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Submitted by The Editors on 24 February 2008 - 5:12pm

Important information about our special forum on sex work, trafficking and human rights:

CLICK HERE to read the announcement describing the forum. 

Invited participants are free to comment without moderation. All other comments will be moderated. In fact, because of technical limitations on the site, for this week only, all comments from anybody who was not an invited "presenter" in this forum will be moderated. If you are a regular member of the site, that restriction will be lifted at the end of the forum. I apologize in advance for the inconvenience. (Any Drupal developers out there who want to volunteer some time with us? We've got work for you!)

If you would like to be invited to participate for the remainder of the week, please send Elizabeth an email with your account name and some information about your background in sex work advocacy, or to posts elsewhere in which you've discussed the harm reduction/human rights perspective on sex work or migrant labor.

Guidelines for commenting in this forum:

  • We are not debating the merits of the human rights or harm reducation perspective. We are starting from the assumption that it is a useful perspective and we are exploring and developing that perspective. If that seems one-sided to you, that might be because you are focused on the legalization/prohibition debate. We are instead looking at the nuances of a multi-faceted. More on the seeming "one-sidedness" below.
  • Comments must stay clearly on-topic. If you have something you want to say and it doesn't relate to the topic being discussed, please save it for another conversation.
  • Comments must be polite and thoughtful. Name-calling, ad hominem "arguments" and other sloppy logic will not be posted.
  • Moderation is done by only a few people all of whom have other jobs. Please be patient. If your comment doesn't post right away that doesn't mean it has been rejected. It only means that we're in class or in a meeting. If your comment doesn't post within 6 hours, it has probably been rejected, and if you have questions about it you can email Elizabeth using this contact form.
Why this is a "one sided" conference

I strongly believe that one is NOT obligated to present "both sides" of a debate all the time in order to be intellectually rigorous. I think it is absolutely legitimate to deeply explore an issue from one main perspective and then give people a chance to react/respond to that, and then discuss that reaction/response, without being obligated to formally present "the other side." In fact, this "present both sides" approach often results in a false dichotomizing of positions and leads to frustratingly reductionist debates.

I think it is important for people coming from a human rights/harm reduction perspective to be able to talk to each other over a sustained period of time without having to defend against the much louder and more "establishment-sanctioned" abolition/prohibition voices. We very often have just barely begun a conversation when the whole thing melts down into argument. I want us to have time/space to really talk to each other, explore the complexities of this perspective and ask and answer questions we have without having to defend the conversation.
Comments on official forum threads will be tightly moderated for tone, clarity, relevance, logic, etc. (see above).
Would sex work be so profitable if it weren't stigmatized or criminalized? ›

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