This weekend, the Women’s March in Support of Cop Killers once again tested the limits of humanity’s moral endurance by protesting the U.S. government’s takeover of Backpage.com, a website that was allegedly being used to facilitate prostitution for both adults and children.
The official Women’s March Twitter account described the website shutdown as an “absolute crisis for sex workers”:
. Closing #Backpage is an absolute crisis for sex workers who rely on this site to safely connect with clients. Sex workers’ rights are women’s rights. Follow @SafeSpaceDC @melissagira @swopusa @KateDAdamo @supporthosechi @anaorsomething You can find more information here. https://t.co/S3Orx3aM8Z
— Women’s March (@womensmarch) April 7, 2018
We will be sharing more information about sex workers’ rights in the coming days to raise awareness of this critical issue. We are all still learning and, as always, we need to listen to the voices of those most affected. #SexWorkIsWork
— Women’s March (@womensmarch) April 7, 2018
The Women’s March also encouraged its supporters to read a rambling Twitter user’s thread that argued that the government should not be in the business of “saving” “sex workers,” who should instead “have the freedom and autonomy to make the BEST decisions for themselves”:
Please read this essential thread. #LiquidateNow #SESTA #WERE https://t.co/cvhlvrNDLj
— Women’s March (@womensmarch) April 7, 2018
Listen to Black sex workers! We support everyone’s ability to work! Sex work is work. Sex workers deserve to work free from violence (especially from the state) and should be given the resources and tools they need to make their own decisions. https://t.co/Z5oUAmt6Nk
— BYP100 (@BYP_100) April 6, 2018
Sex workers do not need saving.
Sex workers have the freedom and autonomy to make the BEST decisions for themselves.
Sex workers deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.
Sex workers should not be criminalized.
— BYP100 (@BYP_100) April 7, 2018
All of this #SexWorkIsWork rhetoric strangely sidesteps what seems to be the most essential element of this story, namely the allegations that the site enabled child prostitution (or at least did not do enough to prevent it). According to Politico [emphasis mine]:
Backpage and its founders have been the subject of an intense investigation by the Senate Homeland Security Committee in recent years. Critics say the site not only promotes illegal prostitution but also facilitates human trafficking and child sexual exploitation.
(…)
Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), who was the lead Republican on the Senate investigation into Backpage, called the action “overdue” and said it was good news for victims. “This is a positive step forward in our efforts to hold accountable human traffickers who sell women and children online.” he said in a statement.
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Missouri), one of Backpage’s main opponents in Congress, also praised the Justice Department’s actions.
“This is great news for survivors, advocates and law enforcement in Missouri and across the country, but it is also long overdue and further evidence of why our bipartisan legislation is so important,” McCaskill said in a statement. “Law enforcement at the state and local levels need this bill to take swift action against websites that knowingly facilitate the online sex trafficking of children.”and stop the next Backpage long before another website reaps so many innocent victims.”
If Backpage was indeed involved in child trafficking, there should be no question that the website should be shut down.
Of course, it would normally be difficult to believe that an organization like the Women’s March—which enjoys broad support from liberal and progressive Democrats—would feel comfortable openly supporting a website like Backpage. On the other hand, the Women’s March is the same organization that board member Linda Sarsour she once tweeted that she wanted to “take back” the vaginas of Brigitte Gabriel and Ayaan Hirsi Ali (who was herself a victim of child genital mutilation) for criticizing Islam.
Twitter is forever: Women’s March leader Linda Sarsour wants to grab Ayaan Hirsi Ali by the pussy. photo:twitter.com/XNZIwTwoE5
— Shireen Qudosi (@ShireenQudosi) January 26, 2017
In April 2017, Sarsour also threw her support behind a convicted murderer who blew up and killed two Israeli students in 1969. According to the Daily Caller [emphasis mine]:
Earlier this month, Sarsour spoke alongside — and embraced — Rasmea Odeh, an alleged member of the terrorist-designated Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Odeh, 69, was convicted in Israel in 1970 for her role in two bombings the previous year, one at a Jerusalem supermarket and the other at the British consulate. Two Israeli students killed in supermarket bombing; nine injured in two explosions.
After serving a 10-year prison sentence in Israel, Odeh was able to emigrate to the United States.
Sarsour said she felt “honored and privileged to be here, in this place, and honored to be on this stage with Rasmea.”
In addition to the Women’s March’s past support for cop-killer terrorist Assata Shakur and incorrigible method murderer Donna Hylton, it is unfortunately all too likely that the group will stoop to the level of ignoring child sex trafficking.
