Sex worker shows how to check for disease

Decked out in a shiny fake leather bodysuit and fishnet stockings, sex worker Janelle Fawkes demonstrated how to check a client for diseases while still letting him feel comfortable and sexy, and how to negotiate safe sex.

“There are ways of getting condoms on clients when they don’t even realise it’s happening, and making it sexy so they don’t mind using a condom,” she said.

Fawkes’ presentation about empowering sex workers to protect themselves took place in a convention centre foyer at the 15th International AIDS Conference in Bangkok.

Part of her show was a phallic-shaped sculpture made of condoms and dental dams and signs that read “Debby doesn’t do it for free”.

“We need to be able to design our own sex programmes to reduce STIs, HIV and stigmatisation,” Fawkes, president of the Scarlet Alliance of sex workers in Australia, told an audience of more than 100 people. She has worked in the sex industry for 15 years.

“The messages have to be very explicit and clear. We have to use strategies that talk about sex, otherwise the message won’t get across,” she said. “Sex workers need to be informed to protect themselves. It’s not just about handing out condoms.”

Fawkes said legalisation of prostitution would be one of the best ways to protect sex workers and their clients.