by Gwendolyn Ann Smith
Monica Jones is a 29-year-old transwoman of color. A former sex worker, she has turned her energies to the Phoenix chapter of the Sex Workers Outreach Project and her studies at Arizona State University's School of Social Work.
In May of 2013, she spoke at a rally in Phoenix, speaking out against "Project ROSE," a program that is designed to convince sex workers to cease prostitution in exchange for not having charges filed against them. Project ROSE was created by 15 some organizations, including the Phoenix Police Department, and is supported by the Catholic charities and other religious organizations.
What Project ROSE claims to do is move people into a diversion program rather than be charged for prostitution. If a person does not complete the program, then charges are filed against the suspect. The program claims to have a 28 percent success rate.
On the surface, this sounds like a great program, but there's more so consider. As Jones has argued, services and other resources could – should – be offered far earlier, and that sending people to Project ROSE still criminalizes sex workers. The program treats sex workers as victims – souls to save – and focuses heavily on poor women.
I have long been of the opinion that sex work is a victimless crime. Indeed, I hesitate to call it a crime at all: if the act is consensual, and no harm is being caused, why should this be illegal? I find myself questioning the involvement of religious bodies in this program as well, making this not a criminal issue, but a moral one.
It is worth noting that the same percentage of people exit sex work regardless of whether they complete the Project ROSE program or go before a judge. More than this, many do end up "failing" the program, getting charged while the program still pockets its funding dollars.
As I mentioned, Jones was speaking out against Project ROSE one day last May. The next day, in the same neighborhood she spoke at, Jones was in police custody.
That night, as she was walking to a neighborhood bar, she accepted a ride from a man. Once she got in, the driver revealed himself to be an undercover police officer. The charge was "manifesting prostitution," a broad law that criminalizes every thing from asking someone touch your genitals all the way to multiple attempts to engage a passerby in conversation or attempting to wave down a car. Even asking if a person in a police officer can lead you to being arrested for "manifesting prostitution."
It is important to note that the law requires that the person accused of "manifesting prostitution" be the one to approach the arresting officer. Two eyewitnesses testified that the offer is the one who approached, seemingly invalidating the charge.
As you can guess, this very statute is used to send people into Project ROSE. While not formally charged by the officer, Jones was taken – in handcuffs – to a church basement for evaluation. Yet Jones was deemed ineligible. The creator of Project ROSE – Dr. Dominique Roe-Sepowitz, a tenured professor at the very college Jones attends – refused to speak to her as part of her eligibility evaluation.
We live in a time when transgender people, in popular culture, tend to be looked at as being deceivers. We still have movies, television shows, and even commercials that portray transgender people as being deceptive, hiding one's "real" gender identity from friends and possible lovers. We're told that transgender people should not be allowed to use a restroom congruent with their gender identity because a rapist or molester would use that for cover.
Indeed, even though Phoenix does include gender identity to their anti-discrimination laws, it was only this time last year that the Arizona State Senate was considering a bill to make it a class 1 misdemeanor for a transgender person to use a restroom that did not match their birth certificate. This was under the same guise of protecting people from sexual predators. To quote Arizona state Representative John Kavanagh (R), allowing transgender people to use a bathroom that matches their gender identity, "raises the specter of people who want to go into those opposite sex facilities not because they're transgender, but because they're weird."
So into this environment walked Monica Jones, a transwoman of color, and a former sex worker who now speaks out on the rights of sex workers. She was arrested, deemed unfit to go through the Project ROSE program that she has spoken out against.
Jones recently had her day in court, arguing that the law itself was unconstitutional, and that she was indeed targeted for being both an activist and a transwoman of color. The court – even with the testimony of eyewitnesses on her behalf – disagreed. She now faces 30 days in Sheriff Joe Arpaio's jail.
Was she targeted? I think that should be painfully obvious. It could have been for her speaking out against Project ROSE. It could have been for her being a transgender woman of color. In my opinion, it is likely it was both.
Should she being going to jail? I do not believe so – and there should be someone looking into the officer, into the law, and into Project Rose itself, finding out just why the system has failed Monica Jones.
