San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee votes on historic resolution but eats it

Thanks to those who showed up to and voted on the

RESOLUTION CALLING FOR NON-ENFORCEMENT OF CURENT LAWS AGAINST PROSTITUTION AND FOR DECRIMINALIZATION OF SEX WORK

Whereas, the San Francisco Police Department and District Attorney are vigorously enforcing current laws against prostitution even though the City has a $300 million deficit and murder rates in SF have been rising

Whereas, the experience of Australia, New Zealand and European countries has shown that decriminalization of sex work first will reduce violence and exploitation of sex workers - conditions aggravated by illegalization.

RESOLVED, that the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee:

1. Calls upon the Police Department and District Attorney to cease enforcing present laws against prostitution, and calls upon our State legislators to sponsor and support legislation allowing the City to decriminalize sex work and bring equal protection under the law to sex workers.

2. Urges voters to sign the initiative petition currently being
circulated, which calls for non enforcement of current prostitution
laws and bring protection to sex workers.


It was historic and it took courage so congratulations.

5/28/08
N-8
Y-5
A-2
Thanks to the Harvey Milk Club members who should up to speak in favor of the resolution to support the decrim as per the resolution from the Milk Club 4/22/08 meeting.
Thanks to all the sfdccc members who showed up and voted.
But as they say, those who didn’t show up voted too.

The anti prostitution people showed up and said the usual lies; '7 pimp on pimp shootings' as per the emails they get from the D3 police precinct captain.


The gal who runs a safe house for prostitutes was allowed to go way past her one-minute public comment. The chair, Scott Wiener, as it turns out voted against the resolution even though he signed the petition. So it was clear he was willing to allow an unfair process where by the profiteers got to go on and on until I objected loudly and demanded more time myself.

A polk street neighborhood woman said her house had been threatened by pimps with guns but that she would be willing to have a discussion about how I could work legally off the streets. I guess as long as she doesn’t have see the violence against me, and she’s not being threatened, she gets to call the shots on my working conditions. This kind of ownership of my body is the most distressing to me. I had contacted this group last summer and asked to have a discussion and they ignored me. At the Milk Club endorsement meeting, I asked David Chiu to have a discussion with his group, the Polk Neighborhood Association; he was the president, and he ignored me. He ignored me so he could set up the haters to speak out in public while he ditched the vote.


Leslie Katz took the prize for eating the most. She stated that she had signed the petition but that she was mislead by me, the proponent because of the title of the initiative and would withdraw her signature. She suggested that I get the city attorney to help me write something. The truth is that the city attorney does write the title and summary and that the exact same initiative was submitted two years ago and the city attorney wrote a different title and summary. She blithered on about the federal raids in SF and how it was a testament to what’s wrong. She missed the part where 59 workers were deported as a result of those raids. So much for our sanctuary city status. She said the measure would defund services like rehab for prostitutes, which is not true. The measure would stop the DA, the police and SAGE from profiting off the First Offender Prostitution Program. These not-for-profit corporations have to be transparent about fact that they rely on the police to make arrests, the DA to threaten prostitution prosecutions to traffick participants into the FOPP, run by the SAGE project Inc. This not-for-profit corporations is the main disburser of ‘referral and services’ to other not-for-profits like rehab and ‘safe houses’. What’s being hidden is that the majority of participation in ‘services’ are mandatory, coerced through by threat of prosecution and jail. And that is the scheme by which not-for-profit corporations rely on the criminalization of prostitution to earn their living. Some people do get services voluntarily, that will not change. They always default to the ‘pimp bating’ a form of ‘reefer madness’ rhetoric to insight moral panic to stop logical thinking.

Leslie Katz is ignorant about the process as well as the issues. She and others want to legalize prostitution. Jane Morrison asked what was the difference between legalized and decrim.

I made myself available to these people both by email as well as follow up phone calls. Other Milk Club members spoke to some and Jane in particular, so for her to ask that question when she had access to the answer from an actual working prostitute, is the extent to the disrespect I was shown last night. They had a real live prostitute in front of them who has over come all the systems of violence they imagine, yet they chose to ignore me and render me invisible. The ultimate act of violence. I’m sure early gay rights activist faced the same violence when they showed up and asked freedom. Who opposed gay rights? And what were their reasons?

DCCC members like Leslie Katz didn’t want to be educated, and insisted upon making ignorant statements and decisions in public. One member, Holli Their, got up and left the meeting right before the discussion and vote. Clear message, my life and the lives of our class and the lives of our children are not important to democrats like her.

Having said that, I’m concerned about the kind of democracy practiced by the DCCC in San Francisco. Prostitution is always this hot button topic, and the education piece is cumbersome and time consuming. And as the proponent, I’ve made room in my life to be available for these conversations. But I was never even contacted by these elected representatives of Democratic Party to have any discussions about the resolution or the initiative to decriminalize prostitution and bring equal protection under the law to us sex workers. These act of indifference by our elected Democratic Party representatives is a form of violence and doesn’t’ belong in our democratic party. To not have bothered to read the petition nor respond to my efforts to educate elected officials was to exclude me and my issues from democracy. Additionally, those who didn’t bother to send in proxies to vote on important issues from the community are additionally irresponsible. One member, got up and left the meeting right before the discussion and vote. The message was clear; my life and the lives of our class and the lives of our children are not important to democrats like her. It’s these acts of disenfranchisement and disrespect that give everyone pause to question whose side are they on?
In the age where we’ve been stripped of our civil rights and due process non-existent, we need our local elected officials to be held to the highest standards and guardians of democracy at every turn. If you can’t do the time, don’t make yourself available to serve.


Take back the Democratic Party,
Maxine Doogan
http://www.espu-ca.org


12th Assembly District

Dan Dunnigan

Susan Hall No

Tom Hsieh

Mary Jung

Meagan Levitan

Trevor McNeil

Jane Morrison Abstained

Melanie Nutter No

Connie O’Connor No

Arlo Hale Smith Yes

Matt Tuchow No

David Wong No

13th Assembly District

Bill Barnes Absent

David Campos yes, by proxy

David Chiu, excused, Scott stated he was sick. (But he was photographed outside the meeting at 5:55pm. He was dressed in a suit speaking to Fiona Ma’s people)

Gerry Crowley

Michael Goldstein absent

Robert Haaland absent

Joe Julian Yes

Leslie Katz No

Rafael Mandelman Yes

Laura Spanjian Yes

Holli Thier left the meeting

Scott Wiener No

Betty Yee proxy Abstained

Carole Migden Absent

Mark Leno Absent

Leland Lee Absent

Fiona Ma Absent

Nancy Pelosi Absent

Diane Feinstein Absent