8/23/20 why American liberals shouldn't leverage sex paranoia and scandal

Here is the link to my August 23, 2020, Twitter thread about why the history of sex paranoia continues to prove that when liberals use sex paranoia for their own purposes, it does not help them -- or the people they're claiming to serve -- in any way at all.

This is one of my favorite threads that I've ever written.

Thank you for reading. Please enjoy.

8/7/20 thoughts on the TikTok scandal, COPPA, and Sec. 230

Here is the link to my August 7, 2020, Twitter thread of thoughts about the role the TikTok scandal was playing in generating more consensus in America for things like updates to COPPA and Sec. 230, which I feel could destroy freedom of speech online.

Thank you for reading. Please enjoy.

1/13/20 discussion about labor exploitation as depicted in US law

Here is the link to my January 13, 2020, Twitter thread about why I don't think US laws really reflect the different between things like human trafficking and labor exploitation, and why I think, because of this, all of our US labor exploitation laws, but especially the Trafficking Victims Protection Act and FOSTA-SESTA, need to be completely reassessed.

Thank you for reading. Please enjoy.

1/9/20 discussion about a book I'd like to see made

Here is the link to my January 9, 2020, Twitter thread discussion of a book I'd like to see someone make one day called I Want Condoms, which would have to do with young people's access to birth control.

Thank you for reading. Please enjoy.

9/24/19 discussion of my own youth sexuality and my sex studies

Here is the link to my September 24, 2019, Twitter thread discussion of how my own youth sexuality inspired my art, which inspired my studies of queer and youth sexuality and US sex laws.

Thank you for reading. Please enjoy.

9/7/19 discussion about sex work and age of consent laws

Here is the link to my September 7, 2019, Twitter thread discussion -- essentially about how I felt sex work theorists and activists were ignoring the role age of consent laws have played in the history of sex work laws.

This thread is horribly written. And, honestly, I'm not a fan of my opinion pieces, the threads that are all opinion, with no new research. However I wanted to include this thread in this table of contents because I definitely still believe a lot of what I'm saying here.

There are some sex worker rights groups who include youth sex workers as part of their discussion. And plenty of folks who are involved in the fight to decriminalize sex work also talk about some really important aspects of the lives of LGBTQ youth -- such as rejection by parents, homelessness, and unemployment.

However, even in 2021, there remains an absolute refusal among sex worker rights activists to recognize the very close historical connection between age of consent laws and sex work laws.

It's hard for me to stress how important I feel it is to recognize the connection between age of consent laws and sex work laws. And, as I've continued to talk about sex work over the years, I've tried to keep my focus on this one aspect of the issue.

Thank you for reading. Please enjoy.

7/30/19 discussion of some of my own ideas about sex work

Here is the link to my July 30, 2019, Twitter thread discussion of some of my own ideas about sex work.

While I agree with these ideas, even still, and while a lot of my ideas came from research, reading, etc., I'm still not always fond of these threads where I give a lot of my own ideas and theories.

I don't think they're bad. And I definitely want to make sure I post them. But I also feel like I can probably do better to continue studying topics and presenting the results of my topics, rather than giving my own opinions on topics, especially when it comes to sex work -- which I have no personal experience with.

Thank you for reading. Please enjoy.

7/12/19 discussion on why I talk about sex work

Here is the link to my July 12, 2019, Twitter thread discussion about why my own life experiences inspired me to study sex work law, and what the history of sex laws have taught me.

Thank you for reading. Please enjoy.

6/30/19 close reading of a passage from Delinquent Daughters

Here is the link to my June 30, 2019, Twitter thread close reading of a passage from Mary E. Odem's book Delinquent Daughters.

My goal, as my thread states, was to show that modern age of consent laws in the United States are closely tied to sex work laws.

As I think Odem's book shows plainly, the only reason the age of legally recognized consent to sex was raised in the United States was because the social purists trying to fully criminalize sex work were not getting sex work fully criminalized quickly enough. They used the age of consent to generate sex paranoia in America. That paranoia of youth sex helped raise the age of consent, pass laws like the Mann Act, and fully criminalize sex work in the United States.

Since that time, the paranoia of youth sex has been a kind of vicious cycle in the US. Each time the government decides new sex laws need to be passed, they carry out a campaign to generate more paranoia of youth sex.

This paranoia generates consensus for stricter sex laws in the US, leading from the Mann Act, to the 1970s child pornography laws, to the 1990s sex education and sex exploitation laws, to the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, to FOSTA-SESTA, and, now, to attempts to restrict all kinds of freedoms of expression, for youths and adults, that we're seeing in our current laws.

This all has its roots in a very close tie between sex work laws, the paranoia of youth sex, and age of consent laws.

Nevertheless, almost no sex work decriminalization activists want to admit just how closely age of consent laws and sex work laws are to each other.

If we don't critically assess our laws about the age of legally recognized consent to sex in America, and if we keep on suppressing America's history of paranoia about youth sex, we will most likely not only always be at the whim of politicians who make whatever laws they want about our sexuality, but also in grave danger of sending our country into a bad place, because by this point, our mass psychology is, at least at times, very much driven by this one specific paranoia.

Thank you for reading. Please enjoy.

6/19/19 discussion of how I got interested in the sex work decriminalization movement

Here is the link to my June 19, 2019, Twitter thread discussion about how I got interested in the sex work decriminalization movement.

Twitter's platform has twisted each of my threads through 2018 and 2019 out of chronological order. This thread is affected, but is still mostly coherent. My apologies.

Thank you for reading. Please enjoy.

5/23/19 review of my previous sex scandal and sex policy thoughts

Here is the link to my May 23, 2019, Twitter thread discussion of previous threads I'd written about things like age of consent laws, moral purity, and sexual blackmail for political purposes.

Thank you for reading. Please enjoy.

5/12/19 discussion about Alyssa Milano's proposed sex strike

Here is the link to my May 12,2019, Twitter thread discussion about the sex strike Alyssa Milano proposed around this time, generating a lot of controversy.

Twitter's platform has twisted each of my threads through 2018 and 2019 out of chronological order. This thread is very affected, and is only somewhat coherent. My apologies.

Thank you for reading. Please enjoy.

3/17/19 discussion about de-platforming people on social media

Here is the link to my March 17, 2019, Twitter thread discussion on why I think de-platforming people on social media is probably not effecting the types of positive social changes people claims it effects.

Twitter's platform has twisted each of my threads through 2018 and 2019 out of chronological order. This thread is affected, but is still moderately coherent. My apologies.

Thank you for reading. Please enjoy.

1/26/19 discussion about Marriott's sex trafficking trainings

Here is the link to my January 26, 2019, Twitter thread reaction to the news at that time about Marriott's sex trafficking trainings.

Twitter's platform has twisted each of my threads through 2018 and 2019 out of chronological order. This thread is affected, but is still moderately coherent. My apologies.

Thank you for reading. Please enjoy.

1/10/19 discussion about Jermaine Gagnon

Here is the link to my January 10, 2019, Twitter thread discussion about Jermaine Gagnon, a Black man who came forward about experiencing sexual exploitation and abuse at the hands of a powerful white man.

Thank you for reading. Please enjoy.

1/7/19 discussion about age of consent laws in America

Here is the link to my January 7, 2019, Twitter thread discussion about some of my specific opinions regarding the laws about the age of legally recognized consent to sex in America.

Twitter's platform has twisted each of my threads through 2018 and 2019 out of chronological order. This thread is very affected, and is only somewhat coherent. My apologies.

Thank you for reading. Please enjoy.

12/30/18 review of the "confusing" year 2018

Here is the link to my December 30, 2018, Twitter thread review of the year 2018.

I would like to say a couple of things about this thread.

First -- Twitter's platform has twisted each of my threads through 2018 and 2019 out of chronological order. This is embarrassingly bad in some of my threads -- especially threads where I'm talking about a chronological order of events, like this one. The timeline is so jumbled up. It really frustrates me.

Second -- I think it's funny that I called 2018 a confusing year. Oh, how little I anticipated 2020.

Third -- In these tweets, you'll see me talking directly to Colorado's then-Governor-elect, Jared Polis. I want to make clear -- this is because he was following me on Twitter. He was one of my Twitter followers.

I also want to make it clear -- right before Polis got elected, I had a significant conversation with him over DM on Twitter. Polis told me -- he told me via DM -- that he was sorry he voted for FOSTA-SESTA. He said he made a mistake. And he said he knew that sex workers needed rights.

Governor Polis, I feel, has not honored the conversation he and I had. He has done a lot of other things over the past few years as governor that I've liked. But he has also done a lot of disappointing things.

But I want to make the point here, that when I was talking directly to him in this thread, I was doing so because he followed me on Twitter and because he and I had had a conversation over DM on Twitter about sex work decriminalization and FOSTA-SESTA.

Thank you for reading. Please enjoy.

12/11/18 discussion of various things related to FOSTA-SESTA

Here is the link to my December 11, 2018, Twitter thread about some various aspects of FOSTA-SESTA, as I'd been researching them, and as they seemed to be very big topics of conversation for people at the end of 2018.

Twitter's platform has twisted each of my threads through 2018 and 2019 out of chronological order. This thread is affected, but is still moderately coherent. My apologies.

Thank you for reading. Please enjoy.

12/3/18 discussion about FOSTA-SESTA and Tumblr

Here is the link to my December 3, 2018, Twitter thread of threads about FOSTA-SESTA. I'd put this thread of threads together as a sort of initial reaction to the news about the Tumblr purge.

Thank you for reading. Please enjoy.

6/15/18 discussion about the US Code and FOSTA-SESTA

Here is the link to my June 15, 2018, Twitter thread discussion about some research I did into the US Code to understand FOSTA-SESTA better.

As I've mentioned a lot before, I was deeply concerned when Congress passed FOSTA-SESTA in early 2018, as I felt the law would threaten freedom of sexual speech in general.

This thread signifies a turning point in my ideas about FOSTA-SESTA, as it really is when I decided to stop focusing on all sexual speech and to start focusing only on sex work decriminalization.

I don't think my choice was 100% smart. And I think I've spent about a year now trying to refocus myself on other aspects of freedom of sexual speech that actually are gravely impacted by FOSTA-SESTA and other laws like it.

Twitter's platform has twisted each of my threads through 2018 and 2019 out of chronological order. This thread is affected, but is still mostly coherent. My apologies.

Thank you for reading. Please enjoy.