Call your Senators and ask them to vote no on SESTA this coming Monday

There’s an interesting shift in power happening right now in the United States and elsewhere in the world. I’m sure you’ve noticed it. Prompted by men who finally pushed misogyny and patriarchal abuse too far, snapping the proverbial bra strap of woman-and-queerkind for the last time. If you want to blame someone for #MeToo’s popularity, or loud and demanding feminists making things impossibly hard for cis heterosexual white men, men, anti-feminists, misogynists, or anyone and everyone who doesn’t feel like rising to the times and pitching in to create a more equal and fair world, blame Harvey Weinstein, Brock Turner, red pill cronies, SWERFs, TERFs, white nationalists, and anyone acting on or uttering disrespectful rhetoric about another person’s bodily autonomy in hopes of dominating, objectifying, or subjugating a population so that they can feel superior.

We’re done with it.

Unfortunately we’re long from being untangled from the histories and experiences we’ve endured as minority people, and people who have been sexually harassed, coerced, or assaulted. We’re long from meaningful representation mirrored in society’s hierarchy, reflecting percentages of our actual population sizes in the numbers at the top of our ranks in public and private sectors. It will take a lot to balance what has been unbalanced for so long, and many people who are accustomed to power being a default part of their everyday experience, readily available and unchecked, are not interested in facing discomfort or learning to ride the tide of recalibration to a more equal nation.

Earlier this week I wrote about FOSTA, and today I encourage you to call your Senators to vote no on SESTA which is up for vote on Monday. I have, and it took about three minutes to leave messages for them both. SESTA is a similar bill to FOSTA and plays even worse and less thoughtfully than the House’s plan. Superficial stabs at morality through victimization of consenting adults is not helpful in the battle for sexual autonomy, free speech, or the quest to end misogyny. It puts no sex traffickers behind bars to drive them further underground. SESTA will do more harm than good, and this bill still affects the general public’s right to free speech, silences victims, and puts consenting sex workers in more danger as their platforms for safer negotiation disappear. SESTA is hoping to indict internet companies, including person to person platforms who “knowingly assist, support, or facilitate sex trafficking.”.

It is time to decriminalize consensual sex work. Our justice system needs to take seriously the already criminal status of rape, sexual coercion, sexual abuse, and sex trafficking. It is time to go after actual abusers rather than terrorize and threaten workers who may or may not already be victims of abuse. Make the sex workplace safer by supporting what sex workers themselves say they want and need. There’s a great article here which does a good job talking about these things from the perspective of a former sex worker who was able to find help on the internet to move away from that work — don’t just take it from me. If you find yourself wondering what trafficking survivors and trafficking victim advocates have to say about FOSTA and SESTA, this is a really well laid out article which explains a lot of the inner workings of these issues too.

CALL YOUR SENATORS TODAY: Put an end to SESTA, which is up for vote on Monday. The photo above is a great script for you to use when you do call. Thank you.

Play On My Friends,
~ Creature

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