“I think that to many in our community this feels like a throwback to when the police raided gay bars in the 50s and 60s. Despite the salaciousness of the language in the complaint I don’t think the charges will stick because basically the site provides a forum for people to meet and make personal arrangements on their own. Rentboy.com may be a provocative title but sexy, fun language is not illegal. This invasion of a consensual hook-up site which is run for and by members of the LGBT community feels like a real slap in the face after gentrification, and the Giuliani and Bloomberg administrations drove so many NYC gay bars out of business and forced people to meet online instead of in person.
“Also, if the people who register with Rentboy.com are trading sexual encounters for money they are doing so on their own terms, with agency, and presumably without being coerced by outside forces other than the need to earn a living in a difficult economic climate. Sex workers in our culture need to be protected, respected and applauded not harassed and shamed.
“Because of this raid 1,000s of independent workers worldwide will not be able to pay their rent this month and they are concerned about what this means for their safety and legal protection. There is a movement happening and many organizations creating Know Your Rights seminars this week. This is about workers’ rights–labor rights and equal protections for all kinds of workers without basic access to legal and healthcare support because they are deemed criminals or denied access to banking, housing or Facebook, in all sectors of the Adult industry, not just escorts. It’s about sex phobia and public shaming. Sex workers are strong and have organizations like Urban Justice Center and SWOP Sex Workers Outreach Project whom you might want to reach out to.
“Mainly, I feel that this is a perfect example of the hypocrisy of mainstream patriarchal culture and the government. Queer people are now invited to join in the systems of oppression -i.e. the military and marriage- that straight people have supported and engaged in for years but when it comes to freedom of choice as to what to do with our bodies women and the LGBT Community are still being exploited by the government and power hungry individuals for the purposes of financial gain and career advancement. I mean, is this really a “Homeland Security Issue?” I don’t think so. A gay man in Brooklyn who happens to have a “rimchair” is hardly the equivalent of someone on a commuter train with an AK-47. Years of undercover work and untold amounts of city and federal taxpayer dollars were spent on this this undercover sting operation and who was being harmed? Nobody.”
— Justin Vivian Bond, in a statement to the New York Times on the recent raid of Rentboy.com’s New York offices
Will Moor
Amen
Steve McSheffrey
If you’re doing something, accept the consequences. Thinking it shouldn’t be illegal doesn’t make you immune…
adrianjurado310
they should start a underground whore road, where they text each other in code to find sugar daddies and hook up In the secret. although I believe they should be able to do what they want rightly as workers until it gets sued and raped in prison they can still “pay their rent” the old fashion way with out the super internet information gang bang high way.
Tobi
RentBoy only has themselves to blame. RentMen are domiciled in Bulgaria, RentMasseur in Amsterdam, ditto VideoSecrets.
KevinG
Totally agree with Mx. Bond, though I do think most of the escorts will be able to make rent by promoting themselves through other channels like Rentmen.
jimontp
The real mystery in this case is WHY the department of Homeland Security spent millions of tax payers dollars invetigating and busting a gay sex site. There are hundreds of straight web sites that do the same “business,” as Rentboy. Why this one? Forget all the pros and cons of legalized prostitution. The Department of Homeland Security was created, and generously funded, to protect us from terrorist’s threats. WHAT the hell does this raid have anything to do with that mission? Really, think about it. It seems like a huge waste of resources and money for NOTHING that has to do with that department’s mission. Since my Congressional Representive is Pelosi, I’m going to ask her. Why don’t the rest of you, ask yours?
Clark35
Please, this is nothing like what happened in the 50s and 60s with bar raids/arrests when being anything other than heterosexual was illegal.
As for the male whores they will just find suckers/clients elsewhere on other sites.
Rentboy was busted not because of male whores but because of money laundering.
Dusty Lee
Lol “worker’s rights”?
Finrod
@Steve McSheffrey: “If you’re doing something, accept the consequences. Thinking it shouldn’t be illegal doesn’t make you immune…”
Does that mean that you accept executing people for being gay in Iran? Because it’s the law, right? Right?
Jay A. Scaramazzo
Put your energy into changing the laws, not breaking them.
Scott Redner
If you want to be a prostitute then move to Nevada and work at the Bunny Ranch were its legal…
Lvng1Tor
The way we treat and demonize sex workers in America is ridiculous. BFD…people want sex and are willing to pay for the convenience and any other reason a legal adult wants, another person is willing to offer those services for a fee. Who cares…no one gets hurt (not talking about people forced into prostitution…which would be less of an issue if it were legal..like it should be)
Oddly enough it’s always the ones who are quick to call people wh@res, sl@ts, trash and belittle these people as if they are dumb F@cks, less than, users, liars…basically beneath their morally superior perfect world..that always get caught either tapping their toes in bathroom stalls, in a back alley or in little black book after a prostitution ring gets busted. They always have the best browser histories too! Ive known many men and a few women who have made their way through college either escorting, stripping or porn (2 phd’s who did porn…paid off their educations too!) and now have great jobs, families, bank accounts etc..and are really great, nice, smart people.
Sick of judgmental jacka@@es who think sex is something to be ashamed of unless it’s done the way you do it…gays have wanted puritan xtians & straights out of our bedrooms forever and yet so many are so quick to judge others.
Billy Budd
“Sex workers in our culture need to be protected, respected and applauded not harassed and shamed.”
Amen. Prostitution MUST be legalized. It is a good and noble profession and has always existed and always will exist. I am totally favorable to prostitution.
jwtraveler
VERY WELL SAID!
Frank Croix
Bullshit pay your fucking taxes and social security.
martinbakman
George Rekers hired a rentboy to carry his luggage! Nuff said.
Seriously, I’m still hoping DHS investigation finds plenty of good juice on members of Congress.
seasailor
Those that started this business always knew (c’mon, they aren’t morons) that there would always be a chance they could get busted for a multi-million dollar prostitution ring. Let’s come back down to the real world. You can sugar coat prosttitution as much as you want, but it isn’t all sweet innocent girls/guys trying to make a buck to put themselves through college to be a lawyer one day. Granted there is a lot of misfortune involved with sex workers and why they landed up there in the first place, but on the other hand there is a lot of drugs, violence, corruption, and money laundering which can also front terrorist organizations. I grew up one the streets myself and pulled myself off of them without ever having to sell myself, and I’m a successful business owner today. I started with nothing. I am not against prostitution at all, or legalizing it. So let’s face it, this doesn’t look to me like an attack on the LGBT community. It looks like someone stepped on someone else’s toes and, well, corruption being corruption, someone got stung for it. Why the hell did this guy run this company from a country where prostitution is illegal? If this company truly cared about their 10,000 plus employees, they would have safe-guarded it.
Avery Alvarez
Everything about this garbage is distasteful
Christian Lum
no.. it’s about prostitution, paying for sex, which is illegal.. workers rights my ass…
juliansorl
You would think these guys were doing the work of Mother Teresa the way some people go on and on about the value of RentBoy.
juliansorl
@Frank Croix: Couldn’t agree more. Really hard for me to feel sympathy for those participating in a tax free all cash under ground economy while I’m writing a check each year to the tax man!
Clark35
@juliansorl: LMAO!!!!!!!! True. Plus the people who are in favor of legalizing/decriminalizing prostitution fail to realize that you will never take away the criminal element associated with prostitution where people get trafficked and forced into prostitution, and that in countries where prostitution is decriminalized/legalized sex trafficking and forced prostitution are out of control.
Hillary
Does anyone bother to check for grammatical errors before posting in a public forum? Jeez.
Joe Steel
People saying that you shouldn’t break the law forget that gay sex was illegal in our lifetimes. Just because something is against the law doesn’t mean it is wrong. Think about that the next time you smoke a joint in most states.
Billy Budd
@Joe Steel: I like you.
pjm1
From the New York Times’s Editorial Board
(in case you missed it).
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/29/opinion/homeland-securitys-peculiar-prosecution-of-rentboy.html?hpw&rref=opinion&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well
jwtraveler
@Joe Steel: Good points!
Those concerned with people not paying taxes should be less concerned with the rent boys avoiding paying thousands of dollars and more concerned with the corporations and one-percenters avoiding millions or billions in taxes. That’s where the real tax dodgers are.
If sex trafficking is such a big problem (which it is), why not focus on that instead of targeting adults engaged in voluntary consensual prostitution?
jwtraveler
Thanks for the link to a a voice of reason. I like the ad in the window next to the cops busing rentboy.
“Celebrate the freedom to choose your unique flavor.”
Ironic.
jwtraveler
@Scott Redner: I’m curious. Before this year’s Supreme Court decision, were you telling gay people who wanted to get married to move to Canada where it was legal?
Should everyone who wants to smoke weed move to Washington or Colorado?
Clark35
@Avery Alvarez: Well said.
Raquel Santiago
Ok I got tired of typing the same thing on every single hate blog and newsfeed so it became copy and paste time.
Going to have to disagree on the “it should have happened part”. All law enforcement is doing is pushing the “sex trade” more underground and more dangerous. The real question becomes did Rentboy pay taxes on the incomes they received from the site, if they paid taxes and the government accepted that money, OOOH BOY. Since the beginning of time sex work has been just that sex work, i think we need to move more into an era where the workers and their clients are protected and not victimized. Also, i am fully aware of some escorts on sites that do have a “pimp” so to speak, one in particularlives in the castro district of San Francisco and takes a large percentage of money from escorts he listed on the site (i interviewed several of them and they all told me the same thing and they all had very similar worded ads at the time). That said, i digress, the government cannot call an escort on rentboy a victim when they are advertising their own services, next thing you know they are going to be targeting the porn industry. This is simply about government intervention and law enforcement picking and choosing which ones they want to go after plain and simple. This was an attack on the LGBTQQYIA community plain and simple. I will bet you that more than one of the agents who raided that place have used an escort at one time or another and more than one of them probably used rentboy and not for surveillance either.