Don’t call it slavery

Editor - Regarding Joel Brinkley’s “Enslaved, by definition,” Jan. 13:
Finally someone has noticed that the deliberate conflation of
prostitution and human trafficking hurts everyone involved.

The reality is even worse than Brinkley’s admirable column suggests.
Pending House reauthorization of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act
wrongly calls all prostitution “sex trafficking” and makes “inducement
into prostitution” a federal crime. It would also force the Justice
Department to stretch its resources for fighting child sexual

In the Windy City, prostitutes sleep with police more often than get arrested by them
article by Carolyn O'Hara

Another dispatch on the Freakonomics effect: University of Chicago economist Steven Levitt (Mr. Freakonomics himself) and his collaborator Sudhir Venkatesh, a Columbia University sociologist who previously worked with Levitt to measure the average wages of street-level drug dealers (pdf), have teamed up to study the economics of street prostitutes in Chicago.

WASHINGTON, DC (November 7, 2007) - Today, the release of Emerging Answers 2007: Research Findings on Programs to Reduce Teen Pregnancy and Sexually Transmitted Diseases, a report authored by Douglas Kirby, PhD, a leading researcher in adolescent health, confirmed, once again, that the $1.5 billion federal and state investment in abstinence-only-until-marriage programs is a waste of taxpayer money.

Want to buy tickets to the Opening Night of an art show made entirely by YWEP artists?

Come Celebrate the:
Survival of the Artist in a world of Dics, Dicks and Dicts
$25.00 ticket

Follow these directions to buy tickets:
1.Click the tab "Give to YWEP" -
2.Make a donation that reflects the number of tickets you are purchasing
3.Then print your receipt and bring it with you to the show- your receipt will be your ticket!

Join us on Friday, Dec. 14 from 8 pm to 11 pm

at Mekhaskhen Art Gallery
Located at 5459 S. Drexel
in Hyde Park, Chicago

YWEP staff members just returned from participating in the Third Wave Reproductive Health Justice Initiative convening in New Mexico, Oct. 6-8. The RHJI is dedicated to building a reproductive justice movement by and for youth and young women from marginalized communities. Prior to this convening, our Popular Education Workshop Coordinator Isa represented YWEP, but for this meeting, Isa trained our Peer Outreach Coordinator Amber and our Social Justice Leader Dominique to step up into leadership.

HEALTH: Drug War Clashes With Fight Against HIV/AIDS
By Am Johal

Credit:Vancouver Coastal Health

Insite safe injection and health centre in Vancouver, Canada.

VANCOUVER, Canada, Oct 3 (IPS) - For more than two decades, the Geneva-based International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) has tried to discourage nations from developing harm reduction programmes and other HIV/AIDS prevention programmes.

The U.S. Social Forum begins on June 27 and the Young Women's Empowerment Project will be there. Check back for more info!

Salinas business group wants a prostitution-free zone
The Associated Press
Article Last Updated: 05/01/2007 07:22:20 AM PDT

SALINAS, Calif.- Merchants who want to revitalize the east side of town are asking the city to declare a prostitution-free zone.

The Salinas United Business Association proposed the concept in January. Prostitutes found in the zone would be ordered to stay away.

The City Council considers the measure this week.