Last weekend, Kate Iselin did a favor for a friend. Thankfully in New South Wales, it was legal. But it’s not the same across Australia.
AUSTRALIA — Last weekend, I did a favour for a friend of mine.
She’s a sex worker too, an independent escort who had gone to a hotel in the city for a booking with a client.
When she arrived, she texted me the name of the hotel, the room they were in and the time the booking was due to start – and finish. She also texted me the full name of the client and told me that if she hadn’t messaged again within fifteen minutes of the time the booking was due to finish, then I should call her immediately and keep calling until she picked up.
If she didn’t pick up, my next step was to then call the hotel, and the police.
This might sound like a pretty intense situation to observe from afar on my casual Saturday night, but it’s by no means the first time I’ve kept an eye on a fellow sex worker’s booking to make sure that they got in and out safely and had someone to call if they ran in to trouble.
I imagine that on any given night in any city across the world, there are workers doing the same thing: watching the time tick by on their phone screen and waiting for that text to pop up from their friend, letting them know that the booking went well and they’re in a taxi, on their way home.
The main difference between what my friend and I did, and what I imagine workers across the globe might have been doing on that same night, is that it was totally legal for her to contact me and let me know that she was working.
