Scally Lad: The Arcades

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DC Nield explains: “A lot of the time we find out about pop up brothels because neighbours don’t want it on their street. The girls working in these premises are looked upon as a problem rather than human beings. Everyone surrounding them hates them because they are causing a problem in the area. Police know the women by name and look out for them. But if I was to take them around Manchester they would not know who any of the lads are,” he says. One particularly startling statistic is that many of these men told charity workers they started doing sex work from as young as 14. Inevitably many of them are in care. Manchester’s homelessness problem is feeding the rise with experts predicting more than two thirds of them have slept rough or lost their home at some point. One myth is that sex workers can’t be raped. I think it’s still common for people to believe that.”

In the recreation room the conversation is easy and the atmosphere is light thanks to the dedicated volunteers. Any premises may be classified as a brothel if it is used by more than one man or woman for the purpose of prostitution, either on the same day or on different days.Premises shared with someone else who works on alternate days or weeks will still count as a brothel, even though there is never more than one person working at any one time. Many women still work in Manchester’s traditional red light districts behind Piccadilly train station, near Strangeways and along Cheetham Hill Road. Feel a bit embarrassed to admit that I was really shaken up by it for a few minutes. I think it's one of the only times I've felt really intimidated in recent memory. :eek:

It’s something that DC Nield agrees with: “We would love to get more intelligence that allows us to help male sex workers but we just don’t get any,” he says. It’s a hidden, yet sprawling world which is increasingly complex to understand making it tougher than ever to keep victims safe. MASH, which supports sex workers across the city, helped 350 women last year. Over the last six months, the charity’s homelessness worker has managed to support 14 women in getting off the street and into housing. Though some of the women are rough sleepers many sofa surf, stay with punters or remain in abusive relationships. The level of vulnerability is extremely high on the street. It’s a very dangerous thing to be doing,” says MASH CEO Cate Allison.Manchester’s troubling homelessness problem has led to a rise in so-called ‘survival sex’ where young men, often with drug and alcohol problems, are forced to sell themselves to live. It’s part of a huge increase in male sex workers. I'm torn, because I'm pretty live and let live, but on the other hand it was genuinely one of those rare 'oh shit, trouble' stomach knot moments.[/QUOTE Fergal says there is a broad spectrum of male sex workers across the city but there are two common patterns. Fergal McCullough is director of charity The Men’s Room and supports male sex workers through creative engagement, outreach sessions, and advocacy support. Gay or straight they all have one thing in common, they will easily be able to make money selling their bodies.

Romanian couple Alexe Popa and Gabriela Diac were last week convicted for operating pop-up brothels around south Manchester and employing Eastern European women as prostitutes. There are also general laws on public nuisance and decency which can be used to target the sex trade. What is a brothel? Pop up brothels. Survival sex. Slavery. There's a lot more to Manchester's sex trade in 2017 than the calling cards that used to line phone boxes a decade ago.Running a brothel, being raped while working as a prostitute, paying for sex - stories from the sex trade And then there were brothels, in many cases operated with the tacit knowledge of the police as long as they were drug-free and didn’t use underage girls. With support from Manchester Action on Street Health (MASH) police have managed to help street prostitutes. Under the Sexual Offences Act 2003, it is an offence to cause or incite prostitution or control it for personal gain. Popa, 30, organised the operation while Diac, 28, acted as a ‘telephone receptionist’ for potential customers from rented houses in Levenshulme, Longsight and Rusholme.

Then there is ‘survival sex’. That’s more the young homeless lad out of prison, or highly addicted, who identifies as straight. They hate it and they hate themselves for doing it but it’s a way of making money. They will likely do a bit of burglary, some drug dealing and a bit of sex work too.” He says sex work has always been connected to Manchester gay and cruising scenes and was concentrated around Canal Street, the Undercroft and Tariff Street although that has changed. A lot has changed - and this change has brought huge challenges for those who want to protect the vulnerable.

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Otterj has worked extensively with the queer party producer Honcho, whose underground queer sex-positive aesthetic fits well with Otterj's vision. In addition to photographing several of its parties, he has hosted several blowouts on his home turf in Denver. Kerb-crawling is also banned, providing it can be shown the individual was causing a persistent annoyance. A ‘dodgy punters’ display board - sponsored by charity ‘Ugly Mugs’ - gives details of all the potentially dangerous people who could target sex workers in Manchester. We work with a lot of lads in their mid twenties who are out having a great time in the Village, have a home but no job, with high drug and alcohol use and use sex work as something to do,” he says. “They are comfortable with it and happy with it. He says: “We recently supported a lad who was persuaded to meet up with a client, they became obsessed with him, started calling him 20 times a day and then threatened to send the pictures to a close relative.