Protesters condemn US case over Rentboy.com
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http://www.rawstory.com/2015/09/protesters-condemn-u-s-case-over-rentboy-com-male-escort-website/
Gay and civil rights activists gathered in downtown Brooklyn on Thursday to condemn the prosecution of the chief executive officer and six employees of male escort website Rentboy.com for promoting prostitution.
About 50 protesters gathered outside the federal court where charges are pending against Rentboy.com CEO Jeffrey Hurant and the employees, who were arrested last week as authorities seized the website, which marketed to gay men.
The case has prompted outrage among some gay rights activists, who questioned why prosecutors are only now targeting the service after it had operated transparently for nearly two decades.
“This was an updated, digitalized raid, just like Stonewall,” said protester and gay rights activist Allen Roskoff, referring to a Greenwich Village bar popular among gay customers that was raided in 1969.
Protesters held signs saying “Eyes off our private lives” and chanted “Stop the persecution, stop the prosecution” as they demanded charges be dropped and sex work be decriminalized.
A spokeswoman for Brooklyn Acting U.S. Attorney Kelly Currie declined to comment.
Established in 1996, Rentboy.com became what authorities say was the largest online male escort website, and even hosted an annual escorts awards show called the Hookies.
The website carried disclaimers saying its advertisements for escorts were for companionship and not sexual services. But authorities now say Rentboy.com was intended primarily to promote prostitution.
Critics of the arrests include The New York Times, which in an editorial last Friday said prosecutors had not justified shutting down “a company that provided sex workers with a safer alternative to street walking or relying on pimps.”
Other defendants include Shane Lukas, Rentboy.com’s chief operating officer, Michael Belman, its marketing director; sales agents Clint Calero and Diana Mattos; Edward Estanol, a former social media coordinator; and Marco Decker, an accountant.
The case was announced a week after Lambda Legal and four other gay and transgender rights groups joined a call by Amnesty International to decriminalize sex work, which they said would help protect participants from harm or exploitation.
Khaalid Walls, a spokesman for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which was involved in the probe, said “any insinuation that a specific population was targeted is categorically false.”
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Question: Bad enough that Homeland Security seems to think there is some kind of terrorist threat hear from cocksucking, but wtf does Immigration or Customs have to do with anything?
Also, too, is there any possible reading of that final claim about targeting that is not, on its face, utterly preposterous?
Breaking News as of 3 Sept 2015
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Maybe there are claims of illegals working there. The UK government says that 27% of trafficked sex workers are men.
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I may get some flack for saying this, but I am surprised that renboy was able to get away with openly promoting the facilitation of prostitution for so long. In the U.S., prostitution is illegal. It does not matter that it is the world's oldest profession, or that it could/should be a private matter between the parties involved, or any other reason people manufacture to get around the one simple fact that it is illegal in the US.
Rentboy was bold. There website and advertising left no question as to what it's purpose was…serving as a digital pimp for prostitution transactions. They were even headquartered in the US - not somewhere in say, Europe, where things like prostitution are regulated and openly permitted.
With the fall of Ashley Madison and the release of all that data on the web, you have to realize that a website like rentboy, which probably has more than a few government officials (foreign and domestic) with accounts in its records, was likely to be targeted. A politician can recover from a heterosexual affair. Very few politician have recovered from being caught up in gay scandals - particularly Republicans or politicians not known previously to be gay. For them, it's better to have the government shut the website down and seize the data than to risk having it come out in the open like Ashley Madison. I would bet that rentboy's digital security is/was no better than Ashley Madison's.
The protestors can complain all they want. This is pretty much an open and shut case. People should be amazed that the website was able to last as long as it did. It's simply that the government chose to no longer turn a blind eye in the wake of recent events.
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It took 20 years for the feds to attack this site, and somehow it was Immigration, Customs, and Homeland Security were involved, not just the New York Police Department. Are any of those arrested undocumented aliens? Doubtful. Terrorists? Lol. Were they smuggling wild oats inside the usual biological equipment? Hardy har har.
Not sure the definition of "pimp" but if that means a newspaper, magazine, or web page carrying paid adverts, most all media have some 'splaining to do to the self-righteous authorities. If "pimp" as a legal matter means managing prostitutes for pay, that ain't happening here. In fact, freelance escorts providing their own contact information without reference in any way to the site owners/operators would seem to make this a buyer-seller free market without intermediaries and without coercion.
No membership was required to read or respond to the adverts. My guess, completely uninformed, is that adverts were paid for by credit card, thus ensuring advertisers were of legal age.
Yes, politicians may have used these services. Some elected US officials have been in the news for having hired male companions. Generally, Democrats don't care about private consensual sexual activities. The hypocrites who make the biggest fuss are, typically, the Republic*nts, and few of them are held accountable because their god forgives them. Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee is loudly on record for having forgiven tv reality star and christianist cult member Josh Duggar for molesting his sisters and other children, for hiring a female prostitute (who says he is unstable) and cheating on his wife with the female porn performer.
The conspicuously religiously prating Huck has no trouble forgiving the prominent exemplar of the Quiverful movement, but does not extend the same compassion to Democrats for some reason. Go figure. Duggar, currently missing from a rehab community run by a man known to have shielded another pedophile, is a "good Christian" so move along, nothing to see here.
Same like the congressman who was foottapping under a stall divider in an airport men's room. And David Vitter in Louisiana, who hired a female for sex and is still in office.
The famous remark is that you cannot be caught in bed with a live boy or a dead girl, but apparently that rule is no longer valid…..
In any case, since no membership is required, government lackeys or officials are automatically off the hook for doing anything more than, at most, perving on visuals-- a practice more widely practiced in the most loudly and conspicuously "religious" parts of the US, in the same way that countries with competent medically based sex education find young people delaying first sex for longer and fewer of them becoming inadvertently pregnant.
The problem is not that dicks get hard or women wet, but that repression and shame and hypocrisy wreck lives. Saying that prostitution is illegal in the US, and specifically in NYC where the arrests took place, does not make this preposterous waste of time and money any more legitimate. It's not as if Rep. Wilbur Mills was caught with Argentine stripper Fanne Foxe splashing in the D.C. tidal basin to escape a traffic accident. Or some Brit frolicking with Christine Keeler.
If enforcing Stone Age sexual judgementalism takes precedence over dealing with nuclear war, poverty, and the wretched of the Earth right here in the land of racism and sexism, then we are doomed. Acknowledging laws against sex work does not make this farrago any more legitimate or any less offensive.
It's time for everyone to grow up and mind their own business.
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Reason for Immigration, Customs, and Homeland Security involvement was that underage minor where being traveled across state lines are well as around the world. What we consider to be a minor in the U.S. is not the same in many other countries. This is why the Feds we involved.
I am not a Republican nor a Democrat, I am an Independent and I vote on the person that makes me feel comfortable and stand with many of my same beliefs. The Democrats most of the time are too weak and afraid to stand up. The Republican play that stupid politicians game and never speak their minds, only speak what the party wants them to say. I like the few that do speak their minds and sad to say that there are not that many of them.
Too many of the politicians are so out of touch with American. Many of them are too old and can not relate with the changing America. We really need to get some new blood into office and start a change of things. I have a lot of hope, but I have to say many people today just do not care. They can not even vote once a year or every 2 year and sad to say not even once in 4 years. Voting registration is down by 20% and the ones that are registered can not get off their lazy ass and walked a few blocks to vote. People today have no right to complain or bitch about anything, UNLESS…...YOU VOTE! I am tried of people complaining about problems in the U.S., I will listen but once they are done I will ask a simple question to them, Did you vote? You would be surprised at the number of people that tell me that they did not vote. Then I have to speak up and tell them, to shut up and take it. It you want things to change you need to help make them change. Nothing happens to us for free. You have to work for everything in life that matters.
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I can see it being a federal thing, but ICE and Homeland Security seem like odd people to be doing this.
As was already said, there was no terrorism and no illegals. So why isn't the FBI dealing with this? They are the logical choice for such a case.
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Parroting canned talking points in defense of authoritarianism does not mean there is evidence. Mindlessly speaking one's mind, aka braying, may work for mobbed up politicians and casino magnates, but hardly persuades grown up heads of state. So far there seems no evidence of undocumented aliens (aka "illegals") or of minors being involved. Would be interested in any substantial evidence to the contrary.
Yes, Dumocraps are often feckless, but at least they are not warmongering racists, bigots and hypocrites smarmy with piety and aggressively intruding their warped immorality onto the lives of others like Republic*nts with their tame propaganda network, wingnut welfare system, and flagwrapped Fascism. And while Dum elected officials may be overly timid in the face of the giant daily poutrage machine of constant bogus anklebiting, at least they are not solidly opposed to positions endorsed not only by a majority of US citizens, but a majority of their own self-identified party members.
None of which irrelevant teabagging incoherence and rage has anything to do with lack of factual data concerning private contracts and private enterprise among consenting adults.
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I don't disagree with either of your assessments of the current Democrats and Republicans, that's why I'm supporting Bernie Sanders, independent Senator from Vermont in the upcoming Democratic primaries.
As for the rentboy raid, unless the company was knowingly involved in human trafficking this is just a waste of taxpayer money and homophobic campaign against gay sex. Amnesty International, Lambda Legal, and number of other human rights organizations have recently called for sex work to be decriminalized.
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Not sure the definition of "pimp" but if that means a newspaper, magazine, or web page carrying paid adverts, most all media have some 'splaining to do to the self-righteous authorities. If "pimp" as a legal matter means managing prostitutes for pay, that ain't happening here. In fact, freelance escorts providing their own contact information without reference in any way to the site owners/operators would seem to make this a buyer-seller free market without intermediaries and without coercion.
I have read many an ad from some of my favorite pornstars on rentboy. While rentboy may not have written those ads, they are responsible for the content they are putting on the web via those ads. Many pornstars do not adhere to the "safe" language of buying a person's time. They are much more explicit about what the customer is buying including body parts, sex acts, or fetish acts. It only takes one ad like that to get a website in trouble. Rentboy had many like that.
Newspapers, magazines, and such have legal requirements that must be adhered to in order to have ads published. They carefully consider each ad that they run for liability reasons. Rentboy did NOT do that. My guess is they did not care about an ad's content as long as they received the money for it. That is mistake number 1. That is why it can be tagged as a digital pimp. Hell, even craigslist's personals section does a better job of managing content from its users to avoid straying into the prostitution area than rentboy did.
If enforcing Stone Age sexual judgementalism takes precedence over dealing with nuclear war, poverty, and the wretched of the Earth right here in the land of racism and sexism, then we are doomed. Acknowledging laws against sex work does not make this farrago any more legitimate or any less offensive.
It's time for everyone to grow up and mind their own business.
I wouldn't say it took precedence, they simply chose to dispatch some people and seize the server/domain. It took all of what, a few hours before the site was down? None of those other problems could be addressed so swiftly and definitively. Those other interests aren't also likely main interests of your average politician. Covering their own closeted ass from being potentially publicly exposed, well I am sure many could sign on for that.
My personal belief is that prostitution is a personal matter between consenting adults. But the law is the law. Just like that clerk in Kentucky can't deny issuing marriage certificates based on her personal/religious beliefs, we can't turn a blind eye to open prostitution given that our laws say it is illegal.
The outrage expressed by people over this would be better channeled getting prostitution legalized, not defending a company that openly advocated prostitution. Rentboy will have some lawyer attempt to defend them, but the government will have tons of black and white explicitly written text ads to make their case. Courts rule based on the law, not public opinion. Just like with gay marriage, you have to focus on getting something that is not legal, legalized. Until that's done, one has no leg to stand on, personal beliefs (and court of public opinion) be damned.
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"…we can't turn a blind eye to open prostitution given that our laws say it is illegal."
Sure we can. Priorities. Same like police do not need to arrest a black driver for having an air freshener hanging on a mirror in the car's front window. Is that "blocking the view" a sufficient reason for the cop to get off the road and stop paying attention in case there is actual serious crime?
The one time I served on a jury, the case involved two undercover cops who had arrested a young Asian woman, apparently after soliciting her, at a massage parlor. No owners or others were arrested. Judge wanted to know whether we potential jurors could ignore our own sense of decency and fairness and follow his instructions on the case. I was not the only one who refused to be a party to this charade of victimization, those poor shocked police officers, defending us all.
Phooey.
Otherwise, unfortunately yr analysis is spot on. Just because I don't like it does not mean you are not correct.
By the way, what other sites are trying to fill the demand now that the presumptive industry leader is hors de commerce?
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"…we can't turn a blind eye to open prostitution given that our laws say it is illegal."
Sure we can. Priorities. Same like police do not need to arrest a black driver for having an air freshener hanging on a mirror in the car's front window. Is that "blocking the view" a sufficient reason for the cop to get off the road and stop paying attention in case there is actual serious crime?
True. Perfect example given as well. In fact, the government ignored rentboy for its entire existence, basically. I firmly believe the Ashley Madison data dump scared enough politicians into eating their own to survive and see another day rather than risk being outed and having their personal closeted proclivities exposed. I think the takedown is really about sensitive data that people want to remain private as opposed to the whole prostitution angle…even though the prostitution charge is valid.
By the way, what other sites are trying to fill the demand now that the presumptive industry leader is hors de commerce?
I've seen people move to http://hourboy.com/ and men4rentnow.com
It seems rentmen.com has disappeared in the last week or two.
