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 Norma Jean Almodovar (nee Wright) was
born May 27, 1951, to Mr. and Mrs. Harold M.
Wright of Binghamton, New York. She was the
fourth child and first daughter in a family of 8
boys and 6 girls. Through their mother, Helen
Ruth Doolittle Wright, daughter of Mark Arthur
Doolittle and Clara Chauncey, the family are
direct descendants of John Howland, Pilgrim of
the Mayflower, and of the Reverend Charles
Chauncey, President of Harvard University 1654-
1672. The Chauncey family tree traces directly
back to Charlemagne and the royal houses of
France and England including the Plantagenets
and William the Conqueror. Her maternal
grandfather is a descendant of the once powerful
Lyon Family of France, then of Scotland.
Norma Jean's mother was a school teacher
who retired when the family started growing. Her
father served in the US Army during WWII, after
which he was a factory worker- and always a
dreamer. Despite his best efforts to provide for
his family, there were simply too many children
to feed on too small a salary. Their illustrious
genealogical heritage notwithstanding, Norma
Jean and her siblings grew up poor and the
family was often dependent upon charity to
survive.
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Not
long after the birth of one of Norma Jean's
younger sisters, her mother became a "born again"
Christian and thereafter Norma Jean and her
siblings were raised as fundamental Baptists whose
lives revolved around the church and Christianity.
Throughout her childhood, Norma Jean believed she
was chosen by God to become a missionary to Puerto
Rico, and so at age 18, Norma Jean was enrolled in
Philadelphia College of the Bible.
However,
before she could go to college, she had to get a
job. Her parents could not afford to send any of
their children to college and so it was up to each
child to find their own way if they wanted to
further their education. After Norma Jean
graduated from high school in June, 1969, she and
a fellow classmate moved to New York City where
they lived with her friend's Russian grandparents
in the Bronx. Norma Jean got a job working as a
clerk in the Empire State Building while her
friend attended the local Kings College.
In
January of 1970, Norma Jean decided to take a
short vacation and visit her Aunt Rusty in
California. She didn't know it at the time, but
her plans to become a missionary were about to be
derailed.
After
visiting with her aunt for a week, she went to
visit her Puerto Rican friends from New York who
had relocated to Los Angeles and had become deeply
involved in a fundamentalist religious cult. Her
friends pressured her to join them and become part
of the "local church." Within a week she succumbed
to peer pressure and found herself as involved in
the church as were her friends, even though Norma
Jean had already begun to have doubts about her
faith in God. During the summer of 1970, she met a
cousin of one of her New York Puerto Rican
friends, a man who had just been discharged from
the Air Force. By November, she was sure she was
in love with him and so on November 19, 1970, she
became the wife of Mr. Radames Almodovar. The
marriage ended three years later, with no
children. By the time her marriage was over, Norma
Jean had disassociated herself from the church and
no longer considered herself a Christian.
To learn more about her philosophy on
religion and God, click here.
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As the
family grew, Norma Jean, as the eldest
daughter, assisted her mother in raising
the younger children as they came along.
By the time Norma Jean turned 18, she
never wanted to change another diaper in
her life!
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In
1986 with my family after our father's
funeral. This is the last photo of all
my siblings together. My younger
sister Grace Elizabeth died of breast
caner in 1995, and my mother died July
31, 2008.
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All
the girls in the family for the annual
portrait- the boys had their annual
portrait as well.
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She
joined the Los Angeles Police Department as a
civilian traffic officer in 1972. At the time,
police women had to be 5'8" tall and were only
assigned to indoor duties. Norma Jean was 5'4" and
did not meet the height requirement to be a police
woman, and she did not want an indoor job, either.
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As a traffic
officer, she was assigned to the nightwatch for most
of her ten year career, working from 6 P.M. until 2
A.M. out of the Rampart and Hollywood Divisions.
During this time she witnessed many acts of
corruption and serious criminal activity committed
by other members of the LAPD.
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During the
first few years on the LAPD, I was like a
kid in a candy store... so many handsome
cops to date! So many men... but with a
few exceptions, most cops I dated thought
that making love was like using their gun-
and all they had to do was take aim and
shoot. Most couldn't get it out of their
holster before it went off... and they
were never concerned about MY sexual
needs! |
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| Ironically,
she learned from the cops she dated
the sexual meaning of the words
"head," kinky" and "laid"- and years
later, the fact that she knew and
used these words in a conversation
with her "friend" Penny was used by
the vice cops to get a search
warrant, because the use of those
words, according to Alan Vanderpool
and Fred Clapp, "proved that Norma
Jean was operating as a
madam"!!!!!!! |
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Norma Jean was nicknamed the "Bionic Arm"
by her peers because she spent all her work hours
doing what she had been hired to do, and on many
occasions she wrote in excess of 300 tickets a day.
Her other duties included directing traffic at the
scene of an accident, fire or homicide, and
recovering stolen vehicles.
For
all the work she did during her on duty hours, off
duty Norma Jean liked to play just as hard as she
worked. She found the handsome cops she worked
with difficult to resist and dated many of them.
From them she learned just about every 'deviant'
sex act that can be done with another human being,
even though many of these acts were still felonies
at the time and every cop she dated was a felon
under the law. After a short while, the novelty of
dating cops wore off when she discovered that
very, very few of them seemed interested in
reciprocating pleasure, legal or otherwise.
In
1975, Norma Jean met Victor, the man who is now
her husband. He did for her what all the cops
she dated had failed to do (or even try to do)-
he gave her pleasure and told her it was her
right as a woman to experience multiple orgasms.
We'll return to their relationship later.
In 1974
Norma Jean suffered the first of three
work-related traffic accidents. She hurt her back
when the three wheeled Harley Davidson motorcycle,
to which she had been assigned at the time, hit
the car in front of her. The driver, seeing the
police vehicle behind him, decided not to go
through the red light and stopped suddenly,
backing up his car into Norma Jean's motorcycle.
Norma Jean was on disability for over a year and a
half as a result of this accident, and was
hospitalized on two occasions. It was during this
time she met Victor.
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In
her second on duty accident, she was attacked by a
Hollywood businessman. He attempted to run over
her with his vehicle- but only managed to knock
her down. He was arrested for assault, of course,
but the City of Los Angeles did not want to
prosecute a member of the Hollywood Chamber of
Commerce. As city property, Norma Jean was not
allowed to sue him for the physical and emotional
damage he caused her.
The
third and final accident occurred on April 18,
1982, at 11:10 P.M. The police car she was driving
on Hollywood Blvd. was rear-ended by a very
intoxicated man in a stolen car, who, as it turned
out, was an illegal alien and had just committed
an armed robbery. He fled the scene of the
accident involving Norma Jean, but was apprehended
moments later after a brief pursuit around the
block with a couple of several undercover cop cars
which happened to be right around the corner when
the accident occurred. The suspect was released
shortly after being booked into the Hollywood
jail, while Norma Jean was still in the emergency
room having x-rays taken of her reinjured back and
neck. That was the last day she ever worked for
the Los Angeles Police........
Norma
Jean was already very disillusioned with the LAPD
and she was angry with her co-workers for their
corrupt activities (the burglary and drug ring,
murder-for-hire- ring, sex with 10 year old girls,
etc.). This accident was the final straw. She knew
that the man who hit her would never be
prosecuted- and just like the situation with the
Hollywood businessman who had tried to run her
over, she knew that she could not count on the
City of Los Angeles to be concerned for her well
being. After completing the accident report, she
went home and in a symbolic gesture of cutting her
ties with the LAPD, she tore up her uniform and
cut up her shoes. To replace them would be very
expensive and she didn't want to be tempted to go
back on her decision. She had vowed that she would
never again return to work for the LAPD.
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When the City
stopped paying her disability benefits, she decided
to take up a new career. She chose to become a
high-priced Beverly Hills Call Girl. She is often
asked why she chose this profession when she could
do so many other things, including her crafts
(doll-making)... her answer is that she wanted to
make a social statement about the moral hypocrisy of
our society- a society which seemed completely
untroubled by the police corruption that permeated
the LAPD, and yet demanded that law enforcement
spend a significant portion of its scarce and
valuable resources to set-up and arrest women whose
sole "crime" was to accept money from men for acts
of sex in which they could otherwise legally engage,
even with thousands of men- provided the sex was
free. The arrest and subsequent incarceration would
brand them forever as a prostitute and destroy their
lives - all in the name of protecting them from
exploitation.
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Her statement
was simple- "I would rather be a whore- an outcast
from society- than to work for the Los Angeles
Police Department. It is much more honest and I can
live with myself." In addition to her new found
profession, she continued her doll business, which,
while it didn't generate much income, but helped to
reduce the stress and anger she still felt toward
the LAPD. As well, she continued working on the book
she began writing while working the night shift on
the LAPD, during the many hours she spent waiting
for the tow company to arrive to tow away the stolen
and illegally parked cars she found during her tour
of duty. The book now included her experiences as a
prostitute and she titled the book, "Cop to Call
Girl."
On
September 17th, 1983, seven cops with their guns
drawn knocked at her door to arrest her on one
count of pandering. Her unfinished manuscript was
confiscated by the police as "evidence" of her
crime and she was taken, in handcuffs, to the
downtown LA police headquarters where she once
worked. The pandering charge stemmed from her
attempt to fulfill the alleged sexual fantasy of a
former friend who was still a traffic officer. The
"friend," Penny Isgro, had come to Norma Jean's
home wearing a wire, and later admitted during
Norma Jean's trial that she had helped set up
Norma Jean to prevent her from writing an expose
of the Los Angeles Police. Through the perhaps
deliberate incompetence of her attorney (whom she
later successfully sued) Norma Jean was given no
defense whatsoever during her brief trial, and as
a result, was convicted of that one count of
pandering- which was a felony.
For
making a phone call on behalf of her very
unattractive fifty- year old, six foot two, two
hundred fifty pound "friend", Norma Jean was
facing a mandatory three to six year incarceration
in the California State Penitentiary. The judge
postponed sentencing until after a 90 day
psychiatric evaluation could be done to determine
whether or not Norma Jean poses a "threat to
society" for her crime of trying to fulfill her
friend's sexual fantasy. The judge allowed her two
weeks to put her affairs in order, before she was
to return, the day before Thanksgiving 1984, to be
remanded into custody.
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During this
brief period of confinement, she would not be an
inmate so she would have no prisoner rights such as
visits from friends. The only visitor she would be
allowed to have during the 90 days of her evaluation
(which included all the holidays from Thanksgiving
through the New Year 1985) would be a husband- if
she were married. The problem was that she and the
love of her life weren't married and weren't
planning to do so.
She
met Victor in 1975. An actor, writer and
architect, he was everything she had ever wanted
in a life partner. His stage name Victor
Savant.... means "victory in knowledge." Although
it took her six months to realize it, Victor was
her "grand passion." They dated each other many
years and were deeply in love but they had no
plans to marry. Neither one of them believed that
the State has a right to license personal
relationships, and as atheists, they certainly did
not believe in being married for religious
reasons.
Norma
Jean and Victor were shattered by her arrest and
conviction, and now that she was going to be
incarcerated for three months, she needed Victor's
support more than ever. The thought of being away
from each other for 90 days was more than either
could bear, so they were married on November 19,
1984, just a little over a day before she went to
prison.
Unbeknownst
to her, Victor or the judge, Norma Jean would be
held in solitary confinement during her stay as a
guest of the State of California. She was told
that it was "for her own good..... to protect her
from other inmates because of her police
background." It was also, no doubt, for her own
good that she was handcuffed to herself and to two
guards as she was escorted from her tiny cell to
the offices of the psychiatrists who were to
examine her. The psychiatric evaluation itself
took only a little over three hours, but she was
kept in solitary confinement for over two months
before being shipped back to county jail and then
to see the judge.
When
she was released from solitary confinement on
January 9th, 1985, the judge, who noted that the
report said Norma Jean wasn't a danger to anyone,
felt that the mandatory three to six year sentence
was "cruel and unusual punishment" as applied to
her. Norma Jean had no prior criminal record, so
instead of sending her to prison for the mandatory
minimum sentence, he put her on three years
probation. At the time, the District Attorney's
office made a public statement that they had no
plans to appeal the judge's sentence.
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Having
been denied the opportunity to speak out during
her trial about what had been done to her, Norma
Jean decided that going back to the public to
state her case was the only thing she could do.
She continued her outspoken media campaign against
the corruption within the Los Angeles Police
Department. [Her prosecutor, Richard Weber, in
a later interview with American Justice, stated
that Norma Jean had a "vivid imagination" when
it came to the corruption on the LAPD, a
statement which was completely invalidated with
the revelations of the Rodney King beating and
the subsequent Rampart Division scandal, among
other police scandals.....] Her constant
appearances on television further enraged the
powerful LAPD officials and District Attorney who
had hoped to silence her with the "taste of
prison" imposed on her by the judge. She also
lobbied to have her manuscript and research
material returned to her, volumes of research and
typed pages taken as evidence of her "pandering
efforts" even though none of it was ever used in
court- and it was never returned to her either.
Her
high profile public appearances were rewarded when
on December 6th, 1985- eleven months after she was
sentenced to probation, the Los Angeles District
Attorney's office filed an appeal to overturn her
probation sentence on the grounds that the law
mandated a three year minimum prison term on the
first offense. According to the District Attorney
Ira Reiner, Norma Jean's crime was "worse than
rape or robbery" or even a violent assault on
someone, and further, that she had compounded her
"crime" by writing a book which would cause
"disrespect for law and order." In the appellate
brief filed in the State Supreme Court of
California, the District Attorney made over 57
references to the "harm to society" that would be
caused by Norma Jean's book if it were published.
The
District Attorney's decision to appeal Norma
Jean's probation sentence was a first in the
history of Los Angeles where never before had a
sentence imposed by a judge been challenged by
the DA's office. However, the appeal did not
surprise Norma Jean, who had expected
retaliation by the police because she had been
so vocal and public ever since she had been
released from prison on probation. She was just
a bit surprised at the blatant references to her
manuscript in the DA's appeal, which did not
hide the fact that Norma Jean's continued
efforts to publish her book was the main reason
for wanting to overturn her probation sentence
and send her to prison.
Upon
learning of the appeal, Norma Jean decided that
perhaps she hadn't been vocal enough. Her
brother Neil had recently moved back to
California and introduced her to J.R. - a
Libertarian activist who suggested the Norma
Jean run for office. He offered to be her
campaign manager if she won the endorsement of
the LP at the State Convention in February of
1986. Norma Jean had registered as a Libertarian
in 1978, after Victor introduced her to the
libertarian philosophy through the writings of
Ayn Rand. Although Norma Jean immediately
embraced the philosophy and fighting for freedom
became the driving force of her life, she was
not active in the Party until her 1986 campaign.
She
did receive the endorsement of the Libertarian
Party of California for her bid at elective
office. And she was not a one issue Libertarian
as some in the LP thought she would be. While
she did not win, she made an impressive showing
with over 100,000 votes cast for an admitted
felon hooker. Most importantly, she was able to
take her message to an even broader audience
because of the District Attorney's ludicrous
claims in his appeal of her sentence.
Unfortunately, her public profile did not keep
her from going to prison.
Following
the election, on December 15th, 1986, the
California Appellate Court heard oral arguments
on the appeal/ On March 25th, 1987, with a 2 to
1 majority, the court overturned her probation
sentence and ordered her to be returned to court
for imposition of the mandatory three to six
year prison term. Her new attorney, Larry
Teeter, appealed the decision but was
unsuccessful. On July 31, 1987, after serving 2
years and 7 months on probation with no
violations whatsoever, Norma Jean was
resentenced to three years in state prison.
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Just before being resentenced
to prison, Norma Jean went back on the
talkshow circuit, where she once again
antagonized those who wanted to silence
her. Norma Jean firmly believed that
remaining in the public's awareness was
the only way she would remain alive
during her incarceration. She was
invited on the Late Show Starring Joan
Rivers, where she amused the audience
with her satire aimed at the LAPD and
the District Attorney.
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The
injustice of her case was the subject of a "60
Minutes" investigation and she was interviewed by
Mr. Ed Bradley while she was incarcerated. The
producers at "60 Minutes" found evidence that she
was in prison for no other reason than that she was
writing a book about police corruption which the Los
Angeles Police did not want published. The judge who
had been ordered to sentence her, and a former Los
Angeles prosecutor agreed with their conclusion that
Norma Jean's case had been handled differently than
others who had been accused or convicted of the same
charges, and that the prosecution "had so vigorously
pursued the arrest and incarceration" of Norma Jean
Almodovar solely because her book "held the
department (LAPD) up to public ridicule." |
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of the overwhelming response to the media's
spotlight on her case- the editorials which
were written in her defense and the outrage
expressed by taxpayers who thought the LAPD
and District Attorney's office had better
things to do than waste money incarcerating
someone like her, Norma Jean served nearly
18 months as an inmate of the California
Institute for Women. In California, all
prisoners are given a day for day credit
incentive for good behavior- however, the
judge could have applied the time she had
spent on probation and the time in solitary
confinement being studied, in which case she
would not have been incarcerated at all. She
served two different sentences for the same
"crime." And when she was released on
December 14th, 1988, she continued to serve
another three years parole. Finally, on
January 26, 1990, she was free from seven
years of legal hell. The good citizens of
Los Angeles would once again have to worry
that Norma Jean was on the loose and still
seeking a publisher for her book that
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Not
everyone thought Norma Jean was a menace to
society. In the years following her conviction
and incarceration, she was nominated to appear
in "Who's Who in American Women" and by
"Outstanding Young Women in America" in
recognition of her political activities on
behalf of women. The Lt. Governors of America
invited her to attend their annual conference
in 1986 even though she lost the election. She
did send them some of autographed posters from
her campaign....
Years
passed after her release from prison and still
no publisher was willing to go out on a limb
by publishing her controversial book. Some
publishers claimed that no one wanted to hear
about the rampant corruption within the Los
Angeles Police Department. Other editors in
New York were reluctant to tackle someone as
formidable as LA Police Chief Daryl Gates. It
seemed that no publisher wanted to risk
incurring the wrath of the LAPD until an
incident happened one fateful night in LA. On
March 3, 1991, an ordinary citizen, Mr. George
Holliday, made an amateur videotape of four
Los Angeles police officers severely beating a
black man stopped for a traffic violation. The
aftermath of the Rodney King beating and
subsequent acquittal of the police officers
involved led to days of rioting, looting and
burning on the streets of Los Angeles and the
resignation of the powerful Chief Gates.
In
1993, Norma Jean's new literary agent sent the
manuscript to an editor at Simon and Schuster
along with a copy of a Time Magazine article
about the riots and the LAPD. With it's
corruption exposed, the LAPD should no longer
pose a threat to anyone willing to publish Norma
Jean's book. The editor agreed, a deal was
negotiated and her book was finally published in
1994.
Ironically
or perhaps the hand of destiny, the first radio
media to contact Norma Jean for an interview to
discuss her book was the producer for the radio
show of her former boss, LAPD chief Daryl Gates.
After retiring from the LAPD, Mr. Gates was
offered a radio show of his own on which to
spout his rhetoric. Norma Jean agreed to be a
guest on his show provided that the
"Entertainment Tonight" crew could videotape her
interview for their own broadcast. With a film
crew on hand to capture their sometimes fiery
and always intense dialogue, Norma Jean minced
no words expressing her opinion of the reign of
Daryl Gates.
Although
Norma Jean's book debut appeared not to have any
impact on the LAPD at the time, the recent
scandals which have rocked the LAPD are no
surprise to those who read "Cop to Call Girl."
There are daily revelations of more corruption
within the LAPD, which Norma Jean tried to
expose years ago. How many tainted cases could
have been avoided if public officials- including
the District Attorney- had spent more time and
effort investigating the claims made by Norma
Jean, rather than trying to silence her? One
wonders if the prosecutor at her trial, Richard
Weber, still believes that the LAPD corruption
she witnessed is all in Norma Jean's mind, or if
he will at last admit that it is and has been an
ongoing situation which needed exposing a long,
long time ago......
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Since her conviction in 1984,
Norma Jean has been active in several
sex worker rights groups, and has been
interviewed in over 1,000 radio,
television and print media outlets all
over the world, and has lectured at
colleges and universities across the
country.
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She attended
her 25th class reunion as the second
most infamous graduate of Binghamton
Central High School- the first being Rod
Serling of the "Twilight Zone" fame.
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Norma Jean's involvement in
the sex worker right's movement began as soon as she
became a prostitute. It wasn't until after her
arrest that she met Margo St. James, founder of
C.O.Y.O.T.E., the first and most well known
prostitutes' rights organizations in the US. Her
lawyer at the time was a friend of Margo's and
introduced the two over the telephone. After
attending a conference at Margo's house, where Norma
Jean met other enthusiastic activists, Norma Jean
returned to LA and revived the dormant LA chapter of
C.O.Y.O.T.E. She has been the executive director of
the LA and Southern California chapter since that
time.
In
1995, she represented C.O.Y.O.T.E and the US as
an official NGO delegate to the UN Fourth World
Women's Conference in Beijing, China. It was at
the UN conference that Norma Jean achieved what
she considers an accomplishment of a lifetime.
She and four of her peers (representing
Thailand, Australia, Malaysia and England)
verbally battled the well-funded "Coalition
Against Trafficking in Women" and other
international anti-porn, anti-prostitution
groups during the workshops and seminars held
prior to the ratification of the Platform for
Action. [Every ten or so years, this
document-- which sets the course for
legislation adopted in UN member countries-
must be thoroughly discussed, every word in
the document debated and finally accepted for
the member nations' delegates to ratify.]
The
workshops and seminars presented the only real
opportunity for lobbying the UN delegates before
the ratification process began. Changing a
single word in this document is a major
challenge for any group, much more so for four
unfunded sex workers who, until they arrived at
the conference, did not know each other, were
staying in different locations during the
conference, and had no means of communicating
with each other [unlike the opposition group
who was staying at the five star hotel in
Beijing, and had cell phones to communicate
with one another].
Despite
all the obstacles, the five successfully got a
single word of text inserted in the paragraph
which specifically dealt with the subject of
prostitution and pornography. The original text
read, "...all prostitution and pornography are
incompatible with the dignity and worth of the
human person and must be eliminated." The final
text in the same paragraph which was ratified by
the UN delegates now read, "...all FORCED
prostitution and pornography......" The new
meaning is clearly different from the original
text and makes a world of difference for
prostitutes around the world who have chosen
their work and refuse to be bullied into
believing they are "victims" because they engage
in sex work- as dictated by the Coalition
Against Trafficking and their crowd who are
opposed to validating any sex work whatsoever.
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 The
"antis" as we called them- sure didn't want to
hear what we had to say about their theories of
sex work.
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Norma Jean
speaks to the workshop on the
true "violence against women"-
which is abuse at the hands of
law enforcement officers who are
supposed to protect women from
"exploitation"
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Norma
Jean and her colleagues in front
of the hotel in Beijing where
the United Nations Fourth World
Conference in Women was held
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Norma Jean with Sadhanna M.
(from India), Dr. Elders and Paulo Longo
from Brazil at the International
Conference on Prostitution (ICOP) in
1997. The sex workers- not the
academics- raised the money to bring Dr.
Elders to the conference.
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When Norma
Jean returned from China, she and the other
C.O.Y.O.T.E. LA members were approached by two
professors from California State University,
Northridge, about the possibility of cohosting and
co-organizer an international conference on
prostitution. The joint effort would be held in
March, 1997, at the Airtel Plaza Hotel in Van Nuys,
and Norma Jean was asked to be the co-chair of the
organizing committee. She agreed to do so because
one of the professors, Vern Bullough, along with his
wife Bonnie, had such a good reputation as a
champion of sex workers, and had coauthored a number
of books on the subject.
The relationship between the professors and the
sex workers quickly soured when Norma Jean
realized that the sex workers were being lied to
and that the professors who wanted other academics
to come and meet the sex workers from around the
world, couldn't themselves be bothered to listen
to or treat the sex workers from Los Angeles with
respect. The conference, there after referred to
as ICOP, had mixed results.
Aside
from the problems with the University and the
academics, the sex worker portion of the
conference was well worthwhile. A few of the
plenary sessions which were planned and sponsored
by sex workers (and not the academics) turned out
to be the most popular and certainly the most
interesting of the conference.
Former
US Surgeon General Dr. Joycelyn Elders was the
keynote speaker of the conference- invited by
C.O.Y.O.T.E. LA and the other sex workers- and was
by far the most well attended function of the
conference. However, when she was first invited to
speak- by Norma Jean- the two professors from CSUN
twice cancelled her attendance. The first faux pas
was when one of the professors mistakenly believed
that Dr. Elders had been the former Secretary of
Education and didn't believe that her presence at
the conference had any relevance. He was patiently
informed that as the former US Surgeon General,
Dr. Elders had a great deal to contribute to a
conference which would address the health issues
of sex workers.
A
new invitation was issued to Dr. Elders, but
because of the blunder made by the CSUN
professors, her speakers' bureau now demanded a
50% deposit for her speaker's fee. The sex workers
assured the professors that they did not expect
the University or the professors to raise the
money for the speakers' fee for Dr. Elders and
would raise the money for the deposit. However,
before they were given the opportunity to do so,
the other professor cancelled Dr. Elder's
scheduled appearance, stating that the university
would not pay the $10,000 speaker's fee requested
by Dr. Elder's agency.
The
sex workers did raise all the money for her fee
and Dr. Elders was the keynote speaker for the
conference. Ironically, the professors and other
CSUN academics made certain they took pictures
with her after her speech. But because the sex
workers- and not the academics- had raised all the
money for her speaker's fees, Norma Jean felt that
it should be the sex workers from developing
countries who spent time with her after the
luncheon, so Norma Jean whisked her away from the
fawning academics and made it clear that the
academics who had contributed nothing, were not
welcome to spend any time with her.
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 Xaviera Hollander and Norma Jean at ICOP
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The Panel of Infamy- World's
Most Notorious Whores- (left to right)
Margo St. James, Helen Buckingham
(London) Dolores French (Atlanta)
Xaviera Hollander (the Happy Hooker),
Cynthia Payne (London), Norma Jean,
Sydney Biddle Barrows (The Mayflower
Madam) and a former school teacher
turned madam.
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After the
conference ended Norma Jean was ready to give up
activism altogether. She was exhausted from 18
months of intensive work organizing the conference,
angry at the way she and the other sex workers had
been treated by the professors from CSUN, and
frustrated by the attitude and behavior of some of
the local sex workers during the conference. In
other words, she was at the point of complete
activism burn-out, a condition that strikes many
activists no matter what the cause.
Throughout April and May of 1997, she felt certain
that she never wanted anything to do with "causes"
again. She had plenty of other projects that could
occupy her time, including resuming her many book
projects and her artwork. There was no shortage of
possibilities and the temptation was strong to put
her many years of involvement in the sex worker
rights' movement behind her and get on with her
own life.
Still,
once in your blood, activism is a difficult
passion to stifle. Ever since the conference, a
male sex worker from San Francisco had been
crashing on Norma Jean's couch. Together they
discussed the possible ways in which to remain
activists but have more impact and see more
results from their work than their efforts within
C.O.Y.O.T.E.'s political boundaries. The lessons
learned from their unpleasant interface with the
CSUN academics during ICOP must be incorporated
into any new project they started.
By
June, 1997, Norma Jean and Steve G. prepared a
proposal for a new, international organization--
one that would be able to raise money through tax-
deductible donations AND allow health
professionals, law enforcement officials and
others to associate with them. The blatant
political nature of C.O.Y.O.T.E. precluded such
associations in the past, and since C.O.Y.O.T.E.
was not a registered organization, raising money
had been an almost impossible task. As a
non-profit 501 (c) 3 , the new organization would
not have to be funded solely from the pockets of
the few dedicated LA area activists.
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Finally, in
August, 1997, she and Steve G. were ready to
announce the formation of ISWFACE (pronounced
'ice-face'), the International Sex Worker Foundation
for Art, Culture and Education. Among the
Foundation's goals are the sharing of the many
artistic sides of sex workers from around the world,
past and present, and to create an international
database of information about prostitution and other
sex work which could be accessed by the many health
care, law enforcement, academic, legislator, student
and other professionals who interact with sex
workers or their issues on a regular basis.
While
preparing for its first art exhibit being planned
for the fall of 1998, ISWFACE was approached by a
man who owned a national historic landmark former
brothel in Butte, Montana, about the possible
purchase of the building for use as a museum and
cultural center. At the time, neither Steve or
Norma Jean knew where Butte, Montana was-
geographically- and had no plans to relocate the
ISWFACE headquarters based on Los Angeles.
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However, after
Norma Jean visited the Dumas Brothel in Butte, it
became clear to her and her co-founder that this
building offered a tremendous opportunity to the
fledgling organization. The building represented not
only the history of the American West, but also a
significant portion of sex worker history and
culture. The Dumas, built in 1890 as a brothel and
operated as such until 1982, had a nearly one
hundred year track record as a house of
prostitution. It had offered sexual services to the
community from the Old West mining camps through the
first and second World Wars, and had scores of
stories to tell. Its acquisition would be a major
coup for ISWFACE.
At
first, all the people of Butte seemed to be
extremely friendly and open to the sex worker
organization. In late August of 1998, the State
Historic Society and other local government
officials presided over the dedication of a park
to the women of the red light district. A plaque
in their honor was placed at the park/ parking lot
entrance which now occupied land upon which a
former luxury brothel once stood. Metal
silhouettes of working women and their customers -
artwork created by the local high school students-
lined the park on all sides. How could ISWFACE
resist a place that actually recognized the
contributions to the community made by the women
of the red light district? And so an agreement was
reached with the owner and the first steps were
made to purchasing the Dumas.
During
the fall and winter months of 1998 through 1999,
ISWFACE poured thousands of dollars into the
project. They paid off all the outstanding bills
owed by the man from whom they were buying the
Dumas. The intention was to move ISWFACE's office
to Butte, and with it came the president of
ISWFACE- Norma Jean- with her husband Victor and
Steve G. the ISWFACE vice president.
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By December
1998, Steve and Norma Jean had written a proposal
for the projected summer "International Cultural
Exchange" program (also known as "Whore Camp") which
they distributed to various individuals and local
businesses in Butte during the Christmas visit. The
plans were straightforward; ISWFACE would invite sex
workers from around the world to Butte for a summer
long sex worker festival. Those attending would also
be required to participate in the restoration of the
Dumas and in the many cultural events sponsored by
ISWFACE,
One
of the fund-raising activities that ISWFACE
planned was a biker rally (The Dumas Brothel Biker
Run 1999) which was timed to correspond with the
annual Sturgis, South Dakota biker activities.
Initially the biker event was being planned by two
members of a local Los Angeles Biker Club, who
asked Norma Jean to design a flyer for them which
would be given to biker groups in Southern
California and mailed to other biker organizations
nationwide. Some of the activities mentioned on
the flyer included a contest for the "hairiest
butt and biggest boobs," which was supposed to be
a joke.
Early
in January, 1999, Norma Jean called the Butte
Chamber of Commerce to get some information for
the brochures she and Steve were preparing. She
was informed by one of the Chamber staff that
there was a bit of misunderstanding up there and
several townspeople wanted to know what, exactly,
was ISWFACE planning to do in Butte?
Apparently some ill-educated individuals misread
the organization's proposal and thought that
ISWFACE was planning a summer-long sex
festival rather than the sex
worker festival that was being
organized. Perhaps it was wishful thinking on
their part that some of the "town fathers" got
things mixed up, but before you know it, Norma
Jean was back in the middle of a raging
controversy. A town meeting (dubbed a debate) was
organized by some local law offices, and Norma
Jean and Steve went up to Butte in the middle of
an icy cold January to answer questions and
counter charges being leveled against them.
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In
the end, the "Concerned Citizens" were not able to
stop the summer project and biker rally, although
there were enough editorials both for and against
ISWFACE printed in the Montana Standard to fill up
the infamous Berkeley Pit (a toxic waste dump in
Butte). The group of "concerned" people consisted
mainly of moldy old windbags- men who had once run
the town government WHILE the brothels were still
operating- now upset that an outsider was coming
in to their town to preserve a piece of history
they thought was best forgotten. Other members of
this elite group include a self-styled writer
wanna-be whose Christian "values" allowed her to
dress more like a whore than the real whore
herself, Norma Jean.
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said in response to
charges made by "Concerned Citizens" that ISWFACE
planned to bring wild sex orgies to Butte,
Montana.... a much different event than the Sex
WORKER Festival that was the intended summer
program. Probably wishful thinking on the elderly
gentlemen's part....
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the Dumas Project ended for ISWFACE
and Norma Jean. After spending over
$150,000, ISWFACE learned too late
that the individual from whom they
were buying the building had conned
them into believing the prized
"artifacts" which had so impressed
them when they first came to Butte
were nothing but worthless junk that
had been found in dumpsters,
purchased at flea markets and garage
sales. Litigation ensued, but
ISWFACE, being the outsider- and a
group of retired prostitutes- did
not prevail. You can read more about
the end of the Dumas project and
about ISWFACE's current projects by
going to the ISWFACE
website. |
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The bikers rode
into town, and if the rally events had
taken place in town, it would have been a
financial success. The concert was held in
Jefferson County and the cops there
managed to accomplish what the "Concerned
Citizens" couldn't in Butte. ISWFACE lost
thousands of dollars. The idea of the
rally was a good one and ISWFACE planned
to continue the Biker event annually....
unfortunately it was usurped from them in
2002 by home town celebrity Evel Knieval
and his Butte "associates."
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Even during
the Dumas Project and certainly after it, Norma Jean
and ISWFACE continued to be involved in other areas
of sex worker rights and health issues. In 1998,
Norma Jean was invited to speak on a panel with
other sex workers and advocates at the World AIDS
Conference in Geneva. In May, 1999, an article she
wrote on the need for decriminalizing prostitution
was published in the Hasting's Women's Law Journal.
In June, 2000, she was the only sex worker to be
invited to and participate in the US Surgeon
General's (David Satcher) workshop and conference on
Promoting Responsible Sexual Behavior. And she
continues lecture at colleges and universities
nationwide on the decriminalization issue.
Aside
from her activism, Norma Jean occasionally has the
opportunity to work on her own projects. Not
surprisingly, her personal projects also reflect
the sex worker issues and are the subject of the
many book projects she is working on. One of her
long term book projects is "Cops,
Hos, Preachers and Politicos- Commercial $ex
$candals in America" which is a look at the
inevitable scandalous consequences of enforcing
victimless crime laws against consenting adults.
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 ABOVE: THE OJ TRIAL OF THE
CENTURY CHESS SET- CREATED IN 1995. CLICK ON IMAGE
TO SEE LARGER VERSION |
Due to her
various physical limitations these days, she is no
longer able to do her artwork or create jewelry. You
can still see her creations on her website www.normajeansgifts.com,
although she no longer sells them or creates them.
A project she did a number of years ago was an
oversized chess set of the OJ Simpson trial
characters- based on the "Trial of the Century." She
is currently creating a series of sculptures
entitled, "Commercial Sex- the Way We Work." The
series consists of numerous Barbie-doll sized
figures in various surroundings, which examine the
many facets of sex work around the world. The series
will feature a number of celebrity sex workers and
their clients- Nina Hartley, Annie Sprinkle, Scarlot
Harlot, Xaviera Hollander, Sydney Biddle Barrows,
Heidi Fleiss, Divine Brown and Hugh grant, Jimmy
Swaggart ("I have sinned against you!!!"), Eddie
Murphy and the transgender prostitute he offered a
ride to, as well as many more sex workers and
clients. |
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Norma Jean is still
happily married to Victor, her lover, best friend
and companion since 1975. They live in the San
Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles, California,
with their cats, Silky, Yoda and Droolie. By
choice, they have no children.
Victor became disabled in 2007 and Norma Jean is
his caregiver.
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Norma Jean 1986 during
her campaign
ABOVE: THE OJ TRIAL OF THE
CENTURY CHESS SET- CREATED IN 1995. CLICK ON IMAGE
TO SEE LARGER VERSION
