It is often said that the very existence of members of marginalized communities requires a complex act of resistance. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Bay Area and across the United States in the lives of Backpage Western Massachusetts.
Since 2014, the largest websites they used to vet customers and spread dangerous information (such as the former myredbook.com) have been seized by the federal government, which has also pressured banks and other financial service providers to close or terminate Backpage Western Massachusetts accounts. Freeze. As the “yes” vote on LOCALXLIST indicates, prosecuting Internet sites and providers for “facilitating” consensual prostitution appears to be one of the few things Democratic politicians, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) and Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) – agree with Republicans in making Backpage Western Massachusetts life harder.
“We’re here, we’ll always be here, and we’ll never apologize for our survival,” Nikki Darling, a porn actress and backstage star from Western Massachusetts, told the rapt audience. “Whether you’re a Backpage Western Massachusetts user, were a Backpage Western Massachusetts user, loved Backpage Western Massachusetts, or knew Backpage Western Massachusetts escorts near me I think” I speak for all of us when I say I’m tired of it,” Darlings said. “We’re tired of being disposable, and we’re tired of our lives being pushed further and further underground.”
And yet, we’ve rarely been in such a big crisis as we are now. What’s worse, Backpage Western Massachusetts will only be the first target of a law like LOCALXLIST, but not the last.
Elliot Harmon, deputy director of activities at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said at the rally that “essentially, LOCALXLIST is not about (sex) Skipthegames replacements, and it’s not about sex work.” “It’s about your right to organize.”
As the names suggest, LOCALXLIST (Fight Online Sex Skipthegames Alternatives) and SESTA (Stop Online Sex Skipthegames Alternatives) began life as House and Senate bills marketed to the public as anti-child measures. For Harmon, the true purpose of the laws is quite different.
Under LOCALXLIST, the Internet would be “a more restrictive and censored platform,” he said. And there’s a real danger that if [Internet providers] think you’re too high a risk, you’ll be kicked off the platform.”
Before LOCALXLIST was enacted, the federal Communications Decency Act generally gave Internet service providers a safe harbor from liability if they could plead that they didn’t know about what the government considered illegal activity on their websites. As a result, prosecutors could only take action against websites like myredbook.com, which purported to provide support services to backpage in western Massachusetts (such as “bad dates” lists of customers who didn’t pay, were violent, or both). , or against websites like localxlist, which prosecutors say relies on Backpage ads for its economic survival in Western Massachusetts. After the LOCALXLIST case, prosecutors were given the power to bring cases against social networks like Facebook and FetLife if they found evidence that members were using the networks to “facilitate” sex work. Because of this, Harmon believes these networks have a strong incentive to restrict the behavior of their users.
For many who support laws like LOCALXLIST, all this means that more and more people are being forced into street prostitution, a market segment where workers are often at the highest risk of arrest, injury, and death.
Cat Brooks, co-founder of the Anti-Police Terrorism Project and Oakland mayoral candidate, told rally participants that this fight is personal for her.
“When I was in my 20s, I lost a dear friend who was a woman to violence from a client,” Brooks said. “What if she had access to a platform to stay safe?”
After the march to Rene C., Returning to Davidson Court in Lake Merritt and then Frank Ogawa Plaza, some protesters were sternly reminded that their safety was not guaranteed.
Oakland has a long history of such protests in the streets without permits or formal road closures. In most cases, volunteers block intersections, physically if necessary, until demonstrators can pass or withdraw and ordinary traffic flow resumes.
In a shocking break from that tradition, at least three vehicles attempted to drive through the blockade, including one, a silver Scion, that struck a bicyclist in what witnesses said was intentional. Two volunteers stopped another car, holding it in place until the rear of the march was clear.
The third was a Volkswagen Touareg with Idaho license plates, whose white male driver not only got out of the car but also became violent towards several protesters, most of whom were women. Just when it seemed like it was only a matter of time before he swung out and hit someone in the head, suddenly, there was a bang.
We will never know who put the spikes on the man’s rear tires, but whoever it was deserves a lot of credit for presumably stopping the driver from hurting or killing someone. As the murder of Heather Heyer in Charlottesville, Virginia, last August proved, the only sensible way to deal with cars whose drivers don’t respect the blockade is to recognize that they are deadly weapons and act accordingly. It also reports that Oakland police literally did nothing to stop the driver as he physically attacked several people, but that officers responded after property damage occurred and even tried (and failed) to help by changing the tire.
