The Mann Act

The disclosure that New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer had been hiring the services of a sex worker has caused a major scandal in the US this week. Famous for heading the State's Organized Crime Task Force and therefore involved in the prosecution of "prostitution rings",  Spitzer who relentlessly expressed his anti-corruption stand and his disdain for prostitution, seems to have been caught in the act. But what act is it really?

Legally, he could be charged with the 1910 Mann act, created in the midst of the White Slave hysteria of the beginning of the century that banned the interstate transport of females for “immoral purposes.” (the national counterpart of the human traffic regulation, which Spitzer helped pass through in NY ).

But in their press statement, a group of sex workers and advocates have denounced how "Laws against inter-state transportation for the purposes of commercial sex are too often used for punishing people working as sex workers and those who work with and patronize them. While Root Magazine has illustrated the troubling history of the Mann Act, which has served to criminalize consenting but unmarried couples.


The prohibitionist stand on prosititution of feminists like Melissa Farley, the hypocrisy of politicians that fight prostitution while enjoying it, the mediatic presentation of the "prostitution scandal" hits you in the face. Refreshing to surf sexworkers blog, and blogs on sexwork to get a much more critical position.

more:
Bound, not gagged
The Wisdom of the Whore
Waking Vixen