The White-Slave Traffic Act, also called the Mann Act, is a United States federal law, passed June 25, 1910. It is named after Congressman James Robert Mann of Illinois.
A massage parlor or massage parlour is a place where massage services are provided for a fee. In the 19th century, the term began to be used in English as a euphemism for a brothel.
Male prostitution is the act or practice of men providing sexual services in return for payment. It is a form of sex work. Although clients can be any gender, the vast majority are male. Compared to female prostitutes, male prostitutes have been far less studied by researchers.
COYOTE is an American sex workers' rights organization. Its name is a backronym for Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics, a reflection of the fact that sex work tends to be stigmatized primarily because of society-imposed standards of ethics. COYOTE's goals include the decriminalization of prostitution, pimping and pandering, as well as the elimination of social stigma concerning sex work as an occupation.
Prostitution is illegal in the vast majority of the United States as a result of state laws rather than federal laws. It is, however, legal in some rural counties within the state of Nevada. Prostitution nevertheless occurs elsewhere in the country.
Forced prostitution, also known as involuntary prostitution or compulsory prostitution, is prostitution or sexual slavery that takes place as a result of coercion by a third party. The terms "forced prostitution" or "enforced prostitution" appear in international and humanitarian conventions such as the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court but have been insufficiently understood and inconsistently applied. "Forced prostitution" refers to conditions of control over a person who is coerced by another to engage in sexual activity.
Prostitution in Rhode Island was outlawed in 2009. On November 3, 2009, Republican Governor Donald Carcieri signed into law a bill which makes the buying and selling of sexual services a crime.
Rachel Elizabeth Lloyd is a British anti trafficking advocate, author and the founder of Girls Educational and Mentoring Services. She is known for her work on the issue of commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking and has been a leader in helping shift the perception of trafficked girls from criminals to victims and now to survivors and leaders. She immigrated to the US in 1997 and began working to end domestic sex trafficking, primarily focusing on addressing the commercial sexual exploitation of children and young women. In 1998, she established the Girls Educational and Mentoring Services, which is based in Harlem, New York.
Prostitution in Norway is illegal and a criminal act when sexual acts are purchased, but not when sold. The Norwegian law prohibiting the buying of sexual acts came into effect on 1 January 2009, following the passing of new legislation by the Norwegian parliament in November 2008. Soliciting and advertising "sexual services" is also illegal under the Norwegian Criminal Code section 378 and section 202(3).
Prostitution in Zimbabwe and related acts, including solicitation, procuring, and keeping a brothel, are illegal but thriving. Zimbabwe's dire economic situation has forced many women into sex work.
Happy Endings? is a 2009 cinéma vérité documentary film directed and produced by Tara Hurley. Filmed over 27 months, it chronicles the lives of the women in massage parlors in Rhode Island during a battle in the state legislature to once again make prostitution illegal. During the period of filming, prostitution in Rhode Island was legal as long as it was conducted behind closed doors.
Joanne Giannini is an American politician who was a Democratic member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives, representing District 7 (Providence) from 1994 till 2010. On July 2, 2010, she announced she would not run for reelection.
There exists a diversity of feminist views on prostitution. Many of these positions can be loosely arranged into an overarching standpoint that is generally either critical or supportive of prostitution and sex work. The discourse surrounding prostitution is often discussed assuming sex workers are women, but those in the field of sex work and prostitution are not always women.
Ruchira Gupta is an journalist and activist. She is the founder of Apne Aap, a non-governmental organisation that works for women's rights and the eradication of sex trafficking.
Donna M. Hughes is an American academic and feminist who chairs the women's studies department at the University of Rhode Island. Her research concerns prostitution and human trafficking; she was a prominent supporter of the campaign to end prostitution in Rhode Island and has testified on these issues before several national legislative bodies. She sits on the editorial board of Sexualization, Media, and Society, a journal examining the impact of sexualized media.
Rhoda Perry was a Democratic member of the Rhode Island Senate, representing the 3rd District. Perry was the chairwoman of Senate Committee on Health & Human Services and a member, Senate Committee on Judiciary.
Megan Andelloux is a certified sexologist and sexuality educator, accredited through The American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT) and The American College of Sexologists (ACS).
Richard Holcomb is a human rights advocate, street outreach worker and HIV prevention counselor in Providence, Rhode Island. He is best known for his groundbreaking work in HIV prevention and as the founder of Project Weber, a program for male sex-workers in Rhode Island. The program is named after Roy Weber, a 22-year-old male sex worker who was murdered on Christmas Day, 2003. Holcomb has done extensive research on male prostitution in the United States, Canada and Europe, and has been featured in several films on this subject.
Natasha Falle is a Canadian professor at Humber College in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, who was forcibly prostituted from the ages of 15 to 27 and now opposes prostitution in Canada. Falle grew up in a middle-class home and, when her parents divorced, her new single-parent home became unsafe, and Falle ran away from home. At the age of 15, Falle became involved in the sex industry in Calgary, Alberta.
The Red Umbrella Project is a New York based non-profit organization that advocates on behalf of sex workers and strives to empower them by giving them a voice.
