FTM Zachary Prince

http://laterslater.com/resume.png
 
Kevin Slater

I’m thinking about printing business cards. I already have a website that’s more informative and contains much more eye candy than my RM ad.

I can definitely see why that approach wouldn’t work... unless it was literally being marketed as some kind of kinky cuckolding experience. Cuz those guys are out there and actually DO enjoy paying to be denied service. A niche offering for sure. Maybe he should have tried on FetLife???

I’m plotting to add a component of my brand that is sex educational in nature, revolving around my niche skills, which are helping beginner bottoms learn how to successfully take stuff in their ass and introducing people to prostate stimulation and orgasms. Planning to host all that content in a separate location from my escort content, but connect the brands in discreet ways such as my name and some overlapping photo content. Basically so that if anyone researches me to SEE if I ever escort, it will be obvious that I do. Seems like it would add a small second stream of income as a sex educator and attract a small number of well-suited clients to me at the same time.
 
I was originally planning to host the sex education content on my personal/escort website, and make it VERY clear that I can provide personal sessions to teach the techniques, but SESTA/FOSTA is gonna have me separating them so that its easier for US clients to reliably access my sex education content even if my escort website starts getting deleted off US servers or blocked by US ISPs...

Do my activities differ? Yes... I am nearly 100% top in my personal life. And nearly 100% gay. I say nearly because we all know that there are always exceptions to everything. But you can easily generalise my personal sex life as those two things. In my professional life I am very much versatile and very much bisexual. I can sell those experiences very well, but they’re not just not what I generally pursue in my time off.
 
The pressing about what we REALLY LIKE can be invasive tho. It’s a deeply personal thing to inquire about, and doing so often violates the boundaries we may set between our personal and professional life. At the same time, we are selling a fantasy. We don’t want to ruin your experience by reminding you of those boundaries in that moment. But it’s an awkward question. Do you press the owner of your local pizza shop about whether he REALLY likes pizza or not? Do you ask your lawyer what legal matters he personally has pending? Do you ask your surgeon what surgeries he’s had done on him?
 
I realize it’s different, but you need to understand that whatever we do in our personal lives is just that- PERSONAL. Whatever we sell to you is a fantasy geared toward providing an awesome experience.
 
There’s a long standing joke in escort circles that clients constantly ask us escorts what WE WANT to do in bed, but aren’t ready for the REAL answer, which is to order takeout/room service and watch Netflix in bed for two hours. LOL
 
Whenever a client asks that question, he’s typically hoping for an answer that falls within his realm of fantasy about what makes for a fun time. If we don’t even know the client, we are literally being asked to be MIND READERS in that moment. How can we come up with something to fulfill the client’s fantasy of fulfilling OUR fantasy when we don’t even know what the client hopes our fantasy is? If we say the wrong thing, he’s going to get turned off.
 
A good escort should give you an idea of the type of experience that he enjoys selling in his marketing materials. If you want to make the session enjoyable for him, list everything you’re into and then ask him if he has any matching interests. Don’t pressure him or press his boundaries. Tip him an extra $20. Feed him nice snacks or drinks during the session. Give him a massage. Book him to sit in the jacuzzi and drink champagne with you. Let him make the first move. Pay him up front. Play some nice music. Send him home in a private car. There are SO many things you can do to make the session enjoyable for him. Most escorts who say they are in this for their own sexual pleasure are employing a marketing tactic. We are in it to make a living. Whatever we do for our own sexual pleasure is not typically something we would discuss with our professional clients under most circumstances. We are selling a fantasy of ourselves in that moment.
 
Now...
 
All that said, I have learned to be clear about what I’m into in any marketing. It leads to a more compatible client base for me. I would still cringe at being directly questioned about it, but hopefully anyone who has seen my marketing understands that I want to lick their ass, suck their dick, and stroke their prostate until they lose control of their legs & their ability to form complete sentences.
 
But like what if I’m in a room with a client who is clearly very Toppy in nature and he presses me about whether I REALLY enjoy getting fucked? I’m there to fulfil this guy’s fantasy. Do you think he’s getting an honest answer from me?

Also started focusing on my other streams of income more seriously than before, which include webcamming, custom clip-making, and escort marketing consultations.
 
Not only does this help me feel less panicked about escort ad websites getting deleted, but all of these revenue streams occasionally refer me escort clients.
 
Basically I’m exploring non-criminalised smaller revenue streams that double as subliminal advertising for my escort service. Fleshing out my brand into other arenas. I have been advising friends to consider doing the same.

LOL everyone who hates me because I’m “arrogant”, mixed-race and connected to my culture, and/or not muscular enough, PLEASE feel free to add me to your ignore list. In fact, I encourage it. The ignore function is there for a reason. USE IT!
 
I still have MANY more likes here than posts, so until that changes I’m going to consider my contributions useful to a significant cross-section of the members here. And last I checked it wasn’t against the rules for posting members to spend time in multiple countries. Or maybe its just non-white countries that some of the posters on this forum find it noteworthy to mock people for spending time in??
 
FYI, I already have multiple streams of income and all of them are related to the sex industry. Escorting just happens to be by far the most lucrative for me, the one that I enjoy the most, and the one that I have been doing the longest.
 
Neither whiny entitled clients who are infuriated by rate-raising threads nor sad bored men who have nothing better to do than make negative comments about my body have been included in my target client base for as long as I understood how to have one. Happy ignoring...

To mock a trans guy who has only had a year’s worth of necessary testosterone in his body about not being muscular enough is a SPECIAL kind of low. Congratulations!

To mock a trans guy who has only had a year’s worth of necessary testosterone in his body about not being muscular enough is a SPECIAL kind of low. Congratulations!

LOL everyone who hates me because I’m “arrogant”, mixed-race and connected to my culture, and/or not muscular enough, PLEASE feel free to add me to your ignore list. In fact, I encourage it. The ignore function is there for a reason. USE IT!
 
I still have MANY more likes here than posts, so until that changes I’m going to consider my contributions useful to a significant cross-section of the members here. And last I checked it wasn’t against the rules for posting members to spend time in multiple countries. Or maybe its just non-white countries that some of the posters on this forum find it noteworthy to mock people for spending time in??
 
FYI, I already have multiple streams of income and all of them are related to the sex industry. Escorting just happens to be by far the most lucrative for me, the one that I enjoy the most, and the one that I have been doing the longest.
 
Neither whiny entitled clients who are infuriated by rate-raising threads nor sad bored men who have nothing better to do than make negative comments about my body have been included in my target client base for as long as I understood how to have one. Happy ignoring...

I very much enjoyed this thread, and thought it was - to understate it - thought provoking. I actually spent much of the day yesterday wondering what I would do if I were a young escort just starting out. (Other than going to the gym more, of course).
 
We're all partly pretending we have crystal balls. So mostly this is speculation and bullshit. But if I base it on my own reality, and go to some of the worse case scenarios, I think Blake and Zachary not only made sense. They didn't go far enough.
 
Here's the bumper sticker theme of this post: "Back To The Future." For me, personally, that actually means back to 2000. Not quite Marty McFly, but close. To paint a realistic picture of one possible future, let me turn to a credible source: the US Dept. of Justice, circa 2018.
 
https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/4390361/Views-Ltr-Re-H-R-1865-Allow-States-and-Victims.pdf
 
Here's the part of the letter I'm referring to. DOJ basically is approving of the intent and most of the language of FOSTA, shortly before it passed. They strongly endorse the idea of going after "interactive computer services" that cross state and national lines. Then they say the following, relating to "situations where there is minimal federal interest: such as instances in which an individual person uses a cell phone to manage local commercial sex transactions involving consenting adults."
 
One way you can read this DOJ letter is this. If you want to fly under the federal radar, this is what you should do. And guess what? It's almost exactly what I did the first year I escorted. Would I like to go back to that? No. If forced to, could I survive doing so? Yes.
 
Granted, I wasn't working off a "cell phone," because there weren't iPhones yet. Substitute "laptop." I used to get online in AOL and other chat rooms, and troll clients. It was not an efficient business model. But it worked. There were moderators in chat rooms that noticed my screen name included "escort," and they kicked me out. So I came up with another screen name, and went back in.
 
The other way you can think about it is that sitting at a desk with a laptop was better than standing on a rainy or cold street corner with drug addicts.
 
At some point in my first year, I got a review on this site called "Hooboy." And then another. And another. And I started to develop "regulars." And it was off to the races. In retrospect, I feel lucky that I stumbled into the right place at pretty much the right time. No more chat rooms. The world came to me.
 
So what if all the reviews and all the websites suddenly went away? It would suck. It would definitely be more like my first year, which was harder.
But I actually think it would probably suck more for clients than providers. In a riskier world, would some demand go away? Almost certainly. Would most go away? Almost certainly not. I can count the number of assholes I met on maybe one hand. If the more marginal people went away, to be very blunt it would probably just mean even fewer assholes.
 
This website in particular was an absolute gold mine. It is chock full of kind and sophisticated men, with resources and good taste and good hearts. If this website goes away tomorrow, will all of you go away? Almost certainly not. How would you find me? I don't have a clue. But it wouldn't be rocket science.
 
My business model was always based on a relatively small group of "regulars." The reason to have short appointments with new clients was not to make money. It was to sift through and find good new "regulars." So the idea that in a post-FOSTA world, more escorts would connect with more "regulars" who would pay a premium for having reliable and safe service providers doesn't shock me. I'd argue it's predictable, and almost inevitable.
 
Would local cartels form? Probably. But if I get to use my word, I'm calling them "bedtels." I just checked, and there's about a dozen escorts listed in Portland now, where I was based when I started. Back when I started, there were also about a dozen then, and I knew most of them. One was my best friend. Another worked out at my gym. I quickly got to know the other ones. We shared clients. Sometimes we serviced clients together.
 
Was there sordid collusion? Honestly, yes. That stud who worked out at my gym did me the huge favor of actually plagiarizing the words in my online profile. So I busted him, and used that as an excuse to invite him to my home, where he did me the even huger favor of fucking the shit out of me. (I didn't pay, nor did he. I'm not a prostitute, after all. It was consensual adult Gay sex). Now, in a post-FOSTA world, would we be a little bit more concerned about having each other's backs (no, not literally) and colluding to keep our asses out of the slammer (no! no! not literally!)? I suspect we would. Is that a "cartel?" I dunno. We were just a bunch of young pricks, I guess. But what the OP was talking about in Houston makes sense to me. Smart escorts would likely unite, in some way.
 
I actually feel sorry for all these poor "interactive computer services" DOJ is potentially targeting. Because I don't really think either supply or demand will be stopped. AOL chat rooms may be gone. So now I'd probably just have a website, call myself a "performer," and find whatever places on Instagram or Facebook or some other website got me access to the same great people who found me on escort review websites. And I'm pretty sure those "regulars" would be looking, as well. If I'm reading what DOJ says in the letter above correctly, it doesn't put me at any greater risk. It does put the website at risk.
 
And if you feel like what any escort said so far on this thread is opportunistic or exploitative, just wait. Imagine a world without review websites, without posted rates, where "performers" offer vague services, and there is little or no accountability.
 
My hunch is some clients might prefer that world, because it is more exciting. Most won't. It is also more Cruising, to take it to the extreme. The people who breathe life into websites like this one ain't stupid. So even if the website went away, I'm pretty sure escorts who do their job well would be well connected, and well compensated. (If only I were well hung, then it would be a hat trick!) The more interesting question to me is this: how much trial and error would you have to go through to find good escorts? Rates of course matter. But a lot of other things matter to clients as much or in some cases more. FOSTA will likely increase a desire to avoid risk.
 
In a world like that, I really don't think it's fair to blame Zachary or Blake or other escorts for thinking like businessmen. If you read the words in the DOJ letter, I'd argue it's pretty much what DOJ is actually encouraging them to do. You can call it a "cartel" if you want. Or you can call it getting organized at the local level, and trying to fly under the radar and survive. The cops and moral warriors have more than they can handle already, with real sex traffickers - not to mention any website they might choose to pick on now. Give me my cell phone and escort buddies, thank you, and I'll do just fine.
 
It may sound like I am advocating higher rates. I actually am not. And I most definitely am not advocating higher rates as a "protest." I'm advocating resistance, and survival - however escorts choose to do it. I think I feel the way most people do. What is happening feels wrong, and it breaks my heart. But it is happening, and most people don't have a plan to fight it. So if that is a fair description of reality, I don't begrudge escorts for wanting to plan and resist and survive.

LOL. Great idea. Been there, done that.
 
Back during the same sex marriage fight I started a "Fuck For Freedom" campaign in which I donated 10 % of my fee to EQCA (the CA group fighting from same sex marriage) and asked clients to match it. Of course, if all I did is donate a part of my standard fee, that's basically not a client contribution. As it turned out, the additional 10 % some clients donated was what I usually got as a tip, anyway. I was happy. I donated a lot of money to EQCA, and got friends and family to do so as well. It was mainly a gimmick to just promote an issue I felt strongly about, albeit in a weird way. I should also mention I am absolutely paranoid when it comes to politics, and I feared all it would take is some far right group to find my post and allege that this is being pushed by Gay escorts. That would have done more harm than good. Fortunately, I'm just a small little fish, and I had fun raising some money for a good and winning cause.
 
I was also part of the group of escorts that raised money for Rentboy's defense. Kurtis Wolfe was an unsung hero - he was the biggest donor on the Rentboy defense fund site, and if I recall right he donated a percentage of his fees. Speaking of resistance, I still can't believe how much resistance there was to the idea of raising money to defend a website so many people concerned used constantly. People can and did criticize the way they were asked - not what I said, but what others did. But I felt there should have been a spontaneous groundswell of support, and there wasn't.
 
I spoke with one of the lawyers working for Jeffrey at one point to clear what we were doing, and asked him what he thought about the idea of a number of escorts donating part of their fee to the legal defense fund. He checked with his boss and got back to me and discouraged the idea. I completely understand the concern about optics, and listened to what he said. Having said that, I still love the idea. The context would be different if it's not money to defend a particular individual, where you could argue all it does is reinforce certain notions about him. If I were to try it again, I like the idea that this is a broad effort for escorts to use what they are good at to fight back, and also uses fun ways to draw clients in. But you could argue it would still be bad optics.
 
I had specific reasons for joining this debate which are not exactly the same as the OP or Zachary, although I agree with parts of what they are saying. I particularly agree with their characterization of what you can expect a lot of escorts to do to survive FOSTA.
 
I think the LGBTQ community in this century has arguably been THE poster child for bold, compassionate, heartfelt, and effective organizing, and has used their political power to win things that just seem amazing - like the same sex marriage fight. At the same time, the very same community has greeted other efforts with a yawn, and in some cases with what at least feels like open hostility.
 
That's fine. Everybody has a right to their opinions, and their causes. I'm very blunt about mine.
 
My view of reality is that if you don't want to fight, and you don't want to protest, then don't be surprised when things work out in a way you may not like. So let me say again that no part of this thread had to do with political protest. The OP and Zachary painted a picture of a business model, and I think it is a pretty good guess of where many escorts may choose to go with their business. If you took the word I used - "resistance" - to mean some form of political organizing or protest, I apologize. I meant "resistance" more in this context: "The market resisted the large increase in the price of iPhones. Profits to Apple plummeted." I think the points made about supply and demand were right on. FOSTA is designed to cut off access to supply. You may not want to hear it, but some escorts will resist this law by limiting their clients to regulars and charging higher fees. I view that as resistance and survival. Some of you argued that demand will go down as well. You may very well be right. To me all of that is lose/lose, not win/win. But again, even if we just lost big - because we just did - it's better to lose and survive.
 
I like Sunday Zip's idea. A lot. I would love to hear more contributions about whether or how people think it makes sense to unify to fight FOSTA. But this is not the thread or forum to do that. I boldfaced the word "unify" because I said right upfront to the OP, on two different threads in two different ways, that his was not a "unifying" proposal. I actually would characterize it as exactly what you should expect if people don't unify, and entreprenuerial escorts who are cynical about Congress (like most of you are, I suspect) are left to figure out how to resist and survive on their own. I don't blame them for thinking about how to survive. You may not like to hear it, and that's okay. But that's what a lot of escorts are going to do. And if you beat them up for saying it, you are mostly encouraging them to be less candid.
 
My bias should be clear, even if the OP in this case does not share it. It's better to unify and fight than to be divided and be left with figuring out simply how to resist and survive.

I now understand that you were joking about a surcharge, but maybe that's not a bad idea.. but with a twist: A 10% surcharge is waived for clients who show proof of an equal contribution to an organization that lobbies for sex worker rights or provides legal support for people who host websites. If a client is uncomfortable with making a direct contribution (privacy reasons), you collect the surcharge and then contribute that amount to one the organizations.

I’m thinking about printing business cards. I already have a website that’s more informative and contains much more eye candy than my RM ad.

I guess that’s really the most important and universal part! (Maybe I should hire you as my editor.)

I think there's a fundamental difference in the dynamics of male/male and male/female relationships and attitudes about casual (compensated or not) sex.
 
Times are changing -- slowly -- but this is still a very patriarchal society and female "virtue" has a value to straight men that does not have a corollary in the gay male world. There is also a sizable difference in the stigma placed on female sex workers that requires additional compensation.
 
Finally, and probably most importantly, is that gay men can more easily access alternate hookups. They may not be the insanely hot young men we have hired, but there are plenty of acceptable peers if you just lower your expectations. It has always been easier for gay men to get sex. I know that things are loosening up in the straight world, but I don't think they are anywhere close to the traditional and current state of our hook ups. Gay men know this, so the cost/benefit is unlikely to ever be the same. At least not in my lifetime.

Perhaps there is hope for The Townhouse after all. (I'm only half joking...)
 
Today I picked up a copy of the Bay Area Reporter and checked to see if it still runs escort ads. It does indeed, though it's only a very modest quarter page of ads, compared to several pages years ago:
 
http://www.natebeck.us/20180407_161010_resized.jpg
 
When I first started escorting in the late 90s, the BAR was still very viable. The web-based sites were only just starting. I ran line ads, which were much less expensive than display ads with photos. Then I had discreet business cards that I'd leave at the end of each appointment so they could find me again. All very old-school. I don't know how or if FOSTA applies to print, but it does seem like a back-to-the-future moment.

Green hanky in the back pocket - left side top; right side bottom.

Wow I’m so disappointed by the lack of optimism in our community. This really saddens me. I have been in all areas of the industry. I have been in survival sex work, homeless and sleeping in a car. I have also built myself and my business to where I am now, because I am optimistic and believe in myself. Removing limiting beliefs will help people see that there will be always be solutions to every problem. Do you know how many curious married men hang out at those places?? I have met CEO’s and VIP clients. It’s about learning the clientele. Search when conferences are happening in the area, and asses what type of men will be going to those conferences. Then determine what hotels they may be staying at. New money is printed daily and there is more than enough for everyone to make some. So yes, if they don’t believe in themselves as a provider and go into that environment thinking they won’t make money... then they’re right! But if theyvgo in there with the attitude that their client is already there waiting for them, they just have to meet him... they almost always will get paid.

We are going back in time my friends. In the flesh is where you’ll have to hire. Here’s some free game.
 
Spots escorts typically hang out:
 
-High end hotel bars (Four seasons, ritz Carlton, Hilton, Marriott, etc.) look for someone well dressed & presentable sitting alone and scanning the room. May make eye contact, wink, or waive at you.
 
-High end steak house bars (In Houston popular ones would be Steak 48, Mastros, etc. ) you’ll be looking for the same things
 
-DATING SITES: Grindr, tinder, any type of hookup site can easily be used to hire or find clients (Providers please learn how to properly finesse a dating site) there are many instructional videos on thecompleteguidetoescorting.com (due to FOSTA their education and video section is private and you will need to create a customer account before you can access it)
 
- Las Vegas casinos + casino bars (I’ve seen both men and women working the casinos here and it’s great because you can have longer windows of opportunity. You get 4-5 hours to make money at normal hotel bars but in Vegas you can be working all day and night if you’d like.)
 
 
-Strip clubs/gogo bars (can be hard because you do have to compete for attention due to the dancers, but I feel this a great place to find clients and providers, some already working but also if you think about it men go here because they’re horny .. so why wouldn’t this be a great spot to meet potentials?
 
I’m sure there are many other places but these tend to be my go to spots when my ads aren’t hitting.

Or some nicer clothing and look more high end. You’d be surprised how many people only want to look at the dancers... they’d rather go home with someone they THINK isn’t doing this every night lol. I’ve made more money working strip bars than I actually did when I was dancing, and i didn’t have to be there all night either. When you’re in a busier environment like this however you have to be more aggressive and approach the clients yourself usually.

As always, PK, I am at your service, and happy to oblige. I absolutely commit to you that I will see to it that most escorts lower their rates. There's just one simple thing I'd like you to do for me, okay? Get Congress to decriminalize. Can you do that, please? Because that's the best way to lower rates.
 
Okay, if Tarte Gogo can have fun and go to rhetorical flourishes, I'm figuring I can, too. I hope that maybe what comes out of this, eventually, is a more informed debate than the one Congress just had.
 
Mostly what I'm for is multi-faceted resistance. I'm glad this is being debated. And my main rhetorical question for everyone to think about is this: if you don't like this idea of resisting, fine. So what method of resistance are you for?
 
I do think this proposal is a valid form of resistance. And just to clarify, part of what I mean by resistance is what people will do to survive. If you believe in supply and demand, which most of us seem to, FOSTA is more likely to drive rates up, not down. Again, I think that's just supply and demand.
 
By going after unspecified websites, Congress immediately put an artificial (or maybe it's better to say "legal") constraint on supply. It did nothing to change demand. It also increased risk. I think Fresh Fluff's point about a "cartel" is a good way to think about it. In the long run, she's probably right that cartels don't tend to work. But in order to work - think OPEC - it helps if you can put an immediate and serious constraint on supply - even if it is a politically manufactured one. That's what Congress actually just did.
 
Remember that. Escorts didn't do it. Congress did. Right now websites that offer supply are dropping like flies. Case in point. Out of curiosity, I clicked on Zachary's hyperlinks. If you click on TER Reviews, you get this:
 
https://www.theeroticreview.com/FOSTA.asp
 
Oops!
 
To make it even more complicated, what I just about supply and demand may not be quite right. Because by increasing risk, maybe Congress did actually decrease demand, as well. That remains to be seen. Several people in this thread have said, "Screw you then. I'm taking my testicles and going home." I think in part it really depends on what law enforcement does. Maybe we're about to see an aggressive war on any website that seems to have anything to do with sex. Because we all know that if there is sex, there could be sex trafficking!
 
I can speak for myself on this one. I got into this right when the internet (and Hooboy's site) was taking off. So in that sense, I was just very lucky. I spent close to $0 on websites or ads, because I let reviews on this website - which were free - speak for me. If I'd had to operate out of bars, street corners, or other venues, I probably would have said, "Fuck it." Over a long period of time, my assessment of personal legal risk in this area was somewhere between zero to minimal. If I had viewed the legal risk as being significant, I might have just stayed out of the game. Or I may have done exactly what this thread is talking about - the "less is more" strategy. I don't really know - it's all speculation, so it's all bullshit. But I'm pretty sure the basic point about supply and demand is right. If you reduce supply and increase risk, it's likely to drive rates up, not down. Maybe I'm wrong. But we'll all get an opportunity to see.
 
I actually can think of one real world example of just how far this could go. I was never hired by a Saudi sheikh. But I was friends with a couple of escorts who were. It's an absurd example, but is is actually real. You have huge religious and legal constraints on supply - to the point where Plan A is to leave the country to get access to supply. I knew one escort who had a regular who flew into the US under the pretense of going to a weight loss camp. That's moving to the Trump extreme of supply and demand: money just really wasn't an object. At the extreme, that's what happens when you say it's punishable by things like public flogging, or death.
 
My best guess is that decriminalizing would have the opposite effect. If you want to reduce rates, PK, I think that's our lobbying ticket.
 
When the Rentboy thing happened, I spent a lot of time reading article after article about how things work in countries that have decriminalized. My impression is that it generally led to a big increase in supply. I'm going to go toward the more extreme examples, just to make the point. It's as if sex trafficking was legalized. I read story after story about how poor women from Africa or Eastern Europe were being brought in to legal brothels. In some articles, allegations were made that even though it was legal, it was against their will. Like their pimps were connected to criminals back home who could say if they ran away, or didn't comply, their families would suffer. Honestly, I assume at least half of what I read was bullshit, made up or exaggerated by cops or moral warriors.
 
If you want a quick review of the alleged upsides and downsides of legal prostitution in Germany, here's a good link. It's worth noting that even though prostitution has been legal there since 2002, the law was changed last July to fight sex trafficking, which is still perceived as a big problem in Germany.
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostitution_in_Germany#Legislative_reform_(2002)
 
The basic picture that seemed very clear was that decriminalizing tends to make things abundant, accessible, and cheap. That makes sense. It's happening with pot in California right now. If we did the same thing with "recreational" prostitution, I have every reason to think it would play out the same. Although we sure don't have to worry about that right now, do we? We're clearly headed in the opposite direction, full speed ahead.
 
Whatever Congress thinks they know about sex trafficking, it's far from clear that they know much about prostitution. All you have to do is read Congressional reports that equate hiring "prostitutes" with sex trafficking, and you can figure that out pretty quick. By that standard, I think we pretty much know that the President of the United States is himself a sex trafficker. Go figure.
 
I'm not sure I buy what Sen. Wyden said, that Congress will "regret" this vote. I think it's more reasonable to think that at some point - like in several years - they will clean the bill up.
 
In the mean time, I'm not at all surprised that escorts are thinking along the lines of the proposal this thread started with. And the negative reaction doesn't surprise me, either. If I were to be critical, I'd say we all fucked up last year by not storming the Capitol. But I'm a realist, and there's no way that was ever going to happen. And even if it did, it's far from clear that would have stopped the bill from passing.
 
If you don't think the reality is that there are going to be a lot of new constraints on supply, you're kidding yourselves. That's exactly what FOSTA is intended to do. And if you don't think that is somehow going to have an effect on price, you're probably kidding yourselves, too. I'll say it one more time just so my meaning is clear: that depends a lot on how aggressive enforcement of the law is. Fortunately, I don't think we have to worry about becoming just like Saudi Arabia. This won't become a hobby beyond the reach of anyone other than rich and powerful sheihks.
 
I stand by my basic argument, though. I wasn't arguing this is the best way to resist FOSTA. I could go with PK's line, and argue that the best way to resist is decriminalize. If we're talking about supply and demand, that's what seems most likely to increase supply and reduce rates.
 
Obviously, we're not headed to decriminalization anytime soon. Given the way we are headed, it makes complete sense to me that escorts are considering a "less is more" strategy of resistance - meaning raising rates and having fewer clients. I'm no expert, but it strikes me as the exact opposite of what's happening in Germany. And in both cases it's following the laws of supply and demand. And if you don't like it, I'd suggest you place the blame on the politicians who just made it that way.
 
The other thing I intended to say, and will say again, is that I love the fact that there's already organized efforts starting on how to resist. As much as I'd personally prefer to see it happen the way the kids in Florida are doing it - like let's get 100,000 or so people to DC next month - somehow I don't see that happening.
 
I think I can also say from personal experience that when it comes to overt resistance, there is no reason yet to think that anyone is going to get a lot of support. I actually was surprised how many regular Rentboy users were silent when Rentboy was thrown under the bus. And to be clear, I'm not judging that reaction. I'm simply stating it as a fact. I had a lot of discussions with people I'm very close to about how they felt. Most people felt there were plenty of other websites, and it just wasn't worth the fight. If FOSTA now means most of those websites go away, it might lead more people to rethink whether resistance makes sense. But that remains to be seen. It is very early days.
 
At this point, the main think I feel I know is that I am in favor of is resistance, plain and simple.

Yeah, women who escort face a lot of extra danger, so it’s been necessary for the industry to develop these practices to make things safer & more sustainable. I’m not really willing to give up my screening practices yet, but I’m trying to understand how to adapt them to the gay escort world to make my services more accessible to people who aren’t comfortable providing me their legal identity. I’m transgender and my legal name is a real nightmare for me; I would be too turned off to ever give it to a provider if I hired, so I have a certain level of sympathy for clients who don’t feel comfortable giving theirs, even if the circumstances are different. I happily accept references in lieu of legal identity, but I’ve been curious whether gay escorts even exchange references or if trying to ask for them would be perceived as competition & a lost cause to pursue. Will probably start a thread about that sometime.

Hmm. Wasn’t it Michelle Obama who said
 
“When they go lower -we go higher “
 

Noted, thanks. Looks like I got too engaged in the debate.