From Sept. 6-8, the “Queerz Get Loud” festival, hosted at the Lublin Cultural Center, will include a panel on prostitution.
“Celebration, diversity, a platform to experience each other together, inspiration and stimulation, and a polyphony of different means of expression — this is what Queerz Get Loud has always been and will be,” reads the event description, according to the DoRzeczy.pl news portal.
It goes on to say that the Camera Femina foundation is “queering” Lublin for the fifth year, calling the city “an important point on the queer map of Poland.”
What can attendees expect? Workshops, meetings, discussions, a zine premiere, film screenings, a theater performance, concerts, a drag and burlesque show, and… a panel discussion on “sex work.”
“In the history of the fight for LGBT rights, trans and non-white people who engaged in sex work played an important role. This aspect is often omitted in mainstream narratives. Queer aesthetics have always drawn from the culture of sex work and sexuality. Moreover, the community of sex workers often was more inclusive for queer people and provided a safer environment compared to the hostile outside world. During the discussion, taking place with people experienced in sex work, we will also focus on the economic exclusion of queer people, for whom sex work is often the only way to avoid poverty. For trans people, it is often the only option available to obtain the funds necessary to start the transition process. Faced with limited prospects, sex work can be a way to make a decent living.” — the description reads.
The fact that prostitution is being talked about at a queer festival is not a real surprise. Nor that queer and trans people often find themselves in this line of work. However, prostitution also comes with severe downsides, including risks for mental health and also physical health.
“Prostitution is closely linked to various psychological pathologies and affects not only those directly involved but also society at large. Studies have shown that both street and indoor sex workers have experienced high levels of abuse in childhood and adulthood, with differences in trauma rates between the two groups,” according to Wikipedia, which features an entire page about the deleterious impact of prostitution on mental health.
There are, after all, other fields to make a living in, even if they do not pay as well as sex work. While the organizers advertise that sex workers “make a decent living,” it is a career often riddled with drugs, exploitation, and crime.
The organizers write that “queer aesthetics have always drawn from the culture of sex work and sexuality.” In effect, the organizers are sexualizing trans people and stamping homosexuality with blanket statements that many in both communities may find negative.
Turning back to the Camera Femina foundation, one description called it “a foundation that advocates women’s participation in cultural, artistic, and public life. Camera Femina also conducts workshops and carries out equality-mainstreaming projects that change the androcentric narrative dominant in the arts, science, and business.”
Camera Femina’s own site reads: “This site was founded by film artist Maya Han to promote the visibility of moving images by and about women and historically marginalized genders by highlighting noteworthy works and their NYC-area screenings and exhibitions.”
After the entire #MeToo movement and efforts to dignify gays and be more inclusive to trans, it feels just wrong to then invite the LGBTQI crowd to celebrate being sexually objectified—no, worse, “sold.”
