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The Potrero View Sex Workers Suffer During Economic Downturn By Andrea de Brito In sexually indulgent San Francisco, many sex workers consider themselves lucky to be free of the harassment, repression, and persecution their profession is subject to elsewhere. But even in the City the sex business is under pressure. Last fall, Proposition K, a municipal ballot measure to decriminalize sex work, lost to a well-funded anti-trafficking campaign led by Mayor Gavin Newsom and District Attorney (DA) Kamala Harris. Then came the financial crisis, resulting in job-loss and steady cuts to health and welfare services. Sex workers and their advocates agree: sex work is not a recession-proof business. “Business is definitely slower in this economy. We spent years in this artificially inflated economy and a ridiculous amount of money was being thrown around. I think people are being very cautious,” said Rich, a male sex worker and performance artist who dropped out of college, moved to San Francisco, and became a sex worker twelve years ago after discovering he really liked older men. “We all are suffering right now,” agreed Acire, a dominatrix, escort, and Tantric masseuse, as well the co-founder of San Francisco Sex Workers Outreach Project. “Once our clients lose their jobs, we lose business.” According to Acire, when long-term clients tell her they don’t have the money, she’s happy to give them breaks, calling the discounts “recessions specials.” “I worked in brothels, and brothels are all about who’s the new girl,” said a sex worker from Toronto, who entered the profession two years ago and immediately moved to Sydney, Australia, where licensed brothels are legal. “So I’d be like, hey I’m the Canadian girl, and they’d be like, alright. But there’s sometimes fifty percent less guys coming in.” Bucking the trend, demand for Roberta, a middle-aged sex worker from Seattle, who left a job in corporate accounting six and half years ago, remains steady. “I’ve been hearing so much about the recession and I’ve had more business than I’ve ever had. I think there are definitely people hurting in this industry but I think people do have an established reputation with regulars. People are more afraid to just play, and it’s being seen as more an investment of their money. If they’re parting with it they have to know it’s going to work.” The majority of Roberta’s clients are people dealing with lifelong neurological disorders who benefit from bodywork and sensual touch. Her clientele is considered a niche market, but she works hard to maintain a website, consulting lawyers to make sure the content is legal. According to Roberta, her attorney cautions her against organizing meetings, where she and fellow sex workers can discuss health and safety issues. Since Bush-era anti-trafficking laws, such as the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, providing support to colleagues in the sex business can be considered aiding and abetting prostitution or trafficking. As a result, many sex workers feel they can’t be activists, relying on allies or former sex workers for political support. After the shuttering of Craigslist’s Erotic Services section in May, the online sex trade shifted to the Adult Services section. However, ads cost $10 – with associated revenues sent to anti-trafficking organizations – identification and a phone number has to be provided, and postings are screened for content by a Craigslist moderator. The changes have scared off sex workers and potential clients, who fear that law enforcement could be looming behind the screen. “Several ladies said this [Craigslist] is my main money maker, and it was easier to screen my clients,” Acire said. “A lot of the ladies were street workers before, and Craigslist helped them get off the street…many of them went back to the streets.” According to Acire, since the erotic services section closed down, clients are paying sex workers less. Women who were charging $150 to $300 an hour are now charging $150 or less. She believes that the phenomenon is a result of a different mix of clients since the Craigslist change, and new sex workers coming into the profession and “not knowing what’s going on.”
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