To celebrate the end of National Coming Out Month, the University of Rhode Island Gender and Sexuality Center (GSC) hosted a series of events to normalize discussions about sexuality entitled SexFest
As part of this event series, the GSC held a presentation hosted by two sociology professors followed by a discussion about anti-sex work legislation on Wednesday, Oct. 20.
Julie Keller, associate professor of sociology, started the event by discussing how LBGTQIA+ identities are represented in television, movies and other media. She specifically focused on the show “The L Word,” highlighting the positive and negative aspects of having a show represent an identity.
“The L Word,” which aired from 2004 to 2009, tells the stories of a group of lesbian characters through their complex lives and, more importantly, their sex lives. The characters in the series are involved in sex work.
“About 20 years ago, producers were not excited to air this type of content, which is what makes its appearance so groundbreaking,” Keller said.
The show illustrated a new perspective of the many kinds of complex relationships and sex lives of lesbian characters, which is something that had not been done in that way on TV before, Keller said.
Some students in attendance said that representation of LGBTQIA+ identities is good to have in the media because it can foster a sense of belonging.
“At the time, my friends and I were wondering where other types of gender representation were,” Keller said, referencing the lack of diverse queer representation in mainstream media at the time “The L Word” gained attention.
Sometimes, queer representation in media is not inclusive of all identities and often pigeonholes how a queer person should look and act, according to Keller.
Katie Riedy, a student staff member at the GSC, said that queer representation is linked to the way we perceive sex work in our society. Discrimination in workplaces, high levels of youth, LGBTQIA+ homelessness and other factors often push people within the LGBTQIA+ community into alternative types of careers.
“In order to accomplish LGBTQ+ equality, we need to ensure safety of sex workers,” Riedy said.
Christine Zozula, an associate professor of sociology at URI, spoke more about anti-sex work legislation in the United States and how it affects and connects to the LGBTQIA+ community.
The Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA) and Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) were passed in April 2018 due to a “moral panic” that was happening in American society caused by an amplified fear of sex trafficking, according to Zozula.
She said that these acts criminalized any person who is a sex worker. For example, according to Zozula, if your partner was a sex worker, and you were driving them down the street to an appointment, you would be committing sex trafficking.
Zozula said that social media sites put a ban on all adult content in an attempt to regulate postings that would violate these twin bills. Additionally, some apps banned certain tags, including the hashtag lesbian, which is unavailable on Instagram and other social media apps.
“[These laws] make it hard for sex workers to protect their own safety, screen for clientele and access places to advertise,” Zozula said. She said these laws and regulations strip queer people of that online presence within their community.
These anti-sex work legislations do a great deal of harm to the LGBTQIA+ community because of the way identities within the LGBTQIA+ community and sex work are intertwined, according to Riedy.
She said most people would favor the decriminalization of the SESTA and FOSTA bills to improve safety for sex workers. A
There are so many different identities, and they all deserve to be recognized, Riedy said.
“Because the existence of being an LGBTQIA+ is sexualized, sex and sexuality end up overlapping,” Riedy said. “We can’t really separate out gay issues, trans issues [and] sex work issues because to straight, [cisgender] society, a lot of us are viewed the same, but there are so many different identities, all of which have difference issues, that deserve to be see and deserve to be understood.”
The GSC is continuing its conversations throughout the month of October. They are located at 19 Upper College Road and are open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Fridays. This Friday, the GSC is hosting a Halloween Throwback Drag Ball at 8 p.m. in the Memorial Union Ballroom and a live performance of “Rocky Horror Picture Show” at 10 p.m. in Edwards Auditorium.