Margo St. James
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
Please help improve this article by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (May 2008) |
Margo St. James (born September 12, 1937), a self-described sex-positive feminist, founded the organization COYOTE (Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics), which advocates decriminalization of prostitution.
Contents |
[edit] History
Margo St. James was born in Bellingham Washington.
As president of the San Francisco Sexual Freedom League in 1967-1969, St. James advocated women's rights and organized sex parties and orgies. She claims to be a former prostitute, and for this reason, she has been criticized by anti-pornography feminists including Dorchen Leidholdt. Her claim to have been a prostitute is based on a 1962 prostitution conviction.
Margo St. James founded the St. James Infirmary in San Francisco to help provide health care to the sex worker community. She founded COYOTE in 1973. The forerunner of COYOTE was WHO: Whores, Housewives and Others; Others in this case meant lesbians. The first meeting of WHO was held on Alan Watts' houseboat; and the name COYOTE came from novelist Tom Robbins who dubbed her a coyote trickster.
She began attending international conferences: the United Nations Decade of Women Conferences in Mexico City, the 1976 Tribunal of Crimes Against Women in Brussels, the 1977 International Women's Year Conference in Houston, the 1980 Decade of Women Conference in Copenhagen, the 1976 Democratic Convention in New York—where St. James organized loiter-ins—and the Republican Convention in Kansas City.
She worked closely with Gail Pheterson—editor of A Vindication of The Rights of Whores from Seal Press and author of Prostitution Prism from University of Michigan Press—beginning in 1983 in Rotterdam; and with Priscilla Alexander—co-editor of Sex Work from Cleis Press—since 1977. In 1984, COYOTE hosted a Hooker's Convention and drafted a Bill of Rights which underpinned the World Whores' Charter drawn up by the International Committee For Prostitutes' Rights in the European Parliament in Brussels. The conservative swing in the US and the women's movement prompted her to move to Europe, so she could put more energy into international organizing.
She returned in 1993 and married journalist Paul Avery. Avery is best known for his investigation in the Zodiac Killer and Patricia Hearst cases. He died on Orcas Island, Washington in 2000. [1]
In 1996 St. James received about 76,000 votes in her bid to become a member of San Francisco's Board of Supervisors. She finished fifth, but only the top four vote-getters were elected. In the late 1990s, she served on the Board of Supervisor's Drug Abuse Advisory Board.[1]
In April 2007 she was reportedly living on Orcas Island, Washington.[2]
[edit] Books
- A Vindication of the Rights of Whores by Margo St. James and Gail Pheterson ISBN 0-931188-73-3
[edit] Notes
- ^ December 20, 1999 Agenda & Minutes Archive, City and County of San Francisco Board of Supervisors, http://www.sfgov.org/site/bdsupvrs_page.asp?id=11845, URL accessed September 5, 2007.
- ^ Imus Isn't the Only Problem, by Clarence Page, http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/04/imus_isnt_the_only_problem.html, URL accessed September 5. 2007.
