Rentboy.com Raid: Staying Alive

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Rentboy.com: A Raid On Rights

It is hard to see the harm done by Rentboy.com, but it’s easy to see the harm done by the raid on society at large. The criminalization of voluntary, consensual sexual relations among adults is incompatible with the rights to personal autonomy and privacy – internationally recognized human rights that everyone, including individuals engaged in sex work, is entitled to. Criminalization creates barriers for those engaged in sex work to exercise basic rights and to seek access to justice, health care, and other available services...

Grameme Reid, Human Rights Watch 

PS New York Times condemns Homeland Security's Peculiar Prosection Of Rentboy.

Brian Sewell: The Life Of Brian

Daily Telegraph.

A Telegraph sub clearly having some fun - it's actually about rugby...

Rent: Nice Work If You Can Get It

Most people think of male prostitution as dangerous, degrading and exploitative work. But there are some who are attempting to reinvent it as a profession free of stigma by using all the tools of modern business, writes Mobeen Azhar...

BBC News Magazine.

A few favourite lines...

Now he has a price list which includes hourly rates and a discount for block booking. He issues loyalty cards so customers who pay for nine "appointments" get their tenth free.

"I get Americans and a lot of Arabs. I've met clients visiting London and now they fly me out to their home countries for my services. I just got back from Munich. I was seeing an arms dealer. The most I've ever made is £30,000 in a month."

"Some days, men come into the [QX] office with suitcases in tow, straight from the airport. Some of them can't even speak English but they want to get their advert sorted out before anything else, even before they've found a place to stay."

For a time he worked in Knightsbridge selling designer menswear in a glossy department store. But his attempt at a normal career was short-lived.

"Drugs are completely unprofessional," he says. "They don't fit in with my brand and what I'm aiming for."

"When I won Male Sex Worker of the Year, I texted my dad," says Brandon. "He said: 'I'm proud of you son.'"

• You can listen to the report on 5 Live Investigates on BBC iPlayer here.

With thanks/apologies to @ohchrisburton. x

Crime Tales: Union Square 1982

A short - newly unearthed - film by Dictelio Cepeda interviewing street hustlers in New York in 1982.