Every year, the Toronto District
School Board publishes a Days of Significance Calendar for students. It
includes the holidays of different religions and various UN mandated
observances. May 15 for example, was the International Day of Families.
The TDSB also includes the
International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers on the Calendar.
You might find it odd that the Board
thinks violence against sex workers is an issue school kids should worry about.
I certainly do. I hope that for most of their school careers our kids won’t
even know sex workers exist.
The Board could choose to highlight
all sorts of different days. For instance, National Library week was
October 17 – 24 and National School Library Day was October 22. These didn't make it onto the School Board’s Calendar. So why do sex workers
rate and librarians don’t?
Other international days get on the
Calendar because they were declared by the UN. Not the sex workers’ day. It was
actually started by sex workers. Specifically by Annie Sprinkle (that
would be her professional name, you understand) and the Sex Workers Outreach
Project.
The day is celebrated each year by
prostitutes, strippers, porn actors, dominatrixes and, bizarrely,
by the Toronto District School Board.
 |
Vancouver dominatrix Mz. Scream
hosted an event for the Dec 17th
sex workers day this past year |
In Toronto, the main sponsor of the
sex workers day is Maggie’s Place. This is a prostitutes’ organization which
provides many practical workshops for its members. On May 8, for example,
Maggie’s offered “Tips on client screening for escorts and BDSM
pros” (here).
But Maggie’s focus is also political.
As with all the prostitutes’ groups organizing around the December
17th sex workers’ day, they “advocate for removal of all laws that
criminalize sex work.”
Maggie’s also thinks that
prostitution should be just one more possible career path, without any negative
stigma: “Maggie’s advocates that we should all have the right to choose or
reject sex work, just as we have the right to choose or reject any other kind
of work,” it says on their web site.
Or as the Dec 17th Organization
headquartered in New York puts it, they oppose “the stigma and discrimination
that is perpetuated by the prohibitionist laws [against prostitution].”
Of course violence against sex
workers is wrong. Indeed, it's illegal, as is violence perpetrated against
anyone. As for prostitution laws, I don’t have strong opinions one way or the
other. But I am clear that the Toronto School Board shouldn’t be jumping in to
support any political goal. Period.
Unfortunately, I don't think the Board understands this.
And I find it almost beyond belief that the Board has chosen to promote a day
that’s especially set aside to promote the rights of sex workers and the repeal
of prostitution laws.
Initially, I supposed that the
inclusion of the sex workers' day on the Days of Significance Calendar must be
some sort of screw up. Once I brought it to the Board’s attention, I figured
the sex workers day would be dropped from the on-line version of the Calendar
immediately, and I’d get an embarrassed but thankful email for bringing this to
their attention.
That was six weeks ago. I’ve had
assurance from the Board that they're taking my concerns seriously, but the
International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers remains on the Days of
Significance Calendar.
As far as I can tell it’s not a
slip-up at all. The sex workers day has been on the Board's calendar for at
least two years, and it’s there because in its wisdom, the Toronto District
School Board chose to promote December 17th – that special day set aside
for prostitutes, strippers, and dominatrixes and the right of young people to
choose such professions without shame.
