Gina

(See spaceykate’s original post here.)

My own feelings about the Human Rights Campaign live somewhere between squick and rage, honestly. Put jokingly, this largely has to do with my having the memory of an elephant and my Moon in Scorpio. I remember things, and I hella hold grudges. ;)

Put more seriously: As an activist, I have been working with people and communities and organizations that have had horrific interactions with the HRC since about 1996.

I still remember (and I will never fucking forget) when Elizabeth Birch (who was the Executive Director of the HRC in 1998) referred to Carmen Vasquez as:
1) “you and your kind,” and
2) “a maggot in a barrel of rice”
in an OPEN LETTER. This is pretty well-documented and public. (I have print-outs of both Vasquez and Birch’s letters in a box in my parents’ basement, actually. I should probably dig them up.)

Birch did this because Vasquez dared to bring up:
1) race and racism in the LGBT community in general, and
2) the intense racism in the HRC’s choice to back Al D’Amato’s* candidacy in New York.

And, just, like, C’MON. For a middle-class white woman to refer to a working-class Latina activist as “a maggot,” as “you and your people,” just… It is all, simply put, fucking UGLY.

I was 15 at the time that I was watching this from the queer organizing sidelines. I saw it for the racist bullshit that it was. I was also working with a lot of older queer activists who really knew what they were doing, and who schooled me well. And I remember, very clearly, just having this moment of “God. No. No. No, this is not right. No, this is not about the larger queer community. No, this is not about supporting the people who need it the most. No, I can never support anything this organization does. At least not unless they make some serious amends to the communities they’ve hurt.”

And that hasn’t happened. So.

*More info here, especially: “HRC’s endorsement of New York Republican Al D’Amato in his 1998 campaign for re-election to the U.S. Senate brought more criticism. HRC defended the endorsement because of D’Amato’s support for ENDA and repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. However, many liberal LGBT leaders did not welcome D’Amato’s many conservative stances, including his opposition to affirmative action and abortion rights.[53]”

So I re-posted the SF Weekly article about Kink.com with a one-line comment, and then I wrote more commentary, and I wanted to make sure those comments didn’t lost in the re-blog shuffle.

I’ve personally heard a LOT of horror stories from other sex workers about working for kink.com. I’m glad these folks are so bravely speaking out. This is a long time coming.

And this doesn’t get mentioned in the article, but I feel like it bears saying here: I have personally always thought that it is ridiculous that kink.com is held up as some kind of awesome ethical paragon of what the porn industry can be when a) so many stories are out there about models being treated badly, and b) their size diversity, racial diversity, and treatment and fetishization of trans models (esp. trans women models) all, frankly, REALLY SUCK!

I say this as someone who has been in the sex industry for about a decade, and who has mostly worked in porn (never “full time” or as my main bread & butter, for the record — “making it” as a fat porn star is very, very hard, and most porn workers I know, fat or not, also do other kinds of work, whether in the sex industry or elsewhere).

I have personally posed for some ridiculous sites to make a buck over the years. I want to make it clear here that I pretty much never blame porn models for posing for cheezy or fetishize-y or offensive/distasteful or whatever else kindsa sites. As an old friend jokes “we are in the business of being dirty, after all!” More importantly, we are doing what we need to do to make a living.

That said: As a queer feminist and a fat person who works in porn, I really value having a) available work options at all (like, take a look, there are no fat people on any kink.com site — NONE), and b) work where I can be as close to my actual sexual self as possible, and not just cast in some chaser’s ridiculous Fat Girl Fantasy (as is the case with regards to a lot of the work that is available for plus-size porn models).

I want better options, basically, and Kink.com has never been one of the better options, for me or for many others. I’m glad this is finally getting talked about.