Board member of prostitute safe house attacks prostitute rights activist.

Board member of prostitute safe house attacks prostitute rights activist.

The scene of the crime of disrespect this time was the Potrero Hill Democratic Club monthly meeting June 3rd, 2008. Green Party candidate, Barry Hermanson spoke about his campaign to run for congress. The centerpiece of his campaign is to educate on the amounts of money being spent by the US government on the military and specifically in Iraq instead of our own infrastructure.

Another guest speaker, Maxine Doogan, proponent of signature collection drive to qualify a ballot initiative to decriminalize prostitution in San Francisco, followed him. Doogan responded to a question about jurisdiction from a member. A common question about how the city can exercise ‘home rule’ under the state constitution to not enforce state laws like arresting people for prostitution.

Hermanson dominated the discussion from there.
He revealed that he is on the board of San Francisco Network Ministries Housing Corporation that acts as fiscal sponsor for a safe house for those who plan on leaving the profession of prostitution. His bio says he was the chairman and was the Owner/Operator, Hermanson's Employment Services. He stated that there is a list of women waiting to get in to the safe house in order to stop working as prostitutes. He stated that there was opposition to the initiative a few days prior, at the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee who had voted against a resolution endorsing decriminalizing prostitution. Additionally he made a general statement about a concern regarding trafficking and how it would proliferate under decriminalization and that his safe house would loose funding if this ordinance passes.


Maxine Doogan responded by saying that his safe house wouldn’t lose funding if the ordinance passed.
Hermanson interrupted her and began to argue and Doogan had to demand that he allow her to speak to his concerns.

She challenged him to show where in the language of the petition that the safe house would be denied money. The petition stops the city from enforcing the prostitution laws and operating the First Offender Prostitution Program, which now profits off the criminalization of prostitution whereby the proceeds are split between the police department, the district attorney's office and the not-for-profit corporation, SAGE Project Inc. Questions about the monies and practices of the FOPP have resulted in an audit by the city budget analyst currently under way. Additionally, when the city stops enforcing the anti prostitution laws, it would make available the estimated 11.4 million dollars to the general fund upon which anyone could then have access to it including Hermanson's group.

Doogan cited the recent release of an impact study from New Zealand, where prostitution was decriminalized 5 years ago. The study said that no increase in prostitution had occurred under decriminalization and that there was no direct relationship between the sex industry and forced labor.

The full report is available on the Ministry of Justice website:
http://www.justice.govt.nz/prostitution-law-review-committee/publications/plrc-report/index.html


Doogan went on to explain that forced labor occurs in other industries and what was most important to workers in any case was to access equal protection under the law, which her petition mandates. Workers who don't have equal protection under the law regardless of legal status, country of origin or ability to speak English don't have the right to negotiate for their work conditions either. In all cases workers ought not have to risk their economic status to make police reports. By removing the barrier of criminality, workers in San Francisco would gain equal protection under the law. In combination with the sanctuary city ordinance, that would enfranchise all workers, especially those who had to pay to get here.

Doogan went on to point out that if he was so concerned about trafficking when people are having to pay to be transported to this country and pay to work, why wasn't he concerned about the labor racketeering at the dance clubs where millions of dollars of class action settlements have been awarded to dancers for having their labor rights violated in the pay to work schemes.

At which point he stated that Doogan was calling his director a liar. When asked what he was taking about, he stated that his safe house director had made the statement to the SF Democratic County Central Committee meeting that it would lose funding under this proposal. Again Doogan challenged him to explain.

The president of the club, Joni Eisen, said the meeting had to end and that Doogan could circulate her petition to collect signatures.

It was clear to some members of the club that Hermanson had ‘attacked’ Maxine
And ‘had lost ground on his issue’ as a result. ‘He was talking apples and
oranges’, one member said. Another poked her finger to her temple and stated that the SFDCCC members where not known for being that smart. Many signed the petition and wondered aloud; ‘what ask Maxine would have had for the club’ had she not been attacked?

Barry Harmenson sits on the board of San Francisco Network Ministries Housing Corporation that acts as the fiscal sponsor for the safe house. When he used the language "‘my director," he clearly stated his position. He's the boss and in the position to hire and fire. And when bosses like him pit current sex workers against those who wish to leave the industry, he does a disservice to all workers.

Questions remain: Did the president of the Potrero Hill Dem Club, Joni Eisen, know that Barry Hermanson sat on a religious board that runs a safe house for women leaving the profession of prostitution? Is the irony of Hermanson’s crusade about misappropriation of funds used for militarization by the Bush Administration lost in his religious zealotry to continue his own oppression of a group of workers? He obviously missed the part where his own party, the Green Party, had already endorsed the petition drive in March.