Adult World News

Switzerland will issue its last 'stripper's visa' this week as the visa scheme will end on 1st January 2016.

About 700 foreign strippers and cabaret performers received the special Swiss work permit in 2015. Since 2005, more than 10,700 people were given the visas, called L permits .

Switzerland began awarding eight-month permits in 1995 to women from outside the European Union who wanted to come to the country to work as strippers and cabaret dancers. The program was meant to protect people who may have otherwise been vulnerable to sex traffickers, and dancers from Russia, the Dominican Republic and Thailand were among the top recipients.

But an investigation by Swiss authorities in 2014 found that the program was no longer serving a protective role, with some permit holders were subjected to demands for money from people helping women to get their permits.

Churchgoers at New Beginnings Church in Warsaw, Ohio got a surprise when they arrived on Sunday, topless dancers with protest signs.

The Coshocton Tribune reports church misery guts have waged a 9-year war against Foxhole North, a gentlemen's club up the road, staging protests outside the venue and trying to get them shut down.

But now the fine people of the Foxhole have struck back against the rabid moralists of the church. Foxhole North Bar Owner Thomas George told reporters:

We want to let (church members) know how it feels to be under scrutiny. They come up every weekend. They're very abusive and certainly not Christian-like, not what I read in my Bible. I have to point out the hypocrisy I see and not stand by and let this go on week in and week out.

125 people attended church services, and around 30 topless dancers and other employees and friends of the Fox Tail came to protest. Only six or so women actually bared their breasts, even though appearing in public topless is legal in the state of Ohio. Nonetheless, George took caution to protect churchgoers' eyes by hanging a tarpaulin along the entrance to the church.

Anny Donewald, founder of Eve's Angels dropped by to show support for the Fox Tail's topless dancers. She believes churches like New Beginnings give Christians a bad name. But to be fair, with a whole world full of violence and killing in the name of religion, then a few miserable gits in Ohio hardly can be blamed for the dreadful reputation of religion.

But Pastor Bill Dunfee says he's not going anywhere, and is determined to shut down the strip club. He spouted:

I hope that he will realize that the Foxhole has no business in this community. I take very seriously the responsibility as a pastor to see to it that the gospel of Christ is lifted up, that Christ himself is lifted up, that evil's confronted.

Vietnam's Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs has proposed that the names of sex buyers should be revealed as a nasty measure to deter them from resorting to sex services still considered illegal in Vietnam.

The ministry has also suggested that their sex buying should be reported to their employers and local authorities.

The ministry said that the current fines, from VND500,000 (US$22.2) to VND10 million ($440), applied to sex buyers are low and don't prevent repeat offending. Therefore, publicizing the names of sex buyers should be considered an official administrative punishment inflicted on them.

Lawyer Pham Thanh Binh advised that lawmakers should carefully consider the possible consequences of such name publication. He warned:

It may cause unforeseeable social consequences. There were circumstances in which people committed suicide after the names of their fathers were revealed as sex buyer.

Draft law changes that outlaw prostitution have been sent back to committee after an upper house MP objected and argued that the law should be amended to protect, rather than punish, sex workers.

Yangon Region parliamentarian U Phone Myint Aung urged MPs to look past ingrained cultural aversion to sex work and acknowledge that efforts to stop prostitution would inevitably fail. Instead, lawmakers should seek to protect sex workers, who are marginalised and vulnerable under the current laws.

He said it was hypocritical to allow businesspeople to open karaoke bars and nightclubs but punish the sex workers who operate within them. Many prostitutes are sent to prison due to the Suppression of Prostitution Act (1949) but most resume their trade when they are released, he said, because it is difficult to start a new life. He said:

There is no one to protect their rights. I stand for sex workers. We should understand that ... the culture of the world has changed.

Following his plea, Amyotha Hluttaw Speaker U Khin Aung Myint sent the amendment to the Suppression of Prostitution Act back to the Bill Committee.

The new law submitted by the Ministry of Home Affairs in June, propose punishing both sex workers and their clients. It proposed caning men caught with a prostitute. However, after discussing the issue with the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement on July 20, the bill committee recommended the punishment be changed to a prison term of up to one year with hard labour, and a fine. The committee also proposed adding a section on providing re-education to prostitutes.

Sex workers working without a brothel license may risk a prison sentence of up to six months.

On 12 October 2015, the Act Regulating Prostitution (WRP) was taken up by the House of Representatives in the Netherlands, which is their parliament. The WRP proposes to criminalise all sex workers without authorisation/licensure, including independent sex workers and camgirls/camboys. According to the Research and Documentation Centre, this will affect one third of all sex workers. Parliament will vote on the law proposal before the end of the year. Most political parties have expressed their support of the law.

Felicia Anna and Hella Dee from PROUD, the Dutch union for sex workers, explained the sex workers' side:

Holland is moving more into criminalizing sex workers, violating their privacy rights and is moving away from Amnesty's proposal to decriminalize it and protect sex workers' rights. This country is really going crazy

It is often the only option for sex workers who wish to work independently in a situation where cities consistently refuse to give out licenses to any sex worker due to stigma. By working unlicensed, sex workers also avoid the oppressive regulations and financially exploitative reality of the legal framework.

The main problem with 'prostitution' in Holland, is the shortage of workplaces due to the constant closures of legal workplaces (40% has been closed down already), while it's impossible to get a permit for a new workplace. But now they actually want to throw sex workers in jail for not being able to get this impossible to get permit.

According to Hella Dee, unlicensed sex workers face all the issues of working within a criminalised environment, especially regarding police harassment. Sex workers report an increase in police violence and intimidation. Police officers out sex workers to landlords and non-sex work employers, leading to eviction and loss of non-sex work income. Parents are reported to social services based solely on their profession. Police officers enter sex worker homes without their permission and ask personal questions about their private (sex) lives - the proposed Act Regulation Prostitution (WRP) aims to legalise this practice. Tax office will demand high fines based on unrealistic assumptions about the number of clients sex workers see.

PROUD calls on all Members of Parliament to speak out against the WRP. PROUD also calls on the association of sex workers and allies to take action against this law.

The Times reports that new laws which have made it illegal to pay for sex in Northern Ireland have resulted in just one arrest.

Sex worker support groups said that the figures, released under the Freedom of Information Act, proved that the measures could not be enforced.

The legislation, which came into effect in June means that sex workers are no longer able to make basic security checks such as getting to know who their customers are. Meanwhile it has the potential to destroy the lives of men and their families just for wanting to get laid.

Update: Populist law

4th November 2015. F rom thetimes.co.uk

The Northern Ireland justice minister has said he disagrees with plans to make it illegal to pay for sex in the Republic after The Times reported that just one man was prosecuted under similar legislation in the North.

David Ford said the laws, brought in after a vote in the Northern Ireland Assembly in June, were the result of populism rather than practicalism and are not useful.

The Free Speech Coalition announced it will fight newly revised Cal/OSHA (California health and safety) regulations which would mandate goggles, condoms, dental dams, gloves and other skin guards for adult performers.

The revised regulations, which were released in mid-October, ignored extensive opposition by performers, producers, and health experts, and will now go to a full vote by the Cal/OSHA Standards Board. The regulations would take effect likely during the second quarter of 2016.

Opponents of the regulations, including the Free Speech Coalition (FSC) and the Adult Performer Advocacy Committee (APAC), have until November 3 to file a formal response; however, Cal/OSHA has expressed that many of the most controversial items, including condoms, eye and skin guards, and dental dams, are no longer up for debate. The regulations are expected to pass when the Cal/OSHA Board votes early next year.

Diane Duke, CEO of the Free Speech Coalition said:

This isn't regulation; this is a complete shut down adult production, stated. Asking adult performers to wear goggles is up there with asking ballerinas to wear boots. It does not only not match the threat, and it effectively prohibits production in California.

The French Senate has voted against a bill passed by the National Assembly in 2013 that intends to penalise the customers of sex workers, making them liable for fines of up to 1,500 euros for a first offence and 3,750 euros for repeated breaches.

Senators voted (190 to 117) against the bill. They have argued that many prostitutes' rights groups are against such a criminalisation of clients.

Sex workers and groups who have opposed the plan, say it can lead prostitutes to hide from police and go off the streets, exposing them to more violence and abuses.

The bill to punish prostitutes' clients must therefore now be discussed by a conciliation committee to find a joint version for both Houses of Parliament. If not, the National Assembly, which proposed the bill, will have the last word.

Playboy magazine will stop publishing pictures of fully nude women because the ubiquity of internet pornography has made such images passé, the company's chief executive has revealed.

CEO Scott Flanders said founder Hugh Hefner had agreed with a proposal to stop publishing images of naked women from March 2016.

The redesigned Playboy, 62 years after it was launched by Hefner, will still feature a Playmate of the Month and glamour pictures but they will be rated PG-13 (an advisory rating that cautions that material may be inappropriate for children under 13).

The Playboy website has already been given a makeover and made safe to read at work, resulting in younger readers and an increase in web traffic.

The chief content officer of the magazine, Cory Jones, said the magazine would be more accessible and more intimate, admitting: Twelve-year-old me is very disappointed in current me. But it's the right thing to do.

The magazine's circulation has dropped from 5.6m in 1975 to about 800,000 now, according to the Alliance for Audited Media.

So now we will see if anybody actually does read the magazine for the articles. I doubt it.

New evidence from international sex surveys show large and continuing differences between male and female perspectives on sexuality in all cultures. Male sexual desire is manifested at least twice as often as female desire, and men would like to have sex twice as often as women. This gap in sexual desire between men and women is growing over time and cannot be dismissed as an out-dated patriarchal myth as argued by some feminists.

The sexual deficit among (heterosexual) men helps to explain many puzzles, including why men are the principal customers for commercial sexual entertainments of all kinds. It is no surprise that sex workers (male and female) cater to men almost exclusively. Male demand for sex invariably outstrips female demand.

Demand for commercial sex is therefore inevitable and the sex industry is likely to continue to flourish in the 21st century. Not only does male demand for sexual activity greatly outstrip non-commercial female supply, but economic growth, globalisation and the Internet facilitate access to the world's oldest profession.

Several factors suggest that the male sex deficit will not disappear, and might even grow in the 21st century. Women's increasing economic independence allows them to withdraw from sexual markets and relationships that they perceive to offer unfair bargains, especially if they already have enough children or do not want any. Changes in national sex ratios towards a numerical surplus of men helps women to reset the rules in their own favour in developed societies.

A key objection to the sex industry is that it damages women and that the presence of porn, lap-dancing and prostitution in a country promotes rape and other violence against women. However, although there are too few rigorous studies to draw definitive conclusions, all the available evidence points in the direction of prostitution and erotic entertainments having no noxious psychological or social effects, and they may even help to reduce sexual crime rates.

In many countries, including Britain, it is perfectly legal to sell sexual services; however any third-party involvement is illegal. The aim is to prevent exploitation by pimps or madams. The effect is to criminalise the industry and brothels, to prevent girls working together in a flat for their mutual protection, to prevent anyone from lawfully supplying services to a sex worker or even rent a flat to them.

The commercial sex industry is impervious to prohibitions and cannot be eliminated. Countries that criminalise buyers (such as Sweden) simply push demand abroad to countries with a more sex-positive culture. Policies that criminalise sellers directly, or criminalise third parties who supply them with services, simply push the sex industry underground, increasing risks for sex workers. The sex industry is estimated to be worth over four billion pounds to the British economy. It should be completely decriminalised.

Alabama State Representative Jack Williams has proposed a 40% sales tax on receipts from the sale of sexually oriented materials as a desperate measure to help fill the $250+ million black hole in Alabama's General Fund budget.

Sexually oriented materials are described in the bill as:

Any book, magazine, newspaper, printed or written matter, writing, description, picture, drawing, animation, photograph, motion picture, film, video tape, pictorial presentation, depiction, image, electrical or electronic reproduction, broadcast, transmission, video download, telephone communication, sound recording, article, device, equipment, matter, oral communication, depicting breast or genital nudity or sexual conduct.

The tax hike would be in addition to the state, city and county sales taxes already in place, which usually runs up another 10 percent in costs.

Williams said:

We have created a class of products in this state that you have to be 18 to purchase and they have excise taxes on them. The state is broke.

Montgomery insiders say it has a realistic chance to pass, as Williams has accrued 26 co-sponsors for his bill, including Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard

Ashley Madison is an extra marotal dating website based in Canada. The site's tagline is: Life is short, have an affair .

Now life could be even shorter for some users, after the website was hacked with the intention of outing users.

According to Bloomberg Business , the site's hacking will potentially expose names, addresses, and sexual preferences of millions of members.

The site was hacked by someone or a group identifying as The Impact Team. The group has put a message right on the site saying that we have taken over all systems in your entire office and production domains, all customer information databases, source code repositories, financial records, emails .

The hacker or hackers say that they will release all customer records, profiles with all the customers' secret sexual fantasies, nude pictures, and conversations and matching credit card transactions, real names, and address .

They hack also includes sister sites: Established Men (sugar daddy hook ups), Cougar Life (a dating website for cougars ), Man Crunch (a site for gay dating), Swappernet (for swingers), and The Big and the Beautiful (for overweight dating).

Hundreds of sex toys have been spotted hanging from power lines across a US city.

The white and bright orange dildos have appeared in recent days across Portland, Oregon, sparking laughter, blushes and a lot of photos.

So as to be able to throw them up and wrap them round cables, the phallic toys have been strung together in pairs.

Portland Office of Neighborhood Involvement spokeswoman Lisa Leddy said the department had received numerous reports of the x-rated sights. A spokesman for public utility Portland General Electric said he did not believe the products posed a fire hazard.

Update: All is revealed

21st July 2015. See article from vice.com

The woman responsible for stringing up dildos all throughout Portland has finally explained herself. In an anonymous interview with VICE , she says that she and her friends wound up with over 10,000 defective dildos after a local sex shop realized they couldn't sell them. So they did the only thing they could think of doing with 10,000 dildos... they threw them all over the city's power lines. She said:

It had to be done. I have no idea why, but it had to, she says. Dick-tossing is an exercise in happiness. It was just a fun, hilarious thing to do.

A Swedish man who sent bills to thousands of victims who visited an apparently free porn site and threatened to publish their names if they failed to pay has been sentenced to two and a half years' jail for extortion.

Dennies Pettersson, who had acquired the Swedish rights for streaming videos on a foreign website, sent bills to people he claimed had watched the clips, demanding payment ranging from tens to hundreds of euros. For those who refused to pay, he raised the amount and threatened to call the police or publish their names on an online porn blacklist detailing which videos they had watched and then refused to pay for.

Pettersson admitted to 31 cases of aggravated extortion and to 526 cases of attempted extortion. The offences date to 2012 and 2013. Two accomplices were given suspended terms while another three were given prison sentences ranging from 12 to 18 months.

Although users never left their contact details on the site, Pettersson was able to trace them through a list of IP addresses he bought from Sweden's largest internet service provider.

A miserable Russian lawmaker is drafting a bill introducing fines and community service for using the services of prostitutes. The bill introduces an interesting new concept with lighter punishment for single people and significantly harsher sanctions for married men and women.

Oleg Mikheyev of the center-left 'Fair' Russia party wants to amend the administrative code with a new article specifically describing using sex services for money as an offence. The proposed penalties are that single people would have to pay between 1,500 and 2,000 rubles ($26-$35) in fines, but married clients, men and women alike, would face either fines of between 2,000 and 5,000rubles ($35 - $88) or perform up to 40 hours of community service.

The proposed penalty is in the same range as the fines for prostitution itself and Mikheyev said in press comments that one of the reasons he wrote the bill was the desire to make the conditions equal for the workers and customers in the sex industry. Currently, prostitution in Russia is punishable by an administrative fine of between 1,500 and 2,000 rubles ($26-$35) and pimping (defined as receiving income from another person's work as a prostitute) can carry fines between 2,000 and 2,500 rubles ($35-$44) or up to 10 days of administrative detention.

Germans will only be able to buy adult eBooks between 10pm and 6am, according to a ridiculous new law.

Other such media have long been banned during the daytime, and real books that are violent or erotic are kept under the counter of bookstores. But a new ruling means that eBooks will be treated like films or TV, and so can only be sold during the night time window.

The 10pm to 6am window was originally instituted in a 2002 law -- Jugendmedienschutz-Staatsvertrag, or Youth Media Protection Act -- that was intended to restrict adult cinemas from showing films in the day. But many have pointed out that applying the rule on the internet, where products can be bought at all hours of the day, is impractical.

The change has been as part of a legal complaint around a German erotica eBook called Schlauchgelüste (Pantyhose Cravings), according to blog The Digital Reader, a memoir of a transgender person which has caused problems because it was readily available. READ MORE Amazon to start paying authors based on how far readers get through their books Grey: 8 things we learn in new Fifty Shades of Grey book told through Christian's eyes How e-readers took the embarrassment out of erotic fiction

None of the sites selling selling such material are yet shutting down in the day, according to reports. But the law allows for people to be fined up to â?¬500,000 if they are found to be selling the material.

The German booksellers' association is looking to provide a way that eBook stores can be sure that they're not selling the books to young people without having to check through the contents of every book that they sell, according to Boersenblatt the website for the German book trade. Such systems might require publishers to say whether books are erotic, and then place them in a special section of the website that ensures that they can't be seen by children.

Sex workers have been assembling in Paris and across France to protest the proposed criminalisation of their clients.

Late last month, sex workers from eight different countries--including countries where clients are criminalised, such as Sweden, Norway and Northern Ireland--gathered in Paris' Human Rights Square alongside NSWP member group STRASS and the migrant Chinese sex worker group, Steel Roses to commemorate International Sex Worker Day and the 40-year anniversary of the occupation of the Saint-Nizier church in Lyon, as well as to protest the proposed criminalisation bill, which will be discussed on the 12th of June in a second reading in the Assembly.

After 40 years of activism, the situation has not improved, STRASS' Thierry Schaffauser told Liberation. Punishing clients will exacerbate the situation, pushing sex workers into more precarious situations, he said. Pye Jakobsson told the press that in Sweden, where clients have been criminalised since 1999, sex workers are even more stigmatised.

Sex workers in France have been fighting attempts to criminalise their clients for years. The issue was first discussed in the National Assembly in December 2011 when a non-binding resolution was adopted supporting the introduction of the Swedish model. This was later followed by the introduction of a formal Bill by the ruling French Socialist Party.

The Bill proposed to introduce fines for anyone caught paying for or soliciting commercial sexual services and was passed by the Assembly in December 2013. The bill then went to the Senate but was first considered by a Committee, which removed the clause containing the provisions to criminalise clients in July 2014 . However the proposal in now back on the table with a bill due to be discussed in the Assembly on the 12th of June.

In Paris, the Chinese sex workers are particularly vulnerable because they can not speak the language, are often undocumented and victims of police harassment, which prevents them from reporting if they are attacked by a client, said Ajing, President of Steel Roses.

French Lawmakers voted in favor of changes to a proposed bill on the country's prostitution laws, approving the criminalisation of people who pay for sex. The same measure was previously removed from the bill in March by the Conservative controlled Senate.

With the bill returning to its repressive original version, senators will once again discuss the matter. In the case of an impasse, the lower chamber will have the final word on the proposed law.

According to a Nest Movement report released in May, between 30,000 and 44,000 people work in France's prostitution industry full time, with part time sex work being much more difficult to evaluate. Only 30 percent of those in the industry work in the streets, while 62 percent engage customers online and 8 percent through hostess bars or massage parlors.

A licensed brothel in the city of Salzburg, Austria, has been offering free drinks and free sex in a protest against what its owner says is unfair taxation.

The Kronen Zeitung tabloid reports that the news has spread like wildfire, with punters lining up to get inside . Salzburg's red light district king Hermann Pascha Müller, who owns the well-known Pascha brothel, told the paper that he no longer wants to be the tax office's pimp.

Müller said that he's already had to turn away hundreds of disappointed customers as he has had a full house since the summer special went on offer.

The stunt has been great publicity for him and he says that he plans to continue it for four to eight weeks. Drinks are on the house and Müller is paying the sex workers out of his own pocket. He explains

The problem is, the tax office wants more and more, and they are not cracking down on illegal street and apartment prostitution.

He also complained that officials come to check up on the business at Pascha every 14 days.

He said that the summer special would be offset by any profits made in his other establishments, and that Pasha would not be liable for any tax during the special offer. Presumably the tax is levied on turnover or profit.

Grey: Fifty Shades of Grey as Told by Christian is a 2015 erotic novel by EL James

In Christian Christian's own words, and through his thoughts, reflections, and dreams, E L James offers a fresh perspective on the love story that has enthralled millions of readers around the world.

Christian Grey, enigmatic hero of best-selling erotic novels Fifty Shades of Grey , is getting his own sequel.

Author EL James has announced that she is publishing a new version of her sexually explicit novel written from the point of view of the tormented tycoon and not the shy, young object of his desires, Anastasia Steele.

The new book, entitled Grey: Fifty Shades of Grey as Told by Christian, will be published on June 18, the fictional character's birthday. It will be published simultaneously by Vintage in the United States and Penguin Random House in Britain.

From 1st June, 2015 a new law in Northern Ireland criminalising the purchase of sex will come into effect. This will make Northern Ireland the only region of the United Kingdom to adopt the repressive Nordic model, after a similar bill failed to pass in Scotland in 2013.

The bill was passed in Northern Ireland's Stormont assembly by 81 votes to 10 last October despite research commissioned by the Department of Justice in Northern Ireland that concluded that Northern Ireland's adoption of the Nordic Model would not be in sex workers' best interests.

As we reported last year, the research from Queen's University found that trafficking victims account for less than 3% of people working in the sex trades, fewer than 10 people. More than a third of clients surveyed believed that paying for sex was already illegal. Of the 171 sex workers questioned, less than 2% supported criminalisation of clients, 61% saying that it would make them less safe.

A press release from the Northern Ireland Executive was published on 20th May. It said that:

Under section 15 of the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Criminal Justice and Support for Victims) Act (Northern Ireland) 2015, it will become an offence to obtain sexual services in exchange for payment, either by paying, or promising to pay, any person directly, or through a third party.

This replaces the offence of paying for the sexual services of a prostitute subjected to force, where it is currently unlawful to pay for the sexual services of a prostitute who has been exploited by a third party using force or threats. This offence, which is an offence whether or not the person buying the services knows of the exploitation, carries a maximum penalty of a level 3 (£1,000) fine.

Under the new law, it will be illegal to obtain, for payment, sexual services from anyone, whether or not there is exploitation. The sexual services which will be illegal must involve the buyer being physically present with the seller and there must either be physical sexual contact or the seller must perform sexual acts where they touch themselves for the sexual gratification of the buyer.

Under the legislation, payment includes money or the provision of goods or services.

Anyone convicted under the new legislation can be sentenced to a maximum of one year's imprisonment, or a fine, or both.

It is not an offence to sell sexual services. The new law also removes criminality from loitering or soliciting for the purposes of offering services as a prostitute in a street or public place. It remains an offence to keep or manage a brothel.

After five years of public hearings and heated debates, a proposed set of health and safety standards for all California porn production sets is edging closer to being finalized, but adult film performers say if passed, the new regulations would make sex scenes look like medical dramas.

The 21-page draft, proposed by the state's Division of Occupational Safety and Health, blends thick regulatory definitions with graphic language as it outlines how adult film performers and others on set can protect themselves from bloodborne pathogens and other bodily fluids. It underscores the use of condoms as a way to protect against HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.

During a hearing and public comment period, adult film performers and their supporters said the regulations which include wearing protective eye gear go too far. Diane Duke, CEO of the Free Speech Coalition, said:

These are regulations designed for medical settings, and are unworkable on an adult film set, or even a Hollywood film set,

Duke said her organization and several other groups would prefer to see the proposed regulation amended with input from both performers and public health officials, in ways that protect adult film performers without stigmatizing and shutting down an entire industry.

The 'Justice' for Victims of Trafficking Act (JVTA) a piece of bipartisan anti-trafficking legislation that has been criticised for its prioritisation of law enforcement, passed the US House of Representatives by 420 votes to three on 19th of May. The legislation will now head to President Obama's desk to be signed into law.

The problematic Stop Advertising Victims of Exploitation Act (SAVE) had been added on to the bill. This legislation would allow website owners to be charged as sex traffickers if any trafficking victims are found to have been advertised on the site--whether or not the website owner had any knowledge of this happening. Sponsors of the bill have specifically stated that their intent is to shut down , or at least seriously cripple, advertising spaces for sex workers, such as Backpage.com, which would take away from sex workers a safe space for screening clients.

Comment: Winning memories

18th May 2015. From DavidT

I well remember Soho from my time as a very poor student in London. The only way I could pay for my tuition was to go a couple of times a week to (Jazz band, remember ?) Acker Bilk's Club in Greek Street, Soho. There were always 4-5 lads playing poker and somehow I always managed to win.

Glasgow City Council has long been a hotbed of PC extremists who advocate that jailing men and destroying their families is a price worth paying so that councillors can feel good about their 'equality'.

Councillor James Coleman has called upon Justice Minister Michael Matheson to make a public commitment to target and challenge men's demand for paid-for sexual services. He said:

We support the current Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Bill but believe it is limited by the fact it does not adequately address the cause of commercial sexual exploitation.

We are also fully supportive of the Scottish Government's 'Equally Safe' strategy, which recognises prostitution and trafficking as forms of commercial sexual exploitation that ultimately harm women.

The city council agreed to call upon the Justice Minister to address the issue of demand, and to introduce comprehensive legislation in Scotland to criminalise the purchase of sex and to decriminalise and support those exploited through prostitution. The motion, which was seconded by SNP group leader Susan Aitken, was agreed at a meeting of the full council.

Legislation to tackle human trafficking and better protect its victims will be debated by MSPs. The Human Trafficking and Exploitation Bill was brought forward by the Scottish Government to strengthen existing criminal law against the practice and enhance the status of and support for victims.

Moralist campaigners inevitably called for the buying of sex to be criminalised as part of the legislation. Churches and Christian organisations proclaimed that the Bill offers a golden opportunity to make the purchase of sex illegal.

But others such as Amnesty argue that conflating human trafficking and prostitution within one piece of legislation will not do justice to either issue.

Justice secretary Michael Matheson said earlier this year that he would meet campaigners on both sides before the Scottish Government comes to a final position on the matter. But after taking evidence from a range of groups and organisations, the committee concluded the legislation was not the right vehicle for addressing the issue of criminalising the buying of sex.

Women in skimpy outfits and high heels could be arrested under new French laws that make it illegal to simply look like a prostitute in public.

France is set to bring in a repressive new anti-vice law that makes passive soliciting by appearing to be offering sex for sale illegal. It is expected that prostitutes will be forced to wear casual clothing like jeans and trainers to get around the rules. The law will outlaw the act of publicly soliciting another person for paid sex, by any means, including passive behaviour .

But French sex workers' union Strass see the law as a huge step backwards . Spokesman Chloe Navarro said:

It is making criminals of women for how they dress, and victimising prostitutes for doing their job and aggravating their working conditions.

Lawmakers in France's upper house the Senate will vote on the law next week.

A sex worker is to use human rights legislation to try to overturn a new law in Northern Ireland that makes it illegal to pay for prostitutes. Dublin-born law graduate Laura Lee is launching an unprecedented legal challenge that could go all the way to Strasbourg.

The region is the only part of the UK where people can be convicted of paying for sex. The law, which was pushed by Democratic Unionist peer and Stormont assembly member Lord Morrow, comes into effect on 1 June.

Lee told the Guardian she will launch her case at the high court in Belfast in the same month as the law comes into effect. Lee said:

I am doing this because I believe that when two consenting adults have sex behind closed doors and if money changes hands then that is none of the state's business. The law they have introduced has nothing to do with people being trafficked but simply on their, the DUP's, moral abhorrence of paid sex.

I believe that after June 1st, sex workers' lives in Northern Ireland will actually be harder and the industry will be pushed underground.

Lee said her legal team would be referencing several articles of the European convention on human rights to challenge and overturn Morrow's law:

There are several articles that we can look starting with article 8 that governs the right to privacy. We will also focus on article 2 that concerns the right to life and we will argue that this law puts sex workers' safety by the fact the legislation will drive the trade further and further underground.

And then article 3 is about protection from degrading treatment, which is very relevant because in Scotland police have been subjecting sex workers to terrible things such as strip searching on women working in Edinburgh saunas. Our legal team will also refer to the right to earn a living enshrined in the European social charter.

Lee said she will fund the case partly via crowdfunding on social media networks and from sex worker campaign groups across the world.

Update: Progress report

1st June 2015. See article from theguardian.com

In a statement, Laura Lee said:

It is my intention to initiate a judicial review at Belfast's high court in respect of provisions contained in Lord Morrow's human trafficking bill. As a sex workers' rights advocate, I campaigned long and hard against this legislation because evidence from around the world shows us just what damage the Swedish model does. It places sex workers in grave danger and the bill as presented does not decriminalise us as has been claimed. Should it be illegal to pay for sex? Panel verdict Laura Lee, Julie Bindel, Margaret Corvid, Rahila Gupta Read more

The Dublin-born law graduate added:

True decriminalisation looks to repeal all of the nonsensical laws around sex work and allows us to work together for safety. That's not the case in Northern Ireland now, and it will certainly not be the case after 1 June. When two consenting adults meet to have sex then, whether money changes or not, the state has no right to interfere.

Representative Candice Miller is a Republican pas proposed a restructuring of Immigration and Customs Enforcement away from its current department and set it up as an agency all on its own.

Miller's bill, HR 877, would also create the position of Director of United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who'd have the power to:

Investigate and, where appropriate, refer for prosecution, any criminal violation of Federal law relating to or involving ... (B) customs, trade, or import or export control, including the illicit possession, movement of, or trade in goods, services, property, contraband, arms, instruments of terrorism, items controlled or prohibited from export, pornography , intellectual property, or monetary instruments...

The bill is being referred to the Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security for consideration before being brought to a vote by the full House-

A Kansas morality bill that would establish repressive new zoning rules where strip clubs and DVD and sex toy and novelty stores could be located is being debated. Senate Bill 147 would initiate statewide zoning limiting where sexually oriented video stores, sexual device stores, adult arcades and strip clubs could be located.

Some of the main restrictions would forbid new sex toys and novelty stores and strip clubs from operating within 1,000 feet of schools, day cares, churches or libraries and prohibit the sale of alcohol.

The stores and clubs would be mandated to close at midnight with the bill, and operators would be forced to go through background checks to see if they have been convicted of certain criminal activities that are specified in the bill.

Editors as the Topeka Capital-Journal, however, are staunchly against the new bill saying:

The businesses serve a population, employ people and pay taxes. If there were no demand for them they would go out of business. Legislators have better things to do than pander to people who want their own moral outrage placed in the statute books.

Rome authorities have approved plans for a red light zone where prostitution will be officially tolerated from April. Ignazio Marino, the Italian capital's centre-left mayor, gave his blessing on Friday evening to the experiment in the EUR business district south of the city.

The local council there has proposed allowing prostitution in one non-residential area with the aim of reducing the impact of a trade currently conducted on more than 20 streets in the district. If the experiment proves successful, the council wants to establish up to three separate red light zones within the district.

Police will be ordered to impose fines of up to 500 euros on prostitutes caught working outside the permitted area, which will be supervised by health and social workers in a bid to counter exploitation by pimps and traffickers and promote safer sex.

Of course the miserable Church is quick to preach on other people's sexual choices, maybe in an attempt to deflect the spotlight away from its own sexual depravity.

Avvenire, the weekly magazine of the Conference of Italian Bishops, called the plan shameful for a city that is the cradle and the heart of Christian humanism.

Giovanni Ramonda, of the Pope John XXIII Community, said Rome would be introducing tolerance zones for the slavery of women. The Catholic group is campaigning for Italy to enact similar legislation to Sweden, where efforts to eliminate prostitution have involved criminalizing clients rather than sex workers.

But the scheme won backing from the council leader in a neighbouring district, who said many parts of the capital faced similar problems with the social side-effects of street prostitution, which is already tolerated in practice in some peripheral parts of the capital. Andrea Catarci said:

It is a courageous move and one the whole city - institutions and associations - needs to get behind.

Update: Courageous in Milan Too

10th February 2015. See article from thelocal.it

A number of Milan politicians have come out in support of opening a red light district in Italy's financial capital, just days after plans for a prostitution zone were unveiled in Rome. Politicians from both left and right have backed the idea of opening up a red light district.

Carlo Monguzzi, from the ruling Democratic Party (PD), said setting up a prostitution zone could be the only solution to tackling current problems. He wrote on Facebook:

Having a red light district in Milan is a good idea...We must help the women reduced to slavery and forced into prostitution who are beaten to death if they don't do it.

Luigi Pagliuca of the Forza Italia party added:

I would be delighted if the city council would move away from the logic of taboo and moralism, and openly tackle the problem and the situation of the oldest profession in the world.

A high-end brothel employing only married women for customers wanting to sleep with another man's wife has been raided by Russian police.

Most of the women's husbands had no idea their wives had been working as prostitutes with rates up to £250 an hour for their services. Prices for services were more than six times higher than a typical outfit with the more normal rate of around £40.

Prospective sex workers were instructed to bring a marriage certificate before they were allowed to work at the specialist brothel which was set across a seven-room apartment.

Officers are now enquiring into the whereabouts of the brothel's madam, known only as Mamma who managed to escape during the raid. The victims of the police raid will now face just a £20 fine from police but may have a little more explaining to do when they get home to their husbands.

Taiwan's media is reporting on a project underway to build a sex theme park. It is part of a nearly 40-mile coastal Romantic Boulevard. The Boulevard will feature some less scandalous stuff: heart-shaped arches, a glass church, scenery for wedding photos--but it will also feature the sex themed park. It's likely to look something like a similar park in South Korea called Jeju Loveland, which has statues of things like giant genitals and people having threesomes.

Called the Romantic Boulevard's finale, the park will also have educational videos and sex toys, as well as what that site calls interactive facilities.

There will also be a hotel nearby, just in case visitors want turn their feelings into actions, an official, Shih Chao-hui, says. He explains the reasoning behind the whole idea: We want people to fall in love with Taiwan as well as fall in love while in Taiwan .

The central government's tourism department isn't thrilled, but the organisers hope that the promise of sexy revenue will bring them around.

Topless women have been a fixture on Page 3 of the Sun for more than four decades, but the popular feature has now been killed off.

Executives at the Sun have decided to quietly shelve the tradition after a baying lynch mob of critics branded it sexist.

Instead of bare breasts, the pictures will now show scantily-clad women wearing bras and pants.

The move was confirmed by The Times, a fellow News UK paper. It is understood that the parent company's chairman Rupert Murdoch signed off on the decision.

Topless models were first introduced by the Sun in 1970, less than a year after Rupert Murdoch bought the title. In recent years, the paper has faced growing criticism from miserable campaigners who claimed the feature was out of date.

According to the Guardian , executives had planned to drop Page 3 quietly, without fanfare. It is understood the change may be reversed if it causes a dramatic drop in sales.

The Sun newspaper's decision has inevitably been welcomed by miserable MPs particularly from the Labour Party.

Education secretary Nicky Morgan, who also holds the women and equalities brief, said the move was long overdue . The Conservative cabinet minister crowed:

This is a long overdue decision and marks a small but significant step towards improving media portrayal of women and girls. I very much hope it remains permanent.

Downing Street refused to be drawn on the issue. A spokesman said it was a matter for the Sun .

The move also received the backing of Liberal Democrat women's and equalities minister Jo Swinson - although she criticised the alternative content in Tuesday's edition.

I am delighted that the old fashioned sexism of Page 3 could soon be a thing of the past. I welcome this apparent step forward from the Sun, but I would encourage its editors to consider whether parading women in bikinis is really a modern reflection of the contribution women make to society.

Labour frontbenchers including the shadow justice secretary Sadiq Khan, the shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper and the former culture secretary Dame Tessa Jowell all tweeted support for the No More Page 3 campaign.

Harriet Harman, the deputy leader of the Labour party, who has long spoken out against the Page 3, said she would ensure that the Sun would not be able to make the announcement quietly. Speaking on her LBC phone-in on Monday evening, Harman bayed:

It will be the Sun moving into the 21st century, if that is the case. Because actually we do think in a newspaper, which is about news, the idea of girls standing there in their knickers with some sort of pseudo-political quote, I mean it really is not the representation of women's role in this country that I want to see.

I've always been against Page 3. But bearing in mind that we've had a lot of discussion about freedom of speech and what people can report, it's my right to say I don't think it's right, I think they should get rid of it. But it is absolutely not the role of any government to ban it. But if they've seen sense, so much the better.

Update: Next!

21st January 2015. See article from twitter.com

Well it didn't take long. The man hate group Object seem raring to go against the Daily Star for its topless Star Birds.

Update: Clarifications and Corrections

22nd January 2015. See article from theguardian.com

The Sun has been having fun with the campaigners who seized upon 3rd party reports of the demise of Page 3.

The paper ahas again featured a photograph of a topless model, which appears under a Clarifications and Corrections header and comes after a front-page panel announces: We've had a mammary lapse.

PC campaigners were a bit taken aback with the most notable comment being from Julia Churchill, a No More Page 3 supporter who tweeted:

After #NoMorePage3 it felt like we were taking a good deep breath after being held under water, and now, a punch in the face.

Nevertheless, commentators were confident that the days of Page 3 are ultimately numbered. Sources told the Guardian that the Sun had planned for the demise of Page 3 to pass under the radar. When the Guardian revealed plans to scrap it on Monday, a senior editor quipped privately: If I were the boss, I'd put in a topless pic just to spite everybody.

The adult virtual world Red Light Center has confirmed a virtual reality version of the site that will use the Oculus Rift headset

Utherverse Digital is making its X-rated virtual world Red Light Center compatible with Oculus Rift. The virtual world lets you visit bars, hotels and clubs for virtual adult fun

The naughty online destination, based on Amsterdam's red light area, will effectively become the first massively multiplayer online game available for the virtual reality headset.

Utherverse CEO told VentureBeat in an interview:

Porn and sex and social interaction is universal. It appeals to almost everybody. This is yet another example of porn and sex leading technology forward.

Red Light Center works like Second Life or any other virtual world - letting you create an avatar and interact with other players as well as non-playable characters (NPCs). The site originally launched in 2005 and, according to Shuster, has around 25 million registered users who pay a monthly subscription.

Nevada health officials have announced that they are considering applying the same strict regulations required of sex workers in brothels in Nevada to the adult film industry. Since 1988, when the State Health Department first mandated condom use for all prostitutes in all brothels, there have been no reported HIV infections tied to Nevada brothels. Nevada is the only jurisdiction in the United States where prostitution is legally allowed.

In the twenty-seven years that Nevada has required condom use in its brothels, there has not been a single case of HIV transmission found in, or tied to Nevada brothels, said Michael Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation.

According to the L.A. Daily News, Nevada's health regulations on licensed brothels require 'each patron to wear and use a latex prophylactic while engaging in sexual intercourse, oral-genital contact or any touching of the sexual organs or other intimate parts of a person.

Fifty Shades of Grey is a 2015 USA sexy romance by Sam Taylor-Johnson.
Starring Dakota Johnson, Jamie Dornan and Jennifer Ehle.

Literature student Anastasia Steele's life changes forever when she meets handsome, yet tormented, billionaire Christian Grey.

The US film censors of the MPAA have awarded the film an R rating for:

Strong sexual content including dialogue, some unusual behavior and graphic nudity, and for language.

An R rated film is considered suitable for children aged 17 and above. The rating also means that younger children may see the film in a theatre if accompanied by a parent or guardian.

Clearly this openness to children rather restricts the amount of sex allowed in an R rated film and means that Red Shoes Diary type chocolate box erotica is about as sexy as these films can become.

Of course the marketeers will now have a damn good try at convincing you otherwise.