the evening. No fuss, no muss. No, it’s not what’s considered “respectable work” by society, but “respectability” is for those who can afford it, not for people who live in the real world of having to pay rent and bills like I do. Not that it was always easy; I am not a rich woman by any means, because sometimes I didn’t get clients when I needed them. But I met my basic needs.
I represent the majority of people who used Backpage, people who were just consenting adults advertising a service. “Traffickers” who used Backpage were a tiny minority, because any trafficker foolish enough to advertise on Backpage usually got caught, eventually, because their mere presence online alerted authorities to their existence. The Backpage company cooperated completely with those investigations
, but since no good deed ever goes unpunished, those same authorities turned around and charged them in turn. However, it’s important to note that the owners of Backpage, Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin, are NOT being charged with “sex trafficking” at all, contrary to the media hype, only with boring, mundane things like “facilitating prostitution” and “money laundering”, which aren’t nearly as exciting. Furthermore, Lacey and Larkin are wealthy males who will most likely receive very little jail time, if any, and they’re currently out on bail, and their case won’t go to trial until January 15, 2020. Plenty of time for their expensive team of lawyers to help them beat the rap and settle out of court.
Meanwhile, it’s advertisers like myself who are truly being hurt by Backpage’s shutdown, not Lacey and Larkin. Backpage wasn’t perfect by any means, but it was ideal for those wished to work part time or occasionally, who wanted to keep a certain degree of anonymity, who lived in areas not served very well by other websites. It was ideal for more marginalized people who don’t fit well on pricier, “high-end” ad venues. I’m fortunate in that I have enough money saved that I won’t face immediate eviction from my apartment, but spring and summer are normally the busiest time of the year for me, and I haven’t gotten the clients recently that I’d normally get; I don’t know what will happen to me in the next few months. It’s even worse for those living week to week, or have children to support; many of these women have already become homeless, or ironically, have had to turn to pimps to find clients. Yes, the shutting down of Backpage has actually increased “sex trafficking”. And, thanks to the increased difficulty of getting clients since the shutdown, many desperate women are endangering their health and that of others by offering sex without a condom, or else they haven’t been able to refuse potential predators and are now dead or missing. All thanks to the government, media, and various “anti-trafficking” NGOs who’ve demonized a simple advertising site over the past decade, one that actually helped to find “traffickers” more quickly than if their victims were being forced onto the street (as they are now). Who exactly is being served here? Certainly neither consensual nor coerced sex workers. And if I had my way, the government would be forced to pay us for the trouble it caused.
As an anonymous sex worker, I’m thankful for intrepid activists and journalists like Laura Agustín, Elizabeth Nolan Brown, Kate D’Adamo, Maxine Doogan, Maggie McNeill, Audacia Ray, Liara Roux, and others too numerous to mention for speaking truth to power in a way that I can’t. They’re a few drops of integrity in an ocean of malice and indifference.
