You can rate this organization, add a comment, and receive email notifications below.
Website: http://www.sexworkersanonymous.com/ – (info)
Address: Van Nuys, California, United States
Countries served: United States
Geographic scope: National
Phone: (702) 468-4529
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @FriendsofJodyW
Type: Other non-profit
Status: Active
Adult focused (NSFW): Yes
Female led: Yes
About Sex Workers Anonymous
Sex Workers Anonymous is men, women, and transgenders with a shared desire to leave any part of the sex industry, and find recovery (whether trafficked or not).
Sex Workers Anonymous (formerly called Prostitutes Anonymous) was founded in August of 1987 by J.L. Williams in Los Angeles, California. This was a time before cell phones or the internet. To generate calls into the program – a “hotline” was also created. This was the first such hotline for adults who wanted help to get out of the sex industry whatever the circumstances were. The only other hotline at the time had been created for juveniles when Children of the Night created their program, and hotline, in 1979, also in Los Angeles, California. As of 2014 – the hotline has answered over 500,000 phone calls. Both J.L. Williams and L. Lee (founder of Children of the Night), were responding to a melting pot of reasons why they decided to take action and form these hotlines, and programs because literally they were the first, and only, hotlines in the country. The CON hotline being for teens while the SWA hotline being for adults.
This was back before anyone even heard the terms “sex trafficking” because no one believed that such things existed in reality back in 1987. The term “sex trafficking” is actually a confusing one because it’s even hard sometimes to draw the line about where “force” and “coercion” is involved sometimes because sometimes force can be done very effectively without handcuffs and guns. Many men and women do not feel they were “forced” in any way to be in some area of the sex industry. Some will even argue what they are doing isn’t even “prostitution”. When a woman from a popular site where the men pay women monthly for their “services” was quoted by a newspaper as saying “I’m not a prostitute because I don’t get paid for the hour and I don’t walk the streets” even the very definition of prostitution can be hazy for some.
Which is partly one of the reasons we changed our name to “Sex Workers Anonymous” in 1995. While many will readily admit they are a “sex worker” – many of those same people will balk at identifying as a “prostitute”. Another reason we changed the name is because of the internet. For one thing, we had adult filters blocking the word “prostitute” so we were unable to even be listed in some directories or search engines (especially college computers). For another, there was the invention of the webcam studios. Now we had men and women coming to us who were not having physical sex with another person – but still wanting help to leave the sex industry. So to bypass the adult filters and be found, and to avoid any room at all for denial, or self-exclusion – we renamed our program to “Sex Workers Anonymous”.
If you are not sure whether or not we can help you – we define our members as “a man or woman, of any age, race, gender, religion or sexual identity, who for any reason, feels they want to leave the sex industry whether that be prostitution, stripping, pornography, phone sex, web cams, mistressing, madaming, pimping, or any form of exchange for sex, or a sexually related activity, where there is a form of exchange whether that exchange be money, services, favors or goods – and that person wants help and support in leaving and healing from whatever this activity has been for them.
One does not have to feel they are “addicted” to the sex industry despite our name. There are other 12 Step groups such as “Divorce Anonymous” where the members are there to support each other through a divorce – and not there because they are “addicted to divorce”. This does not mean however no one is addicted to sex work. On the other hand, if you’ve ever catch the TV show “Strange Addiction” you know that people can become “addicted” to anything whether it’s eating baby power, sniffing gasoline, or drinking paint even. So yes some can be “addicted”, but that is not a requirement for membership. We are not a “shamed based” program and in fact have no opinion on any part of the sex industry itself. Our only purpose is to gather together as people with the common goal of leaving, and recovering, from the sex industry never to return again. Therefore, the only “requirement for membership” with us is a “desire to leave the sex industry – and find recovery”.
The movement itself has been a confusing one as more and more people have entered this field since sex trafficking received federal recognition with the Trafficking Act of 2000. Meaning many people are entering the field that have no idea what sex trafficking is, let alone how it’s a part of the sex industry, nor how the two can be separate or intertwined depending upon the individual case. It become further confusing when addressing the issue of minors under legal age of consent for which ALL sex is statutory rape – especially when the legal age differs from state to state. For example, in California the legal age is 18 years old, while in Nevada, just a short drive away, the legal age is 15 years of age.
While we are a 12 step program, and therefore anyone, with a desire to leave any part, of the sex industry can join us for help to leave, and recover, from this – sometimes this means the person is a sex trafficking victim. This can make the situations differ greatly, and are not issues programs like Alcoholics Anonymous has to deal with. Neither Narcotics Anonymous. For example, neither of those programs have anyone forcing them at gunpoint to be drinking or using, nor paying their rent by drinking or using. I’ve never heard of a case where someone has been chained to a bar and forced to drink at gunpoint.
Which makes programs that address sex trafficking, but not sex work even more confusing. Imagine if Narcotics Anonymous were to only accept in addicts who had used illegal street drugs – while saying that legally prescribed drug use was “okay”. Meaning that they would accept a heroin addict – but if they had taken a doctor prescribed medical marijuana filled at a pharmacy/dispensiary then they would not be offered help. Further, what if someone stood at the door of an NA meeting and only allowed in young heterosexual women – while shutting out any males, transgenders, or any LGBT, as well as Jewish or Buddhist people. What is NA wrote their Basic Text to only speak about the female addict – while acting like there was no such thing as a male addict. Actually Alcoholics Anonymous used to be this way with respect to males. It took many years for the first female addict to come to the doors of AA – but even so she was welcomed. Which is why in Sex Workers Anonymous – we accept anyone, male or female, sexual orientation, religion or lack of religion, race, cultural identity, etc.
Now the reasons why AA did not set up AA residential programs was simple – the alcoholic would sit around those programs all day letting their rent get paid while they spent their time and energy seeking booze. The same for the addict – they would sit around all day letting someone take care of them while they spent their time finding “ways and means to get more drugs”. However, science showed us that not everyone who used alcohol and/or drugs abusively was a “true” addict or alcoholic who was in fact “powerless” to stop. For these people, treatment programs were set up to treat their abuse of drugs and/or alcohol. For those who used chemical to cope – they were provided counselors. For those who self-medicated – there were doctors. So as science progressed the world realized there was BOTH the need for the 12 step approach for the addict and/or alcoholic while those who abused or used the chemicals did have a need for something else.
Now we acknowledge there are trafficking victims who when rescued have nothing. They need housing, job training, counseling, socialization, etc. So too do people leaving the sex industry have to take care of legal issues, housing, job training, etc. They also need help with issues such as rent, housing, counseling, medical needs, food, daycare, etc. While our hotline will answer any and all calls and try and help all callers find whatever it is they need help with – please try to understand that our program is for two types of members – first for those who have tried to quit the sex industry before and found themselves going back to it when they did not want to. We are not saying this is an “addiction”. We are saying that this person found that despite school, despite family, despite money, despite education, despite everything – they returned to sex work for one reason or another. The second is a person who had no problem leaving the sex industry – but instead found they could not leave behind patterns of self-destructive or self-abusive behavior. If you’re not sure of what we mean by any of this – we refer you to please obtain our “Recovery Guide” for more explanation.
Basically what we’re saying is that if you are on the street homeless and you call us for help to get you into housing – we are not going to say “yes” or “no” to you automatically. We need to know how you got there, what your situation is, what your plans are, what is your desire, etc. Are you just not wanting to hook that night, or do you never want to go back to the sex industry ever again? Are you on the streets because you escaped your pimp or because you spent your paycheck on a new pair of shoes and thus put yourself on the street so you could justify hooking because you “have no choice”? Why do we ask questions? Because if you’re one of those that can be put into a situation where you have rent, transportation, food, clothing, a job, and essentially everything one could need or use and you find yourself going back to sex work BUT YOU DON’T WANT TO – then this program is for you. If however you want to go back to sex work – that is your choice IF YOU ARE AN ADULT, and therefore we can not. Sound complicated? It is.
If you’re wondering if this is for you – then please call our hotline at (702) 468-4529 or collect from any payphone. If you are worried your calls or call log might be monitored – you may call us from a payphone by dialing and we’ll accept the charges. Our phone is answered 24/7 by another recovering member of our program. All calls are confidential and we are not connected with law enforcement in any way, shape or form. Nothing you say to us will be used against you or repeated. Please understand we have no federal grants or operating money. All our members, including our hotline operator, are unpaid volunteers. We do not provide you with cash or housing ourselves. If you are in a situation however where you need these things – we can check on available programs to see if we can help you locate these things. What is available? That changes according to where you are, who you are, your age, and even the year. All we can do is suggest you call us – tell us what you need or want and we will tell you what we can and can not do to help you. But to be simple – all we are is a 12 step program that offers meetings, literature, and the sharing of our members “experience, strength and hope”.
People involved with Sex Workers Anonymous
Jody L Williams
Sex work focus for Sex Workers Anonymous
Sex worker demographics focus for Sex Workers Anonymous
Services offered by Sex Workers Anonymous
Reviews, ratings and feedback for Sex Workers Anonymous
If you are a representative of Sex Workers Anonymous, please register. We can then have this organization assigned to your account, so you can edit it in the future.
I called Jody William because I thought I wanted to stop sex work because I got arrested for the 5th time and I was just sick of it. She had me start going to these weekly phone meetings and work these twelve steps to quit prostitution but I didnt really feel like it was valid. I’ve been to AA before and it wasn’t at all the same thing. I still needed a job and she wanted me to call attorneys to get them to advertise on a website and she said she made $1000 a week doing it but I don’t know how. I got a job at the Amazon shipping facility but I knew after just a few hours that I hated it so I left and she got really pissed and started getting really nasty with me. I stopped calling in to the phone meetings after she started sending me last minute emails asking me to “lead” the meeting. I didn’t even want to go to them much less lead them. Once I quit calling in she would send me long nasty emails. Then she started having other people call me trying to get me to come back. Once I would talk to the other women who she had call me they would tell me she did the same thing to them. I finally just quit answering the phone and just deleted her emails when they came in. I wouldn’t send anybody to sex workers anonymous. Its a bogus program and they don’t do anything other than harass and try to intimidate people.
1/5
1/5
I called them
2/5
2/5
1/5
2/5
2/5
2/5
2/5
2/5
2/5
2/5
2/5
2/5
2/5
2/5
2/5
1/5
1/5
1/5
No
No
This comment was posted by a woman who is a part of Stepping Stones in Atlanta. They set up a fund raiser for “Sally” and make money off having sex workers make handmade journals they sell online to teach them “job skills” like they are so stupid they don’t know how to work. I bet they’re attacking us especially since they’ve also received grant money from Hunt Alternatives.
Jody Williams (very likely a pseudonym) has a ‘project’ which she calls ‘sex workers anonymous’ formerly known as ‘prostitutes anonymous’. Jody Williams authors a website at sexworkersanonymous.com.
A number of people genuinely seeking help have contacted her site based on the site’s claims that ‘sex workers anonymous’ provides assistance, support and help as well as protecting identities and respecting confidentiality. According to the witnesses who will be sharing their experiences here, the reality of what has happened when dealing with Jody Williams and or ‘sex workers anonymous’ is a far cry from assistance, support or help, let alone discretion, confidentially, or anonymity. This is very concerning under the circumstances.
This blog will explain what numerous people have experienced when dealing with Jody Williams and her ‘sex workers anonymous’.
Jody will likely threaten this blog with a lawsuit. Jody forgets that we have a first amendment right to express our experiences and feelings. She will likely say that this blog is a ‘cat fishing’ spoof which apparently is one of her excuses when she gets called out for her unethical behaviors (“that wasn’t me!” she says).
After being called out when one of the witnesses spoke out about her behaviors, Jody claimed that someone else was responsible, someone else had taken over her email and phone and was-is texting people AS her, from her number. Somehow Jody Williams is so important- someone has hacked her phone and email accounts and whomever has done this, is the one sending the awful communications which have been sent to people.
The reason we feel compelled to create a blog about this- we wonder how many sex workers who are in vulnerable circumstances end up unwittingly calling her number seeking help- only to find themselves in situations they did not bargain for. We wonder why (IF EVER in truth)- she is taken seriously as an ‘expert’ which she constantly claims she is, regarding prostitution and or sex trafficking. Based on what we have witnessed and experienced, in our opinion, this person, whoever she really is, has no business doing what she is doing. We urge you to use discretion and after considering what will be presented, to decide for yourself of course.
We will be exploring Jody Williams of ‘sex workers anonymous’ and other self appointed ‘rescuers’ and ‘saviors’. Are these people really helping? Or do they really only amount to parasites who are looking for ways to profit and personally benefit in some way, from the criminalization of sex workers?
‘Rescue organizations’ ‘Diversion programs’ and ‘prostitution related treatment programs’ court ordered or not- are not regulated, there is no system of accountability and there is a lot of room for a wide variety of abuses.
Have you had an experience with ‘sex workers anonymous’ or ‘Jody Williams’? We would like to hear from you!
The information provided here involves direct experience with Jody Williams, after people contacted her thru her site at sexworkersanonymous.com, as well as experiences that were never invited to any degree. Jody has relentlessly attacked a number of people via social media and email.
1/5
1/5
They called me
2/5
See http://www.sexworkersanonymous.ORG for warnings about this group.
Sexworkersanonymous.com is only made up of one person so the idea that there is a ‘group’ of people who will offer a range of suggestions as is traditional to 12 step programs is not a reality. This one person model isn’t consistent with the 12 step program’s practice of ‘the spirit of rotation’ whereby ‘elected service committees are responsible directly to those they serve’.
The person running sexworkersanonymous.com has threatened those who’ve come to her for help with violating their confidentiality as a means to extort a relationship.
She has on several occasions threatened those who have come to her for help with public exposure by publishing audio recordings of conversations. This recording and then exposure violates the spirit and letter of anonymity as proposed in 12 step groups. Anyone who reaches out for help from sexworkersanonymous will regret being forced into having their situation invaded by this apparently mentally unstable person.
DO NOT PROVIDE ANY PERSONAL CONTACT INFORMATION TO THIS PERSON!
Another violation of anonymity by sex workers anonymous is when they contact you via email and social media without your permission.
This type of stalking is NOT PART OF ANY 12 STEP PROGRAM!
More false accusations. How could we possibly “contact people without their permission” when we don’t even return phone calls, and we don’t send any emails that aren’t a direct response to a request sent to us. Now, I will add this – it’s possible you have us mixed up with a woman out in California who we caught impersonating us for a few years. She set up a website that looked identical to ours. She used our literature. She even used our name. I suffered a major stroke and was in the ICU for a month. During that time, this woman set up this mirror website. I have a file saved of her site that looks almost identical to ours. She gave interviews and even set up a “fake” meeting of SWA for a time. She did this so that she could apply for a $300,000 grant from the federal government using our credentials. I found out about it when I started getting complaints like these kinds of complaints. People were saying that all kinds of crazy things were happening when they contacted us that I had no idea what they were talking about. I didn’t really know what was going on until I was contacted by the Dr. Phil show trying to arrange my transportation to do the show. I was caught off guard because I hadn’t talked to them before. In talking to the producer, she gave me the url address and the phone number of the “Jody Williams” she had been talking to. I contacted her through the site and found out that she was actually Silver Braid. I sent her a “cease and desist” letter that she ignored. As I was putting together a lawsuit to get her to shut down the site, I found out about the $300,000 grant and that she’d even supposedly set up a drop in center in Pasadena. I had a member of our program go to the address listed to this and it was an empty building. I contacted the authorities who promptly arrested everyone but her that was on the Silver Braid Board of Directors for fraud. She most likely wasn’t arrested for turning state’s evidence because these other people were sentenced to jail time for defrauding the federal government. When she took down the site, people started contacting me saying they had donated money “to us” and had “ordered books” from us and of course we hadn’t received that money either. Because the people had a hard time believing it wasn’t us – I went ahead and filled the orders she’d taken anyway at our expense. A short time after that, I heard she had set up this same phony meeting pretending to be us in Arizona for a time and then Florida. Each time I located this phony set up pretending to be us, after sending out the cease and desist letter, they shut down what they were doing. So it’s very possible these things you’re referring to came from this imposter we had to deal with because we don’t make outgoing calls. Someone could get killed with our phone number in their phone. The only calls we get are those that come into our phone. The emails we get are answered and then destroyed. We don’t keep a mailing list of our members anywhere in any form. When I hear stories like this, I try and ask them what was the phone number or the email address so that I can verify if it was ours or not. For example, the phone number that is listed on this very site is wrong. Our phone number is (702) 488-1127. It’s been that number for the last 10 years. So that right there tells me that most likely you might have been talking to this woman at Silver Braid when she was pretending to be us in order to rip people off.
This person has no idea how we run our service structure to make comments like we “don’t rotate service positions”. They haven’t come to any meetings, nor read our service structure, nor know anyone holding a service position. Why? Because these trusted servants are breaking their anonymity anywhere nor am I. Since they can’t locate any of our other members – it seems to me I’m doing a pretty darn good job at maintaining their anonymity and confidentiality. THEY’RE the ones inviting members to violate their anonymity and identify to them. THEY’RE inviting other people to speak about their experiences with me at meetings which violates MY confidentiality. Show me where I’ve violated ANYONE’S anonymity or confidentiality online? SHOW ME PROOF I’VE EVER DONE SUCH A THING.
I was first contacted by Jodi Williams who runs this organizations and Jodi started messaging me on facebook, with long messages about stuff that happened over a decade ago. Jodi has resentments that other sex workers organization wouldn’t support her financially after she was arrested for being a madam. When I wouldn’t go for Jodi’s lies and manipulations she started threatening me, in her messages and then she started contacting everyone on my friends list. I had to block Jodi from all my social media accounts and I have had to warn my friends about her.
Another resentment Jodi has is that even the trafficking NGOs refuse to work with her or even acknowledge her. Jodi is looking to profit off of rescuing women, yet Jodi and the trafficking NGOS do not provide any direct services to sex workers or trafficking victims. They do not offer emergency or permanent housing, jobs that pay a living wage or a higher education without debt, but what they do have is some shamed based bullshit that will help introduce sex workers to the justice system so they can be stamped “whore” and then endure a lifetime of discrimination and harassment.
This is what rescued looks like….
From Teenaged Prostitute to Sex Workers’ Rights Advocate
http://www.vice.com/read/how-the-justice-system-pimped-me-out-969
1/5
1/5
Other
0/5
0/5
0/5
0/5
0/5
1/5
1/5
0/5
0/5
0/5
0/5
0/5
0/5
0/5
0/5
0/5
0/5
0/5
Not answered
Not answered
Let’s get real about who posted this – Bella Robinson. Bella Robinson has done nothing but to come onto our social media attacking me. Yes I have threatened her to back off threatening me, threatening other members of SWA as she has, and threatening people who have posted positive comments about us as she’s also threatened them too. Members of SWOP and COYOTE of which I also personally belong and have since the year they were founded because I was friends with each groups’ founder, have been threatened by Bella for simply being friends with me. I don’t know what her problem is because she’s never ever had a conversation with me. Which again might be related to a comment I posted above about the woman connected to Silver Braid who was impersonating us in order to bilk people out of money for years before we could get her to stop it. On top of this woman with Silver Braid, I had to contend with groups being funded by Swanee Hunt and connected to Melissa Farley who were setting up fake websites pretending to be us that was endorsing their projects. Such as the website I found circulating a petition to “outlaw pornography” that had signed our name to this and claimed we were endorsing it when we had not. As a 12 step program, we can not endorse or condemn any outside project or viewpoint. On a personal note, I can – but the program itself can’t. That’s why when they posted that our program endorsed their position we knew it to be a lie because we just don’t do that. The internet is full of “catfish” and that includes going after groups like ours for reasons like trying to rip people off for money using our name, or using our name to endorse their projects, or whatever other crazy agenda these people have to impersonate us. Now when I do see an attack like this upon us I know isn’t us – yes I will reach out to that person to ask them what phone number they got that kind of call from, or what email did they get that kind of email from because I’m trying to track down what impersonator is doing these kinds of things to them so I can track them down and make them stop doing these things. I don’t see anyone here posting anything that is even closely resembling the truth about us, nor are they even verifying it’s really us and not a catfish situation. Which happens even to us when we’re in the sex industry so you know it happens. We are not unique – there are people who set up plishing sites pretending to be other companies or other people all the time. We are not exempt from the same problems as anyone else online sadly. So all we can do is post what our guidelines and rules are and to state we just don’t operate that way.
PLEASE TELL ME WHAT 12 STEP PROGRAM “provides emergency housing” and the other services you’re bashing us for not providing through a 12 step program?
You’re talking private details about a private conversation between us you initiated to me. You came to me asking questions during what I thought was a private conversation. Then you posted the content, completely distorted and out of context of course, and you’re talking about me violating your boundaries and privacy? Really?
Sex workers don’t need a 12 step program. Sex work is not a disease like alcoholism or drug dependency. Why would any sex worker join a organization that didn’t respect their labor rights?
Because if you get busted on a prostitution charge, you’ll go to jail. The ONLY alternative to jail is to attend a 12 step program. Which if it’s you facing jail, and about to have your kids taken away while you get carted off to jail, you’re going to appreciate the option of being able to come to 12 step meetings instead of jail for free also I should add. That’s one reason.
Also, who said we think prostitution is a ” disease”? You clearly haven’t read any of our literature, or spoken to anyone in our program because we don’t state that. We have been pretty clear there were two main reasons why we created the program as a 12 step program, and the first main reason was to stop sending us to jail. Until this country decriminalized sex work, we’re going to jail. Now they just call it “protective custody”, but it’s STILL JAIL. In some states, they’ll even put you on the sexual offenders list like a child molester – and the ONLY way to not have that happen is to contact us and we’ll work with your court to see to it you don’t go to jail, and you get released, and/or you aren’t labeled a sex offender and have your kids taken from you also for that reason.
The second main reason is because when we would meet to discuss ways to pushing for decriminalization, or to help one of us who got into trouble, we were having the cops arrest us and then threaten to charge us with a felony of conspiracy if we didn’t stop meeting. Because prostitution is illegal, just meeting to discuss how to help prostitutes is considered a FELONY of CONSPIRACY which gave them the grounds to put wire taps on our phones, follow us around, and basically do everything possible to stop us from meeting and organizing.
If you doubt it, check out how every one of us was arrested in 1984. COYOTE was formed in 1979 and we got Rhode Island decriminalized, and we were gaining ground to expand that into other states. So they pushed illegal charges against all of us based on the word of a snitch. Then while we were all on probation, they said we would violate our probation if we met with each other to continue the fight for decriminalization, as well as helping those who needed help to escape very bad pimps as does happen.
Now, through laws brought about by AA and NA, the 12 step program allows that we do not “violate probation” or parole by meeting with each other while on probation/parole, and also that nothing said within the 12 step hotline, or meetings, or structure, could be used against any of us in any way criminally. In other words, they couldn’t threaten to violate us or charge us with conspiracy as long as we met within the 12 step structure.
Which is why – do your own homework. Google how the ONLY ones who turned against us were previously arrested on a felony charge that suddenly got ‘dropped”. Next thing you know, they’re trying to get you to come to this site or an SWOP site THAT IS NOT PROTECTED LIKE A 12 STEP GROUP PROTECTS THEIR COMMUNICATIONS.
I know for a fact that anyone who donates more than $25 MUST have their identity disclosed in tax returns for these nonprofits. That’s why we don’t incorporate, and are structured like 12 step groups are structured, so we don’t report on our “donors” in tax returns that are “public record” and shared with law enforcement.
I’ve spoken to the people behind this site, and others like it, who have admitted they’re not sex workers, that this information on your donors and members IS put in their tax returns, which are public record, and thus picked up by databases used by law enforcement.
And that’s why they want you coming here, don’t want you coming to us – is so they can use the information they’re gathering on you as they wish against you. And they don’t want you coming to our meetings where any evidence gathered on you within our structure, our phones, our meetings, etc., can not be used against you and is in fact a violation of your privacy, as well as your right to not incriminate yourself.
No one said prostitution is a “disease”. That’s just stupid. That’s like saying “divorce anonymous” suffer from a “disease”.
Follow the money folks. Where’s the money from this site come from? I’ve tracked it and it will be shared with anyone who wants to know what’s going on here through our memoirs being released now free. We aren’t going to charge you anything and leave more records for people to follow on you using. Especially now we’ve seen with Covid why they’re gathering intel on sex workers.
Oh and save me “well everything I do is legal” bullshit. I wasn’t doing anything illegal when I was busted on a felony charge, and neither are half the women who contact us to avoid jail on bogus charges they had pushed on them also. Any REAL sex worker knows whether you’re arrested or not hasn’t got squat to do with you doing anything illegal or not.
First, our program does not go onto other people’s sites and tell them what they need or don’t need unlike seems to be what people are doing to us here by coming to us telling us what they think we should do with our lives.
Second, you’re just attacking to attack here because no where in our literature do we state that “sex work is a disease”. In fact, we clearly do state “sex work is NOT a disease” in our “Recovery Guide”.
The main purpose of why we were created as a 12 step program was because of the fact that in the 1970’s and 1980’s, our society strictly viewed those in prostitution as “criminals” period. There were weekly “sweeps” in major cities to pick up prostitutes like they were cattle, swept off to a jail cell, where they were then heavily fined, and then incarcerated where the per diem being paid was often 80 percent of a city/county’s income. There was no concept even back then of us as a “trafficking victim”. We were strictly, and only, viewed as “criminals” back then by the courts.
Yet we saw the addict and alcoholic being offered programs they could attend on the “outside” instead of doing hard jail time such as those in AA and NA – while we were strictly being offered only incarceration and treated like scum.
If you want a good idea how we were treated by the cops back then – check out the film “Frozen Ground” with Nicholas Cage because that’s an accurate depiction of how we were treated and viewed back then. Including the police not caring when we were being hunted down by serial killers like wild game. The “Grim Reaper” who was active in the 1980’s they suspect has murdered about 180 women while LAPD did NOTHING to try and stop this maniac.
You want to talk about “labor issues”? While we agree sex work is just that “work” – it is not recognized as such by vocational rehab in any state or country we’re aware of anyway. Meaning if you contracted something like HIV/AIDS back in the 1980’s and therefore needed to give up working as prostitute so you could protect your health from exposure to other people’s body fluids – there was no type of vocational rehab program offered to you to help with this career transition. Yet if you were say a professional dancer and fell and hurt your leg – there is a vocational rehab process set up to pay for your living expenses and school to retrain you for another type of job which isn’t physical.
So the courts were not allowing anyone to have anything offered to them when arrested other than jail back then, and if the person found themselves having to consider going into another type of work because of something like disease, disability, old age, pregnancy, etc. the government was not offering any type of unemployment, disability, retirement, vocational rehabilitation or re-training, etc.
The ONLY WAY ANY ALTERNATIVE could be offered to those convicted of prostitution, madaming, or pimping, by the courts was through the availability of a 12 step program which none existed back then. So in 1987 when we launched, those who were HIV positive, who were doing things like prostitution in order to pay for the medications which were costing about $10,000 a month and not covered by health insurance, who were then convicted of prostitution were then put into a jail where they couldn’t get even something CLOSE to proper medical care for their condition. They weren’t even allowed to have proper cleaning materials for their cell to try and protect their health.
So the ONLY ALTERNATIVE was the 12 step program which we created. This way if you were found guilty and convicted of something like prostitution – you could then ask the court to allow you to have “alternative sentencing” to incarceration by coming to our 12 step program.
Once within our 12 step program – we then could connect you to things like free housing, legal help, counseling, health insurance, job training, and further you would be allowed to stay in your own home, thus keeping your children with you, your furniture and car with you, whereas those being put into jail were finding everything they owned being put out into the streets and losing everything by a system that was treating them like a criminal back then.
Conditions within the jails and prisons were just so awful – while those who were transgenders and thus needed to be on their medications daily were being yanked off of them by prison doctors who thought it was funny to watch men reserved, as well as those who were HIV/AIDS positive, or had auto-immune disorders such as arthritis, lupus, MS, and other diseases which many were turning to sex work in order to be able to support themselves while sick.
With most having a public defender, there was no one to oversee how we were being treated once inside the jails on other charges. Especially medically. However, by having a 12 step meeting held within the jails/prisons – this allowed us to go into the facility weekly and check on our members’ well-being.
Groups like SWOP didn’t exist at that time – only the group COYOTE did which we can assure you the prisons wouldn’t have allowed us to enter into these facilities on a regular basis to make sure our members were being fed properly, getting their mail, receiving their medications, and also being able to communicate with their family, children, and attorney’s, but they WOULD ALLOW a 12 step program to be able to come in weekly and check on everyone. In fact, they’re REQUIRED TO allow us to enter the facility in order to maintain their licensing.
Our 12 step program is the ONLY ONE which even right now today if you’re found guilty of prostitution, even pimping or madaming, you can ask the court to grant you an “alternative to incarceration” for sentencing by being allowed to come to our meetings instead. That’s without paying a special fine, having to go through a special program, or even having an attorney. All you have to do is ask the court if you’re convicted to allow you to come to us instead of being incarcerated. The court is allowed to consider this EVEN if you’re being sentenced for something else which carries a mandatory jail sentence.
Meaning if someone had bothered to tell someone like Amber Batts in Alaska about our program’s existence, then when she got arrested she could have kept her marriage, kept her children, kept her house, and asked the court to allow her to attend SWA meetings instead of slapping her in jail where she then lost everything including custody of her kids. The court’s always granted this request in cases we know about certainly – because they see no advantage for us being locked up, losing our homes, having our kids put into foster care, etc.
But nowhere in our literature do we state sex work is a “disease” or an “addiction” or even a “problem”. There is also a 12 step program out there called “Divorce Anonymous”. Those people do not feel divorce is a “disease” nor an “addiction”. They are simply people who share going through a divorce and wish to connect to others also going through a divorce for emotional support. The same for groups like “Parents Anonymous” or even “Artists Anonymous”.
So you’re attacking us based upon your assumptions about us without having bothered to read our literature, talk to someone on our hotline, attended a meeting, etc. You’re also attacking the very things we do offer sex workers right now that are vitally needed by many – including the fact our program allows anyone convicted of prostitution to ask the court to allow them to have “alternative to incarceration” for their sentencing without having to enter into some type of diversion program like Project Rose was in Phoenix, Arizona. We also provide a tool whereby one can start up a weekly meeting within the local jail/prison to keep contact up and an eye on inmates without again having to create a special program to do so.
You want to speak about “labor issues”? Sheldon Adelson is but one of many men who are putting a lot of money into promoting the idea of legalized prostitution in this country WITHOUT talking about having a related union. As a matter of fact, we fought back against the legal brothels expanding into both California and Nevada on three separate occasions NOT BECAUSE we were opposing the brothels themselves – but because the brothel owners were refusing to either allow the prostitutes to unionize and/or to create some type of safety net which provided workers with things like disability, retirement, vocational retraining, or even discuss having some type of advocate speaking for the women up against the owners/managers. Which right now today if you contract HIV/AIDS and find you can’t go to work suddenly at a legal brothel – you’re screwed. You are not provided with any type of disability or retirement even though you’re now suddenly out of work permanently once you flunk this health test. Neither will the state help you either.
Even today companies such as Vivid Entertainment who are making BILLIONS LITERALLY within the porn industry offers their performers no safety cushion at all – you’re either earning your commissions or not period with no safety net whatsoever. for you. However, if again you’re an actor, dancer, athlete, etc., there are special protections set in place for you once you find you can’t work any longer in that field, or you find you have to retire early for one reason or another.
Which is what is REALLY going on behind this website. When the large for profit prisons discovered we were cleaning out their prisons of men and women paying them $150 a day on average for a non-violent criminal as we represented, and knowing that on the average prison which holds 2000 inmates, about 1800 of those inmates are also prostitutes, multiply that by $150 a day, times each inmate, times each facility – and you have an idea why the first thing on their minds was to try and chase everyone away from our program with this LUDICROUS statements like “there’s no one else in this program but Jody” because they make money off women like Amber Batts. Women who don’t know our program presents them with a free option they just have to ask for, and for which the court has to grant their request or be accused of “discrimination” being they allow addicts and alcoholics to see alternatives to incarceration.
Also, one of our opponents funding the opposition which created this very website is the Defense Attorney’s Association. Why? Because for each prostitute scared shitless they’re going to be shipped off to prison – they’re going to cough up a retainer to a private defense attorney. They’re also going to further retain an attorney to expunge their records after they stay out of trouble for a few years.
Only what happened when we first came on the scene was word spread like wild-fire. We literally went into the women’s jail here in Los Angeles and cleared out 1800 women out of 2000 in one week. We further cleaned out over 400 transgenders who were being forced to sleep on the cafeteria floors in the mens’ jail because they were afraid to put them anywhere else. Then we started taking the men out of the system who were being convicted of pimping. Something which I challenge you to show me one other program anywhere that’s allowing those convicted of pimping to have their “alternative to incarceration” as our program offers. Once we started having pimps coming out of these facilities and coming to meetings – that’s when the corrections system started getting nervous about all the money they could potentially lose.
For which a whole other lobby exists that wants not only to not empty out the jails of all of the prostitutes – but also wants to build MORE JAILS. Which the only way to build MORE jails is to fill up EXISTING jails. That’s exactly what happened after we cleaned out 1800 or so women out of the Allentown, PA jail. They were able to delay building a brand new million dollar jail through our program. Not being happy about that – they trashed our program. Then over crowded the jails. Once over-crowded they then got the paperwork approved not to release those inmates, but to spend a million bucks to build a new jail instead.
So word about our program was either silenced or smeared by special interests wanting us to pay fat retainers to private attorney’s to defend us, and who further want to stuff their for profit prisons with us to cash big fat checks because of incarcerating us, and even to build bigger jails if they can off us because we’re easy to take care of in the jails – unlike the bank robber, maniacs, rapists, murderers, etc.
SWOP since Robin Few died, has been instead holding “fund raisers” which create publicity and income for them for specific sex workers. They are not offering the “alternative to incarceration” across the board and everywhere within the USA, Canada, and even other countries, that our program does simply by asking the judge for consideration. Nor can SWOP set up a weekly visiting system within the jails/prisons to check on us to see if we’re being treated properly in the way we can.
Another fact of life is that many a time the courts will order some of us to do things to complete probation or parole. Things such as go to school, get a job, do community service, etc. If we don’t do these things – we can get locked up or also lose our kids and home. Which is not that easy to do things like “get a job” when we have a long criminal record following us around. Nor “enroll in school” either sometime’s. However, our hotline offers callers information to how to find work immediately, not only if you have a criminal record, but even if you’re disabled. We also have scholarship information, and a list of attorney’s who provide free legal assistance to members.
So let’s say you get put on probation or parole – but you’re then told if you don’t have a job by a certain date you’re going to get locked up. We can help you with this – especially if you’re not an American and have to get a job in order to keep your VISA.
We also have a network of ex-sex workers available for those of us finding we might need help. Example – I saw a woman going onto Twitter a few months ago where she’d gotten into a fight with her boyfriend and was on the streets up in northern Nevada. She went online and asked someone in SWOP for a place to stay for the night. A SWOP chapter told her to “go sleep in a doorway”. We however have a list of ex-sex workers who are residing across the USA. I was able to locate someone in her area, connect her to this person, and because she was another ex-sex worker, they were able to help each other.
You connect only ACTIVE working sex workers together – and you’ve provided also no way for someone who needs to get away from people like Joohoon David Lee a means to get away. If you don’t know who that is – it’s a man working for the Homeland Security who was forcing women to work in Asian massage parlors. Now let’s say that was you and you wanted to get the hell out of there. Let’s further say everyone you know is in active sex work. Meaning anyone you know could be arrested and then threatened with jail if they didn’t then cough up information about where so and so is. Cops can threaten to arrest someone who is in active sex work – but they can’t threaten someone who is “clean” with anything.
Take a look at the Eliot Spitzer case where the woman wanting to escape his reach was thinking she’d have to go clear to Russia to get away from his reach. Or those women working in the DEA owned strip clubs. Where are they going to go to get to safety – when everyone they know is connected to the DEA agents. Meaning there’s some times you might need to take a little vacation with someone who isn’t someone the cops can threaten to arrest, or arrest, in order to get at you. Look at that case where the LAPD were forcing two women to work as “informants”. That’s a nice way of saying they were forcing them to keep prostituting and to keep snitching – whereas sometimes you need a break. Now where are you going to find someone who is “out” of the industry entirely when you’re in the sex industry?
Now before you go attacking our program for what you THINK we do – how about first taking some time to read our “Recovery Guide” and see what it is that we do offer or believe before just ripping into us?
And use some common sense like who wins here if we get locked up and the key thrown away. Because there are a lot of special interest groups who benefit from keeping us fighting with each other so we don’t turn and stop them from what they doing to us.
Jody, you are not a 12 step group just because you claim to be. Nobody at AA or NA regional office has endorsed you as a 12 step program. you only use the same 211 limited services that anyone can access by dialing 211. you do act like sex work is a disease because sex workers anonymous only allows people who want to exit to join as if it were a disease. We have documents dozens of people you have harassed, yet we cant seem to find ANYONE that you have helped that has anything positive to say about you. You are a RESCUE PIMP who has been looking for funding for years. I still have the emails where you claimed to have spend 500,000 of or own money and yet I am pretty you never had 500,000 and I doubt you have ever paid income tax on 500,000.
There has been hotlines in place since the 80s, nationwide DV hotlines, that can house any sex worker fleeing violence or who wants to exit. So you have recreated the wheel so you can PROFIT off of being a RESCUE PIMP. Actually many AA & NA groups do provide shelter, and get their members into halfway houses, they help them find good jobs, etc. Even sex worker rights organization are referring sex workers to 211 services and we do this without promoting stigma and violence against the whole sex industry. Now Jody since you were arrested for being a madam aka PIMP, what makes you think its OK to abuse our community with your bullshit rescue pimp scams?
You clearly have no idea what it was like in the 70’s or 80’s Bella. Because back then no you couldn’t get help anywhere from anyone because you were either treated like you were a “criminal” or you were treated with fear of having the HIV/AIDS virus. When I was trying to get away from the pimps I had originally got into the business with, every single domestic violence shelter I looked into refused to take me, or any sex worker. The same with every drug program, even homeless shelter. IF you doubt me, go look at http://www.childrenofthenight.org‘s history as they had the same problem with juveniles back then. The teen runaway shelters were refusing to take in prostitutes and they were leaving them on the streets – even though they were juveniles. When I was in the sex industry myself, I had women telling me they had to get away from their pimp and we looked for places to put them and there were none. The only place in the whole USA that existed in 1979 was the Mary Magdalene Project in Reseda, CA. They would only take you if you had no felony arrests, no mental illness history, you couldn’t be an addict, or you had to have a year clean, they provided no legal counsel, and they had no security. If you were trying to get away from a pimp, they also wouldn’t take you. Lois Lee founded Children of the Night in 1979 because none of the teen programs even for runaways would take in someone who had been involved in prostitution. Literally Covenant House for example would refuse to admit anyone they even suspected of prostitution back in the 70’s and 80’s. When the HIV/AIDS virus hit, many prostitutes started trying to get admitted into drug treatment programs or even the hospital for treatment – and they were refused. Hospitals were refusing to even treat prostitutes who were victims of violence back then. I know because I took a woman who had been stabbed 51 times to the ER bleeding all over us and they refused to admit or treat her. They blocked us in the lobby and told us to leave. I had to call my attorney to threaten them with a lawsuit before they’d agree to stitch her up. Even then they wouldn’t admit her. All they did was stitch her up and then told her to leave. I had the same problem when I took another woman a pimp had beat unconscious into the hospital for treatment- they left her on a gurney in the lobby and refused to admit her until i had my attorney contact the hospital and threaten with a lawsuit. Then they got her awake and then told me to take her home. They wouldn’t even admit her for the night despite the fact she’d been beaten unconscious. The Skid Row Homeless Shelter would tell prostitutes they couldn’t have a bed, but they could sleep on a chair in the church if they had nowhere else to go. So don’t tell me lies Bella. You have no idea how hard we had to fight to get that to change. Which is exactly why I did spend $400,000 of my own money and 13 years of work to see the Trafficking Act pass in 2000. If a housewife or cashier is raped and beaten – she can avail herself of all kinds of victim services. However, if we were raped, beaten, kidnapped, etc. – then just because of our profession – we were denied those services. Services which included beds at shelters, treatment programs, mental health hospitals, etc. Because we were classified as “criminals” by the legal justice system. Now let me ask you this – if you’re shot while robbing a bank do you think the state is going to pay for your care as a victim? Hell no. They’re going to say “you’re a criminal and you deserved what you got”. Which is what they did to us no matter what the circumstances were. When COYOTE members who used our program in order to meet without being arrested on a conspiracy charge, got them on the ropes about how this kind of treatment was unconstitutional – then they claimed they “didn’t have the funds to provide us with help” as their reason. Because money for victim services came out of the Office for Victim Services. So criminals didn’t qualify to get victim services. We were told we would never decriminalize prostitution, but we were told we could get funding for victims services, if we got the Trafficking Act of 2000 passed. Why? Because prior to 2000, the only persons who could be called “victims” as prostitutes were Chinese women and minors. Look it up. If you were a Hispanic on American soil – no go. If you were an American on American soil – no go. The Trafficking Act allowed that adult Americans could be considered victims. That was supposed to kick loose money for drug treatment, housing, counseling, relocation, job training, medical bills and even to pay for recovery periods while we were recuperating from major injuries from attacks or things like HIV/AIDS – only what happened was in 2002 George Bush and Randall Tobias came in and revised that Act to turn the money over to the “faith based community”. Now instead of using that money to provide services for us, they’ve been using that money to instead try and outlaw prostitution. In the food industry, often there are human trafficking victims brought in to work those jobs. But to say you’re going to solve the problem by outlawing the industry is crazy. Just as crazy as then saying “all” in the food industry are victims which would make then Gordon Ramsey a “human trafficking victim”. But that’s the logic they applied to us – you know why? Because the Catholic Church wanted to make sure that anyone who provided any type of medical or victim services to us didn’t use that money to give us an abortion that’s why. If you do know anything about pimps, you know they love to knock up their victims as fast as possible to put an 18 year leash on them. You can’t lock him up if he’s your baby’s father. To accomplish this, many pimps will rape a newcomer. So the church wanted to be sure that anyone who pulled someone out of a situation like that wouldn’t turn around and have that baby aborted. So while SOME of these programs were claiming to be taking us in to help us – in reality they were denying them any access to medical care for fear they’d even hear the word abortion. That’s what the ACLU v. Catholic Bishops lawsuit was about. Now if you’d like to see my tax returns to see that I spent that much money on this program and work, I’ll be happy to show it to you. But you’ve never asked me for any information or proof because you’ve been too busy attacking. Why I don’t know because I don’t know you and I’ve never done anything to you. If you saw what i was seeing – I know you would have done the same thing to help other sex workers. I think anyway. I’m not sure now however because even today – if a person is arrested for prostitution or even pimping – by law they are allowed to request to go to the 12 step program instead of to be incarcerated and the court has to consider that for them today the same as if an addict were asking to go to an NA program. So far, everyone who has asked for this alternative to incarceration has been granted it and they didn’t have to pay an attorney $1,000’s in a retainer to help them avoid jail. Which is why the Defense Lawyers Association started hiring a lobbyist to come after us Bella. They were losing money. A lot of money. Now I’ve seen SWOP do fund raisers for attorneys for women arrested on these charges – but what about those who can’t raise the money? They’re just supposed to go to jail? Why? Why should they go to jail, lose their kids, lose their home, and be subjected to jail when all they need to do is ask the judge to be ordered into our program instead. I happen to think that’s a hell of a great option we’ve created for sex workers absolutely free to them. And without having to hire an attorney either. Then when the judge orders them to our program, at the end of that period of time, when we report back to the court they completed their time with us – the court will then seal or expunge their records. Again, I happen to be very proud of that accomplishment. And we don’t need government funding to offer it either. We don’t have to hire special people to offer it either. All we need is each other and we can provide that to each other so that we don’t have to go to jail. If the court were to deny that request, we could challenge that based on discrimination becasue addicts are allowed an alternative so why not us? That’s not saying “sex work is a disease” at all either by the way. There are still doctors who claim alcoholism isn’t a disease either. So what? It’s an option to being locked up in jail that’s available to every sex worker that wants it. Now why aren’t you shouting that to every sex worker that’s being arrested? That’s what I don’t get at all. Especially for transgenders. We were seeing transgenders being locked up in LA jails in the 80’s and denied their medications. They were also being denied their victims by being put into segregation. However, a jail can’t deny a 12 step sponsor anymore than they can deny an attorney or a preacher or priest. So we were able to assign them a sponsor who was going into the jails every week to make sure they were getting proper medical treatment. Which they had to comply with or we’d get a lawyer on them for that. Now – do you think they were happy about that? So who do you think doesn’t want you talking about those options to sex workers? Them or us? The defense lawyers who were losing out on $5,000 retainers and blow jobs to help us in court or us? The prosecutors like that one guy who was threatening prostitutes with jail if they didn’t screw him – or us? The DA’s who want to threaten a prostitute with jail if she doesn’t testify against her husband and baby’s father as her trafficker – or us? Think it through because I know that it’s to our advantage for us to have options to jail until such time as we do get prostitution descriminalized. Which I’m sorry but you can spout off “safety” to these guys all you want and they won’t care. To them that’s like a bunch of bank robbers saying they need to have security guards be unarmed because the guns “endanger them”. That’s how they view us – so the whole “safety” angle isn’t going to get them to budge. The ONLY thing that will budge is that the ONLY way you will get a good solid prosecution against a trafficking operation is by having prostitution decriminalized so that they have no hold. Just as you eliminate organized crime when they legalized alcohol – that took all that money and power away from organized crime. It’s the same with prostitution. That was proven in Amsterdam. To defeat organized crime you need to decriminalize prostitution. That’s the truth and that’s the position that will get this thing turned around. But as long as you’re trying to pretend organized crime isn’t a part of the sex industry – we’re not going to get that point across.
How many names have you got Bella? This is the third email name that I know is you so who is trying to make themselves appear to be more people? Okay, first of all AA does not “endorse” anyone. No one. That’s against their rules. So no one said they “endorse” us because that’s literally against their rules. However, we do have their permission in writing to have adapted their steps to our program we obtained in 1986 when we started Prostitutes Anonymous, and again in 1995 when we changed our name to Sex Workers Anonymous. We have to have this letter on file because we can’t publish anything that has their copyrights on it like the steps without having this copyright permission to do so. Which we do have the two letters granting us the permission to adapt their steps to our program, and to use them in our literature. We had to have them or we wouldn’t have been allowed to set up the first alternative sentencing program as we did getting them to clear out the LA jail was the first time we did this without showing them we had this PERMISSION from AA. Which is what you do have to have from them to use their steps. Each year I check with them and they tell me no other program working with sex workers has asked them for their permission – so we’re the only ones I’m aware of that has their PERMISSION to use their steps – not endorsement.
Jody Williams is a fraud. This group doesn’t have any members even though she always boasts about all the members she has all over the place. And yet no one ever has anything positive to say about this organization. And they don’t have any help. The CEO badgers people to death and is well known for harrassing and trying to intimidate people. BEWARE!
1/5
1/5
I called them
0/5
0/5
0/5
0/5
0/5
0/5
0/5
0/5
0/5
0/5
0/5
0/5
0/5
0/5
0/5
0/5
0/5
0/5
Not answered
Not answered
Ah Beth Jacobs – another woman wanting us out of the way because she had a financial agenda. As I’ve posted on another comment, it’s very easy to look up TV shows we have on youtube where multiple members have appeared on these shows, and to look up interviews with other members in different magazines and newspapers over the years given to different reporters, so I assure you I can’t possibly impersonate all these people all over the world for all those years. The reason why “no one has anything good to say” about us is because we are an ANONYMOUS program. Meaning our members don’t break their anonymity by talking about us UNLESS it’s a prearranged press event. We are very careful when setting up any press events to try and make sure that we include a male and female so it doesn’t appear to just be a female/gender issue, to also include people from various races so we don’t appear to all be minorities like many shows do who try and make this a racist issue, and to try and get at least one LGBT member into the mix to also make sure that we are represented fully as not being limited to one gender, one race, or even one religion or lack of religion. That’s why we’ve also included Jewish members in interviews, along with atheists and Christians, even Buddhist members. Even so, with our best efforts, we’ve still had members go off and do “rogue” interviews and documentaries like our Chicago chapter which did three documentaries without our fellowship as a whole approval. The reason we didn’t approve it was because they only filmed African American heterosexual Christian women in these documentaries. The one that’s airing on Showtime “Dreamcatchers” made it even appear we work with law enforcement, which we absolutely do not condone and we sent out a formal cease and desist letter to Brenda in Chicago for doing this show for those reasons – it made it appear that our program was only for African American street prostitutes with pimps who had drug problems which is not the case. We have some chapters that are predominately men. Some are predominately Asian. Others are predominately white. The different chapters of SWA represent the local city they’re in who often don’t have a diverse mix. Which is why when we do agree to do any type of press we try and represent a broad mix of our members so no one thinks the issues we deal with are limited to one group of people. But let’s talk about Beth for a moment. When Project Rose came into our Phoenix chapter which had been operating for 20 years with great success, they wanted to take the approach that sex work itself was the problem. We don’t believe sex work is the problem anymore than AA believes alcohol is the program or addicts in NA believe drugs are the problem. In a 12 step group, the members are there to deal with themselves – period. AA does not try and outlaw alcohol nor try to get everyone to quit drinking. The same with AA or even Gamblers Anonymous or Sex Addicts Anonymous. No 12 step program tells the world that their issue is “bad”. Each 12 step group does have the members deal with their own personal issues themselves. We are no different in that respect. The alternative to incarceration we offer is no different than when the addicts gets to go to the NA program instead of jail. The addicts are not told “either go to the program or we lock you up in jail”. It’s not a threat. They aren’t then put into a program where they’re brainwashed into believing that the outside world is the problem. Project Rose came into Phoenix and wanted to force prostitutes into counseling with the Mojave Center, onto psychiatric medications that they were being used as research lab rats for, that a church was using to funnel these women into their church program also. The center they were receiving counseling at instead of jail wasn’t licensed because their counselers, like Beth Jacobs, weren’t licensed either. The research they were doing on the women by forcing them to also take these medications they were studying them like lab rats was for an “off label use” so Medicaid wouldn’t license the center or the counselors because what they were doing was illegal. They were also identifying women as prostitutes, so they could take their children into “protective custody” as “potential sex trafficking victims” where they were being paid five times more to care for than what the “average abused child” would pay Child Protective Services. If they refused to be used like lab rats this way, they were then put into jail. We refused to have anything to do with this and demanded they remove our name, which is why Beth has such a problem with us. That’s because we reported her and the clinic’s so called “research” and lack of licensing to the state who then came and shut the whole center down and she was out of a job. When the mothers complained that CPS had no right to take their children away from them when there had been no signs of abuse, the McCain people came in and used women like Beth in the area to demolish literally Child Protective Services in 2014. They replaced it with the Dept. of Child Services. What’s the difference? Instead of being a group of social workers trying to protect children, the DCS is ran by the Attorney General’s office, i.e., it’s about criminal prosecution. So instead of “potential victims” the children were taken from the identified prostitutes in the area as “potential witnesses” to sex trafficking. Do you see all this talk in the news about children being separated from their parents? Their roots lies in a program that Beth was supporting that set that up. So in 2014, they started taking children into protective custody as “potential witnesses” then because they didn’t need to show the child had been abused, but instead just that the child might have something to testify against. Also, this care cost 5x what the care would of a child who was merely abused. If you look into the Arizona state budget – you’ll find that every year they get 80 % of what they spend on DCS now from the federal government. So the more they spend on taking children away from their parents, the more money they get from Washington at the end of the year. They paid Beth a few bucks and she went along with this whole thing without thinking it through. Readers, any time any one wants to turn one sex worker against another sex worker – there’s an agenda at work and it’s not good. Because that’s what you’re seeing now when you see these children being taken away at the border. Again, not by CPS which would be social workers, but by DCS that’s the attorney general’s office. So AZ’s children is no longer under the control of social workers, but instead law enforcement. The state has been making money off prostitutes’ backs in all kinds of creative ways! And they don’t want you warned – which is why they don’t want you talking to us!
SWA is accused of “having no members” and “having no meetings” because those who have tried to skirt past our security to those meetings can’t get past the gatekeeper. We don’t have any members “friended” for this exact reason – they are targeted by the people behind this site, attacked, threatened and smeared. We don’t have our members list that affiliation because it’s an “anonymous” program. We don’t have to prove our numbers to get any grants or fund raisers so why shout our numbers? All Jody is to SWA is the founder. She doesn’t run any group but her own, and she only sponsors her sponsees. Other members run other groups and sponsor members in their local cities. No different than what Bill Wilson’s relationship is to AA. In court, the way you tell who is the liar is by catching them in a lie. We’re accused of “having no members” and “having no meetings”. Okay explain this then: http://www.cityofchicago.org/dam/city/depts/cdph/infectious_disease/STI_HIV_AIDS/CBTTAUUpdateMayJune2012.pdf Check for the meeting time under the “footprints” category. While we don’t list our meeting times “publicly” sometimes they leak out in other ways like this report that was published. So there is a meeting in Chicago that I can assure you Jody Williams doesn’t lead because she lives in Los Angeles. How about the meeting in the jail here?http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/prostitutes-anonymous-chicago-inmates-try-leave-life-n216661 How about the transgender jail meeting? http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/lgbt/Cook-County-Jail-works-on-transgender-policies-/42906.html Here is an interview with a woman who has been going to meetings in Phoenix since 1989. http://traffickingandprostitutionservices.blogspot.com/2015/10/come-listen-to-original-member-of-our.html If I could post pictures here – I’d post the screen shot we have of the Costa Rica meeting that started a few months ago. We are an “anonymous” program where we guard our members “anonymity”. Just because YOU can’t get past our security to attend those meetings, and get to our members to attack and bully them to try and coerce them into saying something bad for this site, just proves we’re doing a good job. That doesn’t mean our members don’t exist. This site however proves you’ve been scouring the internet looking for our members so that YOU COULD BULLY THEM into saying something negative about our program and you can’t find them. Our database has over 190,000 members worldwide in our ACTIVE category. We have chapters and meetings in the USA, Canada, and five other countries at the moment. This is a smear campaign pure and simple. All a complete fabrication. When you do this – the people who know our members, and go to our meetings, just laugh at how hard you’re grasping here to smear us. You people have paid for your “fake” survivors like Samoly Mam, and your fake “rescuers” like “Bill Hillar” with your fake “rescues” like “8 Minutes” and now we have the fake smear campaign. Our program works according to professor Sharon Oselin who last year finished off a ten year research project where she has interviews with other members of our program quoted, and three investigative REPUTABLE reporters have also investigated us and written well of us, and I DARE YOU to publish that. The clips are at http://www.hightechmadam.com – the REAL ones I should say. Not the fabricated interviews you people have planted to make it appear like us. I’ve already received three emails from members who have stated to us, in writing, that they have tried to submit positive reviews for this site that were not published. So you are the “shams” here and this site PROVES that there are people out there trying to identify, target, and bully our members which is why WE DON’T LIST THEM ONLINE FOR YOU TO FIND. If anyone wonders why I fight back – this is EXACTLY why. Because there is a war on against the one program out here for adults who want to leave the sex industry that welcomes in it’s members the LGBT, the transgenders, and those who are not Christian. I will not stand there and allow our members quality recovery, nor their hard work, and achievements be smeared without defending them. Protecting oneself isn’t being a “bully”.
If you would like to hear interviews with actual members in their own voices that was not coerced nor fabricated by shadow people who won’t even reveal their identities – then you can find them at http://www.leavingtheliferadio.com There are quotes from actual real members in news articles dating back to 1987 at http://www.hightechmadam.com with more recorded interviews taken recently at http://www.sexworkersanonymous.com and on the blog at http://traffickingandprostitutionservices.blogspot.com/2015/10/come-listen-to-original-member-of-our.html Again, there are also interviews taken, and quoted, by Professor Sharon Oselin in her book “Leaving Prostitution” released last year. All those quotes, all those years – this site wants to convince you none of those people exist. Yeah right there’s not a smear campaign going on against Jody and SWA now is there? Wink wink
Lies. Staged manufactured lies. If this gets published – please look at the date on this website. You’ll see it’s less than a year old as of this date. Sex Workers Anonymous has been around since 1987. We have chapters, and members, all over the world. We have been investigated by three REPUTABLE investigative journalists – John Quinones, Bob Herbert and Tom Ragan. They each wrote glowing wonderful reports about us because they had no agenda other than the TRUTH. This website is published by a person who is being paid to deceive others because of a huge con they’re running. We did not suddenly turn into “monsters” in the last year after operating for 30 years. I am only one out of many members who exist in this organization. The name “Jody Williams” is no different than that of Bill Wilson with respect to AA. He personally has nothing to do with AA nor every other member of AA either . Of course we don’t offer “housing and jobs” anymore than AA does. Putting people into subsidized housing and minimum wage jobs under threat of going to jail if you don’t live that way is not our idea of life after sex work. Our members are artists, writers, doctors, lawyers, directors, film makers – and people who have gone onto new careers after sex work in work they wanted to pursue living in their own home. Every “testimonial” on here is completely manufactured. There is a difference between “free speech” and “defamation” by people who are running a con. This will be investigated because the people here who have been “outted” are not “members”. SWA owes confidentiality to it’s members NOT to people who are running an illegal con on the general public and breaking the law to do so. The reason why we’re suing, and pressing criminal charges, is to expose this con so that REAL sex workers can see who hijacked the movement to help them find help to exit the industry, and who is trying to turn “recovery” into subsidized housing, minimum wage jobs, with the threat of jail hanging over their head if they don’t comply. We aren’t even a “religious” program. If we were what this site charges – then how come REPUTABLE reporters didn’t find any evidence of this number one? Number two – how come none of this started until Relativity Media started trying to con people with “8 Minutes” being real? That’s all this site is – trying to defame me personally so that no one will listen to our charges against Relativity Media. Only the truth always comes out in the wash. And you know what? If this is the best you could come up with against us after being around for 30 years – then we’re doing pretty damn good. That’s if any of these were even true or real. I notice you didn’t speak to anyone in our regular groups nor any of our actual members. You know why? BECAUSE YOU COULDN’T GET AT THEM. But then you charge we “don’t protect your anonymity”. If that was true – you’d actually have some real comments up here from real members but you don’t because you COULDN’T GET AT THEM. Despite all your little tricks – you couldn’t bypass our security. THAT’S how well we do guard our members’ anonymity. The truth is we are the ONLY program that welcomes working with the LGBT community and THAT’S also what this is about. Something I don’t even see on your site for some interesting reason you noting – about the fact that all these other groups DON’T ACCEPT the males, the transgenders, or the LGBT community, let alone the Jewish, Buddhist or all over religions which we also accept, even atheists. Because that’s also what the hijacking of this movement was about – to destroy services to anyone who was not a Christian heterosexual female. This is antisemitism and gay bashing at it’s most clever.
This is not confidential. If you call them, they retain your number and will call you when they want. (“they” are someone named Jody Williams). I’m pretty sure this is just one imbalanced person and not a big rescue org. I would recommend staying far away from sexworkers anonymous. They/she is Not worthy of trust.