Posts by Christopher Johnston

Do male victims of human trafficking and former sex workers need more attention and recovery programs? Russell G. Wilson describes himself as “a person with lived experience of human trafficking.” He is not the biggest fan of the term “survivor” and typically turns down opportunities to tell his story of being trafficked as a child…

This February, Ricci Joy Levy celebrated 20 years as one of the founders of Woodhull Freedom Foundation in Spring Hill, MD.  The focus of the organization’s mission includes “fighting censorship, eliminating discrimination based on gender or sexual identity or family form, and protecting the right to engage in consensual sexual activity and expression. We do…

  How are inaccurate definitions and understanding of legal terms impacting policy and legislative efforts to decriminalize or legalize sex work? Rochelle Keyhan, CEO and Founder of Collective Liberty, remains haunted by one particular case she litigated during her 6-year tenure as Assistant District Attorney, Family Violence and Sexual Assault (FVSA) Unit, Philadelphia District Attorney’s…

  Is sex work a viable job for people with disabilities and chronic illnesses? It’s a cold, blustery December day in Cleveland. Saturday, December 17, 2022 to be exact. Better known to Jeanne (pronounced jay-nee) Li and her fellow members of the Cleveland Sex Worker Alliance as International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers.…

 Why is it important to retain correct definitions of ‘human trafficking’ in laws and new legislation? Bill Woolf can’t get into details about the lawsuit filed in October 2021 against his former employer because it’s not adjudicated yet, but he suggests that I Google it. So I do. Turns out that when he served with the…

Will funding small, sex-worker-led organizations facilitate the sex worker rights movement? Employed in various components of sex work for twenty years, Savannah Sly felt driven to step into a community organizer role roughly a decade ago. She had relocated from the East Coast to Seattle at a time when the Emerald City’s sex industry had…

Can sex worker advocates impact legislative changes to bring about full decriminalization? Fresh off of the first New England Sex Work Summit (NESWS), J. Leigh Oshiro-Brantly [pronouns: they, their, them] feels energized by how well and smoothly the inaugural event went. “It was really, really powerful,” says J., community organizer and researcher with The Ishtar Collective…

Sex Work: Are You For or Against  Legalization or Decriminalization Want to embroil family, friends or colleagues in a rich and deeply controversial topic of discussion? Ask them whether or not they believe prostitution or sex work should be either legalized or decriminalized. That’s what I’ve been engaging in the past five months for the…

Christopher Johnston
PUB: TheLandCLE.org
August 16, 2022

Several years ago, the team running The Edna House for Women realized they had a significant gap in the recovery services they have been providing since 2003 to women struggling with alcoholism or substance use disorder.

Christopher Johnston
PUB: Leaps.org
April 21, 2022

Later this year, Verve Therapeutics of Cambridge, Ma., will initiate Phase 1 clinical trials to test VERVE-101, a new medication that, if successful, will employ gene editing to significantly reduce low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, or LDL.