May 2007 news
>> SW5 back in Earl's Court <<
The electical work in our Earl's Court offices has been completed,
so we're delighted to be back there again.
The drop-in times return to their normal 12 noon to 3 pm on Fridays, and
we're open for appointments, condom pick-ups etc from about 10 am to about 5 pm
Monday to Friday. Hope to see you here soon.
Finally, thank you to everyone at THT's main HQ in Gray's Inn Road and at
Lighthouse West in Ladbroke Grove.
Internet
access in
the drop-in returns!
The internet access for the drop-in used to be by
dial-up modem. One day, it simply stopped working, and we never did
work out why.
But now the net's back
in the drop-in, and via a 1M broadband connection
too!
The drop-in is open once a week, on Fridays from 12
noon until
3 pm.
There is space to chill out and relax or socialise and
network plus drinks and snacks as
refreshments.
SW5@Tug
restarts
If you advertise in Tug, the 18-rated supplement in
Boyz magazine, from 9th November you can usually
talk to one of our staff there from around 3pm
on
Thursday afternoons, whether you phone in your ad or
drop it off in person. (If you're making a special journey, please contact us first to check
they will be there.)
Diamond
Clinic @ SW5
The Diamond Clinic is a specialist sexual health
clinic run by Charing Cross hospital for male and transgendered sex
workers. We're delighted to announce that from 5th December, they will
usually be at SW5 on the first Tuesday afternoon of the month
to do testing for HIV, hepatitis C and syphilis, plus testing
and vaccinations for
hepatitis B.
The sessions will be from 1.30 pm and if you're not
already using our services, you'll need to have registered with
us (takes
30 minutes to an hour) first. Please contact
us for more details - at the moment, because of the electrical work,
we're expecting the March session to be on the 13th somewhere in West London.
Artangel
project performances and discussion
To the Man in My Dreams is the
result of a letter-writing game developed during workshops led by
artist George Chakravarthi with members of SW5. It was performed
and discussed at two Soho venues in November - more
details here.
Straight male
escorting
There's been another article presenting a very
positive view of straight male escorting. See
here for the reality.
HIV
transmission and the law
You may have seen stories recently about the
prosecutions of several men and two women for infecting someone else
with HIV. Read more about the issues,
including how they apply to escorts, here (updated with the
first acquittal!)
Justice
for Nikki
The much postponed trial of three men accused of the
murder of Niphan 'Nikki' Trikhana finished in July.
All received life sentences. The judge recommended
that the ringleader, Darren Johnson, serve a minimum of thirty five
years, with the others a minimum of twenty three and twenty two years.
A fourth man was found guilty of helping earlier robberies and was
sentenced to eleven years.
The gang had targeted male and female sex workers
advertising their services in small ads magazines. Victims were bound,
gagged and beaten, then robbed and forced to pose for a
“trophy” photograph.
See our message board for some tips on staying safe.
If something does go wrong, report it. You can do so directly, or via
the Crimestoppers charity or via a sex work project like SW5. Remember:
someone who attacks you may kill someone else.
What's the
scandal?
Thanks to the news last year about Mark Oaten,
we've had quite a few extra vistors recently.
What you seem to be looking for is the legal info, here and here
(the short answer is that in the UK, it's legal to 'buy sex', unless
you know the seller is under 18).
It's also an opportunity to say that we think it's
ok to sell sex, if it's a free choice (and in the case of
most male sex workers, it is).
The corollary of that is that it's ok to
buy it. Indeed, if all the people who did so 'came out', the
lives of both buyers and sellers would be improved.
Visitors from the media should also know that about
four times as many male sex workers identify as a 'male escort' or
similar, rather than a 'rent boy'.
Check
cheques again...
We still have escorts telling us their problems
with clients stopping cheques.
We're helping the escorts get justice but before you
consider accepting a cheque, please read
our page on the issues involved.
This applies even if they're a regular
client - one of the stopped cheques came from someone the
escort had been seeing for months.
To join our newsletter list with alerts like these, see below.
Agencies to
beware of
An "agency" in Slough seems to be the front for a
group of men who rip off escorts, either by paying by cheque which they
then stop or robbing the escort directly. If you have ever been
contacted by 'Sunshine Girls' or 'Unique Escorts' or been offered a
substantial booking - overnight, servicing a group of men - in the area
by an agency you'd never heard of, please contact
us.
It looks likely that 'Naughty But Nice Escorts' (their
website naughtybutniceescorts.com is currently down) is either the same
people or a different lot running the same scam.
One escort has also been ripped off in Birmingham by a
group that sound like the same bunch.
Want less than one client every four
years?
They're not the only 'agency' who we think should be
avoided - see here for more details
about onlybyinvitation.com, Starnest Escorts, Brooke Morris International,
Network Escorts, Platinum Select, Ideal Escorts, guysforladies.com,
elegance4her.com, Men For All Occasions, Cavendish Knights, and many more.
New
& updated leaflets
We've just updated Maids and the Law,
plus added the 2006 tax figures to Escorts and Money.
All the leaflets were also checked again and a few minor changes made.
We did notice one our leaflets featured (without
crediting us, humpf) on the BBC's
Streets of Vice series recently... but it was an old copy! Things do change, so download the latest
versions from here.
Volunteers
We have started to introduce the use of volunteers at
SW5, both in the drop-in service and as receptionists.
If you're interested in volunteering at SW5, please
see the help us section.
Website
We're delighted to be able to have on our site the
first volume of memoirs of one of the founders of SW5 - Richie McMullen's Enchanted Boy,
which is dedicated to "every boy who has been or is currently involved
in any form of prostitution." The second volume, Enchanted
Youth, is coming soon.
The message board
is up and running. What would you like to discuss? Let us know!
The leaflets and
publications page has the new and updated leaflets mentioned
above.
Sex
workers section
We are beginning to have more content here, including
some very good news regarding sexual health services in London and a
series of tips for safer working.
If you're a sex worker or escort and want to talk
about any particular issue or aspect of the work or your life, please do let us know.
We'll email you about once a month, and if something
urgent comes up.
We'll never give your email details to anyone else.
Had enough? Just use this form to unsubscribe.
