prostitution decrim on San Francisco ballot

[Friday]

Starchild, whom some of you may have met at PorcFest last year, sent out this press release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 18, 2008

The San Francisco Department of Elections announced today that the
measure prohibiting city officials from spending money arresting and
prosecuting people for prostitution, and mandating equal legal
protection for sex workers, has qualified for the November ballot. Of
500 signatures randomly sampled and checked by department personnel,
80 percent were found to be valid. "This is a happy day for San
Franciscans who want government to focus on fighting real crimes like
homicides and robberies, and are tired of seeing resources wasted in
a futile effort to police consensual sex between adults," said
Starchild, a sex worker activist and spokesperson for the campaign.
"We've cleared the first hurdle." By the Elections Department's
tally, supporters had turned in 12,745 signatures of registered San
Francisco voters on July 7.

The campaign to decriminalize prostitution will hold a kickoff rally
and press conference to formally announce the results on Tuesday at
4:00 p.m. in front of the Polk Street entrance of City Hall, with
speakers to likely include Supervisor Jake McGoldrick, who was a
signer of the petition to put the measure on the ballot along with
two of his board colleagues. "It is way past time that the
recommendations of the Board of Supervisors 1996 Prostitution Task
Force were implemented, " said the measure's proponent, Maxine Doogan.
"Criminalizing sex workers has been putting workers at risk of
violence and discrimination for far too long."

The prostitution reform measure joins two other voter-submitted
measures on the local Nov. 4 ballot, along with eight measures put on
the ballot by the mayor or members of the Board of Supervisors, with
many others expected to be added in the next several weeks.

Starchild - (415) 621-7932 / (415) 368-8657 / RealReform@earthlin k.net
Maxine Doogan - (415) 265-3302 / MistressMax@ mindspring. com

[Mike Barskey]

Sounds like a step in the right direction. Digg it.

[J’raxis 270145]

... prohibiting city officials from spending money arresting and prosecuting people for prostitution, ...

Nice. This is one of the best routes I see to dealing with the State's victimless crimes laws—if you can't get the laws repealed outright, simply stop funding the enforcement of them.

[Friday]

Update on this issue:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/10/21/san.francisco.prostitution.ap/index.html

This, and the Mass Income Tax measure, are way more interesting than the Presidential race. 

[Lloyd Danforth]

SF's gonna be the Convention Capitol of the Western World!