Resignation as Editor..Douglas Fox

Dear readers of Harlots. My apologies for the lack of articles. Unfortunately since June I have been unwell. I am beginning to feel better but I doubt my health will return to normal. With this in mind I have taken the decision to retire as editor from Harlots Parlour and to retire from sex worker activism. I have been around in the movement for some considerable time now and I hope that I have made people think a little more about sex work not just as a job but as a profession that fulfils a human need, as a reflection of our shared humanity, our culture, and as an expression of the divine. Sex work has a rich history of which we should be proud and sex workers represent the rich diversity of our human experience and of course there is not just tell one story to tell.

I also hope that I have held those who speak as activists in our name to account. This decision has earned me lots of enemies. Good. I never wanted to be a clone of the ECP, SWOU or even the IUSW. There is not one political ideology that speaks for sex workers or one type of experience within sex work but rather a huge diversity of faiths, or no faiths, political allegiance or none, methods of working etc. I am most proud of being a thorn in the side of the sex worker establishment and I hope if someone takes my place that they will continue to hold sex worker organisations to account. No one is ever above criticism and because we do not have any democratic organisation within sex worker rights in the UK, no group that relies upon an open for all membership for financial independence or decision making, then criticising and questioning when necessary those who speak in our name to the press and to government becomes especially important.

I am contacting the other editors today to ask if they wish to continue Harlots. I hope they do, but that is up to them. I hope that if they do continue with Harlots that they will continue to encourage the expression of diversity of opinions and experiences within sex work for which Harlots has quite rightly won an excellent reputation. The reason Harlots was created by Caroline was to provide a forum for the divers opinions that exist within the sex worker experience and I hope that I fulfilled this ideal under my stewardship.

I will ask others if (should the other editors not wish to continue) Harlots should be closed or left with the present articles available as a point of reference. Either way Harlots will remain until Christmas 2013.

I am not disappearing entirely but because I want to concentrate on writing and design work I will be opening a new face book account and possibly a new blog account under my pseudonym Christopher Turney, if anyone wishes to follow my writing and other other work I will be delighted. I will also of course continue to campaign for sex workers but less publicly and only do public work if asked.

So once again thank you for your support over the years and keep on fighting for rights. Sex is great and a world without sex workers will be a very dull place.

Douglas Fox.

About Douglas Fox

sex worker activist..

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