Brothel Model for Marginalized Sex Workers - Vancouver's Forbidden City

[Guest W***ledi*Time]

Forbidden City in Vancouver is licensed as a private club. It offers a â??safe and social settingâ? where providers working the busy Kingsway â??strollâ? can safely take male clients. The client, not the sex worker, must pay the club fee.

The proprietor, Jamie Lee Hamilton, says there is an urgent need for an indoor brothel to be located and funded on the Downtown Eastside, where sex workers are the most vulnerable. Hamilton is negotiating for an existing Granville Entertainment District space and hopes the Downtown Eastside hosts the next indoor brothel.


Suzanne Fournier reports for [I]The Province[/I], 31 Mar 2012:

[url]http://www.theprovince.com/news/Vancouver+worker+advocate+calls+private+clubs+quell+killing+fields+Downtown+Eastside/6392473/story.html#ixzz1qkmOZeBG[/url]

[INDENT][B]Vancouver sex-worker advocate calls for private clubs to quell â??killing fieldsâ?? in Downtown Eastside[/B]

With one of Canadaâ??s top courts giving the green light to indoor brothels, sex worker advocates say more safe red-light spaces are urgently needed.

â??The current model of prostitution is just not working and the safety of men and women engaged in the sex trade is just not there,â? said Vancouver city councillor Elizabeth Ball, who has been meeting with many community groups.

â??There needs to be dialogue around how sex work can occur in safety indoors.

â??How can we make sure sex workers are safe and neighbouroods are represented?â?

[B]Meanwhile, high-profile sex worker advocate Jamie Lee Hamilton has already found a way, with her discreet, city-licensed Forbidden City private club on Kingsway, a model that she hopes to open soon in the Granville entertainment district and eventually amid the â??killing fieldsâ? of the Downtown Eastside.[/B]

Hamilton says that as long as sex workers remain on the street, driven by drug addiction and with no safe place to take tricks, women will die.

The Ontario Court of Appeal ruled this week that laws against brothels are unconstitutional, meaning police raids on â??common bawdy housesâ? likely will be a thing of the past, unless sex workers are underage or being trafficked.

But, in a split decision certain to please no one, the Court also upheld laws against communicating or soliciting by sex workers on the street or in public.

The two dissenting judges did say: â??The communicating provision chokes off self-protection options for prostitutes who are already at enormous risk.â?

While the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry grapples with how dozens of sex workers could be snatched and murdered, for decades, activists say soliciting laws keep women fleeing police and desperate to take up any strangerâ??s offer.

Even though the VPD quietly ceased to arrest women for street prostitution in 2007, dropping from more than 600 arrests in 2006 to no convictions in the past four years, advocates say most women still have outstanding warrants on other drug-related or petty matters out for their arrest and fear police.

VPD Chief Jim Chu and the police board have also promulgated new and progressive policies on policing of marginalized street-based sex workers.

Pivot Legal Society lawyer Katrina Pacey, who intervened in the Ontario case on behalf of sex workers, says ways must be found for women to safely ply their trade indoors.

â??For the most vulnerable women to be jumping into cars with strangers is the most dangerous way for the sex trade to take place; women continue to be harmed and even killed,â? said Pacey.

Pacey notes that women living in poverty in single-room occupancy hotels often are not allowed to bring in clients or charged prohibitively to do so.

[B]Hamilton found a way three years ago to take the sex trade safely and discreetly indoors, with a legal city-issued licence.

Hamilton is now lauded for running Grandmaâ??s House as a safe haven in the Downtown Eastside for sex workers, at the height of serial killer fears, even though it was closed as a â??common bawdy houseâ? by police in 2000.

Former VPD Chief Terry Blythe even admitted at the Missing Women Inquiry that Grandmaâ??s House was a good model, although he was top cop when it was closed. Hamilton told the inquiry that was â??one of the stupidest decisions ever made,â? one that clearly cost some vulnerable sex workers their lives.[/B]

Hamilton also called the Ontario decision â??truly bizarre,â? making sex work in brothels safe but upholding the ban on street soliciting or â??communicating.

â??That means survival sex workers, many of who are drug-addicted, will remain on the street, making them easy prey for violent men and serial predators.â?

Studies show seven out of 10 serial murder victims are sex workers.

Most DTES steet-based sex workers are aboriginal, as were a majority of the victims of Robert Pickton, the self-confessed serial killer of 49 women.

[B]Now Hamilton has relocated to the â??mid-track strollâ? along busy Kingsway.[/B]

No one could guess the nature of the business from the subdued facade of Hamiltonâ??s Forbidden City club, but once inside the dimly-lit space, the non-stop adult videos and busy cubicle traffic offer a clue.

Two locked doors, one with a window to scrutinize visitors, provide a safety barrier, as recommended in discussions with Vancouver police, notes Hamilton.

[B]Forbidden City is duly licensed as a private club, where women working the busy Kingsway â??strollâ? can safely take male clients, who must pay a fee.[/B]

The club offers a â??safe and social settingâ? for clients and sex workers, especially transgendered sex workers who face discrimination and violence.

Hamilton says she takes no money from sex workers, only client â??members.â?

A handsome, burly man in his 40s named, for this story, â??John,â? says Forbidden City is a place for him to safely and openly explore his sexuality.

â??Am I married? Yes. Happily? No,â? says John. â??I wouldnâ??t have talked to a gay man ten years ago but this is a non-judgemental place to relax and test my own thresholds for sexuality. With social media, itâ??s easy to meet people here.â?

Hamilton praised the Ontario court for striking down the â??bawdy houseâ? laws apparently of a past era, especially since bodyrub parlours and â??micro-brothelsâ? pay major coin to advertise openly in mainstream media.

But she says there is an urgent need for an indoor brothel to be located and funded on the Downtown Eastside, where sex workers are the most vulnerable.

[B]Hamilton is negotiating through a realtor for an existing Entertainment District space and hopes the Downtown Eastside hosts the next indoor brothel.[/B]

[B]Pacey agrees, although she notes â??the challenge would be to make it very low-threshold and very affordable for low-income, marginalized sex workers.â?[/B]

If business alone canâ??t cover expenses, then the B.C. and city governments should consider funding an inner-city space for sex workers as a form of â??harm reduction,â? argues Pacey, â??much like we now fund safe-injection sites.â?[/INDENT]


Some background on Grandma's House: [url]http://www.cerb.ca/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=81534[/url]

Forbidden City's website: [url]http://forbiddencityvan.com/[/url]

Forbidden City's rooms:

[img]http://forbiddencityvan.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Forbgidden-City-Room-1.jpg[/img][img]http://forbiddencityvan.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Forbidden-Cigty-Room-2.jpg[/img]